Ettore Gotti Tedeschi is no longer the president of the IOR, the Vatican bank, for not having "carried out functions of primary importance for his office". So says the press release from the Holy See, in rather harsh tones, released from the Vatican rooms late yesterday evening. A decision which, say those who know the corridors of the papal residence well, has all the appearance of having been taken some time ago, perhaps months ago. For now, the (few) official words on the case are causing discussion and fueling the rumors around the Vatican.
Conjectures and reconstructions on the reasons for his expulsion from the top of the Institute for religious works in these hours they are wasted. Of course, the scandals in which the institute was involved, that of the San Raffaele in primis, weighed heavily. Gotti Tedeschi has been accused of being the cause of the "leaks", confidential documents on the church, the IOR and scandals involving high prelates that he allegedly put into circulation.
For now, it's just a rumor. The most accredited hypothesis is that Gotti Tedeschi is paying the law on transparency and anti-money laundering. According to Gotti himself, his sacrifice would have been the price to pay for admitting the Vatican banks to the OECD's "white list", the list of virtuous countries against money laundering.
The meeting of the commission of cardinals that oversees the IOR is expected today. The meeting will clarify the position of the Holy See. Cardinal Attilio Nicora, president of the financial information authority established with the first law on transparency, also sits on that commission, precisely hostile to the new law on transparency because it would have limited the powers of the authority he presides over.
To understand who Gotti Tedeschi is, let us recall the title of one of his books: "Money and Paradise", released in 2004. Behind that binomial there is also a sort of motto under which to summarize his life and his work. He has presided over it since 2009, when the current Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone put him there. Since then he has shuttled between the curia and the salons of high finance. With some unplanned institutional plans: Gotti was in fact advisor to the former Economy Minister Giulio Tremonti.
