Holy Money

As Pope Francis marks his one-year anniversary, Holy Money investigates the financial scandals that have rocked the Catholic Church and the efforts of the new Pope to clean up its multi-billion-dollar business dealings amid allegations of money laundering, corruption and embezzlement of funds. Today, the Pope leads a church with more than one billion Catholics but also a business empire of global dimensions. The Catholic Church is the world’s richest religious institution with vast real estate holdings and its own Vatican Bank. Pope Francis has made it his mission to get the Vatican’s financial house in order but there are stumbling blocks on the road to his newly announced reforms and the stakes are sky high for everyone involved. Led by University College London Historian John Dickie, a leading expert in Italian history, the documentary deconstructs the mechanisms by which the Church administers and invests its money. It reveals the inner workings of the Vatican Bank, and tells the story of a priest known as Father 500 Euros, charged in January, 2014 with money laundering millions of Euros through Vatican Bank accounts. In the documentary, a U.S. economist reveals his study found embezzlement within the church is a significant problem. `”We found that 85% of the dioceses had experienced an embezzlement in recent years, many more than one,” says Charles Zech, Professor of Economics at Villanova University. “No one would think that a priest would embezzle from the Church. No one would think that a lay worker would embezzle from the Church. So they don’t put the kind of internal financial controls that are commonplace in the business world.” Also in the United States, Prof. Dickie explores the financial implications of the sexual abuse scandals and allegations of a financial cover-up in the Milwaukee Archdiocese to avoid paying compensation to victims. In Italy and beyond, he interviews lawyers, prosecutors, investigative reporters