Vatican Downplays 2 Books Recounting Financial Misdeeds
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MILAN — The Vatican sought Wednesday to play down a pair of books recounting financial malfeasance and greed within the Vatican, saying many of the disclosures were already known and the material creates confusion about Pope Francis’ well-known reform course.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi emphasized the illegally leaked documents that provided information for the books were the result of “data and information put in motion by the Holy Father himself” in the pope’s efforts to reform the Vatican’s bureaucracy and finances.

The publication of “a large bulk of information” that refers to “outdated” events creates the impression of “a permanent reign of confusion, of non-transparency and even the pursuit of individual or incorrect interests” that run counter to Francis’ efforts to reform the Vatican, Lombardi said in comments carried by Vatican Radio.

The books by veteran Vatican reporters are to be published Thursday but were obtained in advance by The Associated Press.

Among the disclosures in “Merchants in the Temple,” Gianluigi Nuzzi writes that the cost of sainthood can run up to half a million dollars and tells the tale of a monsignor who allegedly broke down the wall of his neighbor, an ailing priest, to expand his apartment.

Emiliano Fittipaldi, the author of “Avarice,” claims a foundation set up to support a children’s hospital paid 200,000 euros toward renovating the apartment of the Vatican’s No. 2 at the time, Tarciso Bertone, and that money donated to help the poor was diverted to pay for running the Vatican.

Bertone came under fire last year over the apartment, described in the book as a “mega-penthouse.” Bertone has said he paid for the renovations himself.

Lombardi took issue with the reports regarding the St. Peter’s Pence collection for the poor, saying where donations go was up to the “judgment of the Holy Father.”

“The pope’s charity works for the poor are certainly one of the essential destinations, but it is certainly not the intention of the faithful to exclude that the pope can evaluate himself urgent essentials,” Lombardi said.

Those “essentials” could include supporting the Vatican bureaucracy, or Roman Curia, which among other things works to distribute papal charity around the world, he noted.

Lombardi also noted that a new management council for the Bambino Gesu pediatric hospital in Rome had its first meeting Wednesday, indicating “a climate of renewal.”

The Vatican this week arrested two former members of a papal commission set up to gather information and make reform recommendations in an investigation into stolen documents. The leaked documents and arrests mirrors disclosures in an earlier book by Nuzzi that helped drive Francis’ predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, to a historic resignation.

教廷濟貧募款 挪用6成自救？

本周上市的兩本新書揭露，天主教教廷行之有年的濟貧捐款「彼得便士」（Peter’s Pence），僅四成真正用於濟貧，其餘皆被用來填補教廷的財政缺口，供養部分主教的奢華生活。教廷發言人四日譴責書本內容「過時且偏頗」。

英國每日郵報四日報導，義大利著名調查記者努茲（Gianluigi Nuzzi）新書《聖殿中的商人》（Merchants in the Temple）指出，現任天主教教宗方濟各就任之前，教廷推行數世紀的彼得便士捐款濟貧計畫專款，「每10歐元中，只有兩歐元被存到準備帳戶，該帳戶目前已累計有4億歐元（約台幣142億元），另外兩歐元讓教宗用來濟貧」。

書中寫道，教廷維修與重建合約發包金額灌水，教廷不動產實際價值是比帳本所列價值的7倍，且退休基金正快速邁向破產。

另外一本由義大利記者菲堤帕蒂（Emiliano Fittipaldi）執筆的《貪婪》（Avarice）也做出類似指控，並指2013年的彼得便士捐款收入高達3億7800萬歐元（約台幣134億元）。

教廷發言人4日表示，新書內容過時且偏頗，教宗方濟各推動的多項改革已掃除許多積弊。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/11/04/world/europe/ap-eu-vatican-scandal.html

2015-11-06．聯合報．A17．國際．編譯陳韻涵