Word: vatican
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Even more troublesome for the I.O.R., investigators have discovered what has been dubbed a "liberating letter," written by Calvi to the I.O.R. five days before the letters of patronage were issued. The liberating letter in effect negates the letters of patronage and relieves the Vatican bank of any responsibility for the companies in question. Yet this letter was never made known to the Ambrosiano Latin American banks that lent money to Calvi's shell firms. The liberating letter thus gives the arrangement between Calvi and the I.O.R. the appearance of a conspiracy to withhold essential information from the lending...
High-ranking Vatican sources have already suggested that Marcinkus will be staying behind when Pope John Paul II travels to Spain next month. The reason is that Vatican officials want the archbishop around to answer any questions that might arise concerning his role in the Banco Ambrosiano affair...
...much of Banco Ambrosiano does the I.O.R. really own? Italian financial sources suggest that I.O.R. ownership may run as high as 10%. Vatican officials insist that the figure is exaggerated, but have left open the possibility that the Vatican bank's ownership may exceed the officially reported...
...What is the Vatican bank's liability in the Banco Ambrosiano failure? The I.O.R. could find its creditworthiness undermined if it refuses to help make up the losses. Italian officials expect the Vatican to pay part of the losses...
Another question that the Vatican must answer, if only to itself, is: Should the church's own bank be so deeply involved in the rough-and-tumble of high-risk international finance? Pope Paul VI, feeling that the church should not only be poor, but be "seen to be poor," moved in 1969 to adopt a lower financial profile by relinquishing the church's controlling interests in Italian companies and shifting to investments outside Italy. Through the Ambrosiano scandal, Marcinkus has clearly raised the church's profile...