Pocketing Peter’s Pence

Many Catholics faithfully tithe to the Church, trusting it will contribute to a charitable cause. But recent reports are shedding light on where large portions of all of this money end up.

Church Militant's Aidan O'Connor takes a closer look at The Vatican's latest multi-million-dollar scandal. 

The Vatican is set to lose roughly $115 million of charitable donations meant for the poor. 

This heavy financial loss will result from the Vatican selling a London property tangled in a web of corruption.

Between 2014 and 2018, The Vatican invested 350 million euros — around $400 million —into 60 Sloan Ave., a high-end office building in London meant to be luxury apartments.

The Vatican is currently selling the property for about 200 million euros — a loss of roughly 100 million.

The money was taken from Peter's Pence, the Church's collection for the poor and needy across the globe.

The case involves a ring of bankers and financial advisers who are accused of orchestrating corrupt investment deals while lining their own pockets.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu — The Vatican's deputy secretary of state at the time — was involved in the London deal and is now part of an ongoing lawsuit and investigation.

Cardinal Becciu is neck-deep in previous scandals involving a highly paid glamour girl and an alleged conspiracy against Australian cardinal George Pell.

Becciu was accused of using over $800,000 of Church funds to bribe witnesses in a trumped-up sex-abuse case against Cdl. Pell. Cardinal Pell was prefect of the Vatican's Secretariat for the Economy from 2014–2017. 

Shorty after Pell ordered an audit of Church funds, Becciu blocked his request, and Pell spent over a year in prison before his name was cleared.

Critics blasted the Vatican in 2019 after it used Catholic charitable donations to fund Rocketman, an explicit movie on Elton John's sodomistic life.