Merchants in the Temple by Gianluigi Nuzzi Read Free Book Online Page B

undersigned and of his wife. The undersigned states that he has never performed professional activities in Italy, that he is not the holder of a VAT number, and that he has always attached to his Italian tax return a statement by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints attesting that he has always performed his activity exclusively for the above-mentioned dicastery. In all these years—almost 40!—the Italian tax authorities have never had any objections. The undersigned, while awaiting, with confidence but concern, the unblocking of his three personal accounts at the earliest, hereby requests that he be allowed to immediately come into possession of 80,000 euros so as to deal with economic commitments already made.
    Ambrosi was perhaps the top postulator in the world. For forty years—together with his daughter Angelica and various other collaborators from the five continents—he had handled hundreds of beatification and canonization processes, from Pope John XXIII (Angelo Roncalli) to the Emperor Charles I of Hapsburg. Another interesting activity of the Ambrosi family is the printing shop it owns, which handles the documentation for most of the causes—Novas Res, located in Piazza di Porta Maggiore in Rome. It holds a kind of monopoly, despite the fact that the Vatican has a modern printing shop that could easily publish the prestigious volumes. Nova Res is also one of the three print shops officially recommended to postulators by the Vatican.
    The postulator Silvia Correale also wanted an explanation, and requested an appointment with Fralleoni. The meeting was tense. She asked for the immediate unblocking of her account but in the process she gave away some telling insider details of what was really going on inside the Congregation for the Causes of Saints under the leadership of Cardinal Amato. Fralleoni wrote a summary of her remarks for Monsignor Vallejo Balda, in a confidential document to which I was given access:
    The account in her name holds about ten thousand euros and she says she has no other bank accounts in Italy; therefore this is her sole source of income. She asks if it would be possible to unblock it, and says that she knows and has worked with the Pope and that he knows and respects her … The most interesting item to emerge from our conversation is the fact that the Congregation for Saints HAS STILL NOT NOTIFIED ANYONE AND HAS NOT REQUESTED FROM ANY OF THE POSTULANTS THEIR FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FROM THE PAST FIVE YEARS!!! In practice, they’re doing nothing. This is also serious because, while speaking with the postulator Silvia Correale, I realized that the balance sheets don’t exist … Maybe the Prefect [Amato], who turned 75 in June, is waiting to pass the problem on to someone else … Let me know whether you think we should proceed to unblock this single account. The postulator seemed honest and sincere to me. I think we could use her in the future to receive more interesting information about how the causes are handled. In the meantime the various other consultants et alia who should be getting money from the causes are starting to get angry … The postulator says that some time ago she had handed in a financial statement but the people at the Congregation did not want to put their seal on it. After that she said she didn’t do them anymore and that … to do them now would take months.
    Monsignor Vallejo Balda was shocked:
    This is all extremely serious, what do you mean there are no balance sheets? This woman is handling more than 100 causes … how is it possible? This is one of the problems. We have nothing to say about her personal bank account but how is it possible that she has one at IOR [?] … I don’t trust her … Let’s talk about this tomorrow.
    Fralleoni backtracked immediately regarding the woman’s IOR account:
    The fact of having an account at IOR is a delicate matter. The postulator