God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the VaticanNew York Times Bestseller: A “deeply researched” exposé of the money and the clerics-turned-financiers at the heart of the Vatican (Chicago Tribune). From a master chronicler of legal and financial misconduct, a magnificent investigation nine years in the making, God’s Bankers traces the political intrigue of the Catholic Church in “a meticulous work that cracks wide open the Vatican’s legendary, enabling secrecy” (Kirkus Reviews). Decidedly not about faith, belief in God, or religious doctrine, this book is about the church’s accumulation of wealth and its byzantine financial entanglements across the world. Telling the story through two hundred years of prelates, bishops, cardinals, and the popes who oversee it all, Gerald Posner uncovers an eyebrow-raising account of money and power in one of the world’s most influential organizations. God’s Bankers is a revelatory and astounding saga marked by poisoned business titans, murdered prosecutors, and mysterious deaths written off as suicides; a carnival of characters from popes and cardinals to financiers and mobsters to kings and prime ministers; and a set of moral and political circumstances that not only clarify the church’s aims and ambitions, but reflect the larger tensions of more recent history. Posner also assesses Pope Francis’s potential to overcome the resistance to change in the Vatican’s Machiavellian inner court and rein in the excesses of its seemingly uncontrollable financial quagmire. “As exciting as a mystery thriller” (Providence Journal), this book reveals with extraordinary precision how the Vatican has evolved from a foundation of faith to a corporation of extreme wealth and power. “Reads like a sprawling novel, full of complex characters and surprising twists. . . . Readers interested in issues involving religion and international finance will find Posner’s work a compelling read.” —Library Journal “An extraordinarily intricate tale of intrigue, corruption and organized criminality. . . . Posner’s gifts as a reporter and storyteller are most vividly displayed in a series of lurid chapters on the American archbishop Paul Marcinkus, the arch-Machiavellian who ran the Vatican Bank from 1971-1989.” —The New York Times Book Review |
Contents
Enter the Black Nobles | 3 |
Merely a Palace Not a State | 4 |
An Unholy Alliance | 5 |
The Pope Banker | 6 |
Prelude to | 7 |
Protect the Source | 25 |
A Heck of a Lot of Money | 26 |
Ive Been Poisoned | 27 |
Burying the Trail on Nazi Gold | 30 |
A Criminal Underground in the Priesthood 32 His Inbox Was a Disaster | 32 |
The Kingmaker Becomes King | 33 |
As Flat as Stale Beer | 34 |
Chasing the White List | 35 |
A Policy of Silence | 8 |
The Blacklist | 9 |
Blood Money | 10 |
A Nazi Spy in the Vatican? | 11 |
The Ratline | 12 |
Hes No Pope | 13 |
The Men of Confidence | 14 |
You Cant Run the Church on Hail Marys | 15 |
Operation Fraulein | 16 |
Crack Sindona | 17 |
The Battle of Two Scorpions | 18 |
A Psychopathic Paranoid | 19 |
The Year of Three Popes | 20 |
The Backdoor Deal | 21 |
The Vatican Has Abandoned | 22 |
You Have to Kill the Pope | 23 |
Tell Your Father to Be Quiet | 24 |
The World Has Changed | 36 |
The Powerbroker | 37 |
The Butler | 38 |
A Vote of No Confidence | 39 |
A Time Bomb | 40 |
The Swiss James Bond | 41 |
The Peoples Pope | 42 |
Back from the Dead | 43 |
Photographs Acknowledgments | 46 |
About Gerald Posner | 50 |
Bibliography | 54 |
Notes | 64 |
Index Illustration Credits | 78 |
White Finance | 1989 |
Suitcases of Cash | 1991 |
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A.M. cycle Allied American Archbishop Aronwald Associated Press August Author interview Banca Banco Ambrosiano bank's Benedict bishops Boston Globe Caloia Calvi Affair Cardinal Catholic Church Chicago Tribune cited clerics conclave Curia DiFonzo documents Fascist February files Finanza bianca Finanze vaticane Foreign Gelli German God's Banker Gotti Tedeschi Gurwin Hitler's Pope Hoffman Holocaust Holy Ibid inside the Vatican International interviewed in Cornwell investigation investments IOR's Italian Italy Italy's January Jewish Jews John Cornwell John Paul July June Kindle edition later March Mennini Milan million Modern Papacy Moneychangers Monsignor Montini Mussolini NARA Nazi Nogara Nuzzi October Office Pacelli Papal Pazienza Peter's Banker Phayer Philip Willan Pius XII Pius's political Pollard Pontiff Pope Pius XII Pope's Power on Earth priests prosecutors Report Roberto Calvi Rome Scandal Secret Secretary September Sindona Swiss Thief Thomas and Morgan-Witts told Tosches Vatican Bank Vatican City Vaticanologists Volpi Washington York