The president of a foundation at the center of a Vatican financial scandal provided new details Thursday on the Vatican central bank loans that funded the purchase of a bankrupt hospital. He also claimed that controversial grants made by the U.S. based Papal Foundation were used to support the hospital’s expenses, not to repay its debts.
Antonio Maria Leozappa, president of the Fondazione Luigi Maria Monti, sent a Nov. 29 letter to Vatican journalist Sandro Magister. The letter aimed to offer “clarification and rectification” on the reported use of funds from APSA, the Vatican’s central bank, in the foundation’s 2015 purchase of the Istituto Dermopatico dell’ Immacolata (IDI).
The letter also addressed the reported misuse of funds from Rome’s Bambino Gesu hospital and a grant from the U.S. based Papal Foundation. CNA has reported that the foundation’s purchase of the IDI was partially funded with a 50 million euro loan from APSA. On Nov. 20, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State confirmed to CNA that he had arranged the 50 million euro APSA loan.
Leozappa’s Nov. 28 letter explained that the controversial APSA loan was not made to the foundation directly, but to an “endowment fund” of the Congregation of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception, the religious order that originally owned the hospital and is a partner of the foundation. After the loaned funds were conveyed to the endowment fund, the money funded the foundation’s purchase of the IDI. No media reports have suggested the IDI, the foundation, or the religious order, had received “financing” or loans from Bambino Gesu.
However, 2014 wiretaps recorded Versaldi arranging for 30 million in government funds granted to Bambino Gesu to be diverted to the purchase of IDI. The wiretaps recorded Versaldi discussing the plan with Giuseppe Profit, president of Bambino Gesu, who agreed with the cardinal to conceal from Pope Francis the misdirection of funds.
Versal and Profit both denied any wrongdoing; the cardinal claimed he only wanted to spare the pope the technical details of the efforts to save the IDI. Leozappa, an attorney, has taught business law at Italian universities, served as a consultant to the Italian government, and was the vice president of the National Association of Bankruptcy Trustees. CNA
