Vatican’s secret $2bn flummoxes Australian church leaders

The Vatican and associated entities have transferred $2.3bn to Australia since 2014 without knowledge of local church leaders.

Transfers from the Vatican to Australia rapidly increased from $71.6m in 2014 to $137.1m in 2015 before doubling again to $295m in 2016 and peaking at $581.3m in 2017. Picture: AFP

The Vatican and its associated entities have transferred $2.3bn to Australia since 2014 without the knowledge of senior Australian Catholic Church leaders.

Transfers from the Vatican to Australia rapidly increased from $71.6m in 2014 to $137.1m in 2015 before doubling again to $295m in 2016 and peaking at $581.3m in 2017, the new disclosure shows.

More than $422m was transferred in 2018, $491.8m in 2019 and $294.8m this financial year to date — in total more than 40,000 transactions, Austrac, the nation’s ­financial crime regulator, found.

Despite the volume and sum of transfers, several senior Catholic Church figures told The Australian on Tuesday they were utterly surprised by the transfers and were not aware of the money arriving in the Australian church.

Those church figures declined to be named, citing sensitivities around discussing finances.

The Australian Federal Police last week confirmed to The Australian it was continuing to investigate information received from Austrac about transfers to Australia from the Vatican.

The Vatican has been embroiled in scandal in recent months over allegations of embezzlement and nepotism levelled against Cardinal Angelo Becciu, a senior member of the church’s ­bureaucracy until this year.

Cardinal Becciu was fired by the Pope in September over the ­allegations; Cardinal Becciu has denied any wrongdoing.

Neither the Vatican’s press office in Rome nor the Holy See’s Papal Nunciature in Canberra responded to requests on Tuesday.

The Austrac figures also show $117.4m was sent from Australia to the Vatican, likely part of an annual fund for charities. Those transfers have risen from $17.7m in 2014 to $32.4m in 2019. Only $7.5m had been transferred to date this year.

While Austrac has not disclosed the individual identities of the recipients of the money in Australia, some church sources cautioned it may have been for investment in the Australian bond and equities market.

 

The new transfer figures were disclosed in response to questions from Liberal senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, who told The Australian it was “a surprisingly large amount of money”.

“In the light of the investi­gations at the Vatican into corruption, embezzlement and money laundering, with charges already being laid and Vatican officials suspended, we need to know where the money went,” she said.

“It’s also worth noting that the transfers accelerated during the period Cardinal (George) Pell was facing investigations in Australia and peaked when he was sidelined from financial control of the Vatican while facing charges and trial in Australia,” she said.

The financial corruption scandal roiling the Vatican began over claims of $360m improperly transferred for a building project in London and spread to allegations that money was sent to Australia to adversely affect the sexual abuse trial of Cardinal Pell, a rival of Cardinal Becciu.

To date, there has been no evidence produced to show any Vatican money was transferred to influence that trial.

Cardinal Becciu’s associate Cecilia Marogna has been charged with embezzlement and a broker who organised the London building investment, Gianluigi Torzi, has been charged with extortion and money laundering.

In 2014, Francis appointed Cardinal Pell as the Vatican’s treasurer with the task of cleaning up the Holy See’s finances and making the antiquated system transparent and accountable.

Victoria Police charged Cardinal Pell with two cases of historical sexual abuse in Melbourne.

After two trials in 2018 and 2019 — one hung jury and one guilty verdict — Cardinal Pell was sentenced to six years’ jail and served more than a year in prison before he was acquitted unanimously by the High Court in April.

In October, The Australian reported Vatican investigators were examining at least four transfers from the Vatican secretariat, including two from Cardinal Becciu, between 2017 and 2018 totalling $2m to Melbourne.

George Pell. Picture: Victor Sokolowicz

In the same month, the Vatican changed its laws to combat money laundering and financing terrorism after a two-week investigation of the Holy See’s finances by the EU’s financial controller, Money­val.

The COVID-19 pandemic has squeezed the Vatican’s public fin­ances, with recent reports noting a plunge in tourism would likely cut back a large part of the €100m ($161.8m) in ticket sales to the Vatican Museums — closed for months — that the city state uses to keep its budget in surplus.

Cardinal Pell, in an interview with the Reuters news agency earlier this month, warned that the Vatican was “slowly going broke”.

“Now that’s a bit of an exaggeration (but) it’s slowly happening,” Cardinal Pell said. “You can’t go on like that forever … the only thing that I’m keen on is that people, in a very clear-headed way, face up to the situation.”

The Vatican’s newly appointed president of the Financial Information Authority, Carmel Barbagallo, said the changes were “aimed at making the management of Vatican finances ever more transparent, within a framework of intensive and co-ordinated controls”.