9. The War, Act I: Blocked Budgets and Bureaucratic Assaults

  1 Marco Politi, Francesco tra i lupi (Roma-Bari: Laterza, 2014).

  2 The General Accountant also identified problems in the Governorate: “A person might have the impression that they’re in good health when that is not the case … Important projects are planned for the museums, which would justify increased costs, but the item for personnel is always higher and higher, both for the museums and for the gendarmerie.”

  3 Prato also criticized the Governorate’s accounts: “The other burden indicated by the Prefecture concerns ‘various services’ for more than 11 million euros provided by highly-specialized professional figures. This underscores the extreme ‘liberty’ of the Governorate’s style of management, which ignores the guidelines of the Prefecture and the critical weaknesses in the general context. With regard to cultural activity and scientific research, the estimated doubling in the costs of normal management—as thoroughly evidenced by the Office of the Prefecture—is particularly significant.”

  4 From the minutes of the meeting of international auditors on December 18, 2013, at the offices of the Prefecture.

  5 The Vatican radio station was founded in 1931. Today it employs four hundred people of sixty different nationalities, broadcasting programs in thirty-one languages.

  6 In early May 2014, the historic antenna of the Santa Maria di Galeria station was taken down for financial reasons.

  7 In his motu proprio decree on June 26, 2015, Bergoglio wrote: “Within the established timeframe, the following organisms will be combined in the new dicastery: the Pontifical Council of Social Communications; the Press Room of the Holy See; the Vatican Internet Service; Vatican Radio; the Vatican Television Center; L’Osservatore Romano; the Vatican Printer; the Photographic Service; and the Vatican Editions Bookstore.”

  8 Giuseppe Profiti was very close to Bertone. For seven years he was the president of the Bambino Gesù hospital, and he was later implicated in a series of scandals. He was acquitted by the Court of Cassation of involvement in the so-called “mensopoli” case in Genoa, and he is currently under investigation for the bankruptcy of the Casa delle Divina Providenza in Bisceglie. He resigned in January 2015.

  9 The other items in the long email regard concerns about 1) the Pension Fund; 2) the unification of human resources; 3) replacing Paolo Mennini on the various APSA boards of which he is a member; and 5) funding for COSEA’s expenses.

10 Stefania Falasca, “Parolin: col vangelo diplomazia di pace.” Avvenire, February 8, 2014.