THE VATICAN bank has been cleared of any financial liability to the Banco Ambrosiano, the private Italian bank formerly headed by Mr Roberto Calvi, by a team of legal advisers to the Holy See.
According to the Vatican newspaper, Osservat ore Romano, which reported the findings of the internal inquiry on Saturday, the legal advisers said that the Vatican bank, Intituto per le Opere di Religione, had never received funds from the Ambrosiano bank or its former chairman, Mr Calvi, who was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in June.
It has been claimed, by, among others, the Italian Treasurer, Mr Nino Andreatta, the Vatican has a moral obligation to repay an alleged debt of £500 million to ,the state because of the "letters of patronage" released by Vatican bank president Archbishop Marcinkus which Mr Calvi used to raise loans.
But the Holy See's legal advisers have said that the Vatican bank never managed foreign companies that owed money to the Ambrosiano group and knew nothing of their operations.