Editor’s note: the following timeline is provided with public facts as well as allegations which have not been confirmed. See also the broader timeline of the crisis here. The purpose of this timeline is to continue the investigation of the financial forces at work in the Vatican for decades which have contributed in no small part to the workings of our current crisis. If you have any points to correct or add, please comment. The reader must also take care to guard against the vices of curiosity and despair and to not read any of this if such vices tempt you. See also Five Things to Get You Through the Church Crisis and When the Gates of Hell Prevail over the Church. -T. S. F.
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1894 Banco Ambrosiano founded by a priest in Milan
1929 Financially Struggling Vatican receives $92.1M in Lateran Treaty by former Milanese Archbishop, now Pius XI
-Finances managed by Bernardino Nogara – Pius XII investigates him and finds him clean (Williams)
1942 The Vatican Bank is founded (IOR) in order to achieve further independence since 1929 treaty (Williams)
-Allegedly involved in corrupt financial dealings involving the CIA, Masons and Mafia against the Italian Communists. Ven. Pius XII works closely with Spellman, who is later credibly accused of financial and moral corruption.
-Allegations of assisting Croatians committing Genocide against the Serbs (Williams)
-Funding for Christian Democratic Party under Alcide De Gasperi against the Communists
-Spellman leads anti-Communist Italian Americans in favor of Christian democrats – Mafia including Salvatore Giuliano commit murder for Christian Democrat allies (Williams)
1948 political Victory over Italian Communists – US Aid is given to Italy and ends up in Vatican Bank
1948-1958 Era of IOR-backed Christian Democratic Party power in Italy
1945-48 Allegations of helping Nazi war criminals move to South America – lawsuit filed 1999 atty Jonathan Levy supported by Ukrainian Union of Nazi Victims and Prisoners
1954 Montini exiled to Milan for Communist contacts (Godmother), meets Sindono who raises Mafia money for him (Williams)
1958 St. John XXIII refuses to fund Christian Democrat party, apertura a sinistra (“turn to the left”) Italian Christian Democrats begin to forge alliances with Italian leftists
-Sindona meets with head of IOR Massimo Spada (Cornwell, 37)
1967 or 68 Sindona meets Calvi (Cornwell, 38)
1968 The Italian state revokes the Vatican Bank tax exempt status, St. Paul VI brings in Freemason mafia banker Sindona to help, he switches IOR’s investments
-Taxes owed are $720M
1971-1989 Abp. Paul Marcinkus is President – works closely with Sindona and (later Mafia murdered) Calvi
-Also close collaborators is Cdl. Sergio Guerri, gov. Of Vatican City
1973-1984 Alleged Freemason Cardinal Baggio successfully creates Modernist bishops throughout the world (Murr, Godmother)
1974 -Vatican Bank experiences major financial losses due to Sindona’s mishandling.
1978 Cardinal Gagnon documents wholesale corruption of the curia for Paul VI. Pope refuses to act. Paul VI passes this information to John Paul I, who is allegedly murdered after attempting to remove Baggio. Information of wholesale corruption is given to St. John Paul II
-Gagnon tells Marini that “they will kill” John Paul I because he seeks to reform the IOR (remove Marcinkus which would cut off Banco Ambrosiano of Roberto Calvi and remove Villot as Sec or State). Three days later he’s dead (Kramer)
-John Paul II confirms all prior heads against John Paul I’s intentions–Villot, Marcinkus as well as ties with Calvi and Mason Gelli
-Calvi begins massive fraud operation with offshore accounts. Marcinkus continues IOR’s partnership with him. John Paul II will allegedly use this to fund Poland Solidary (Williams, 176).
1979 Vatican Bank financial chief Sindona’s lawyer Ambrosoli is murdered with top detective Guiliano investigating Sindona
1980 Vatican Bank financial chief Sindona is convicted on 65 counts of financial crime
1981 “Ambrosiano Affair” – Calvi is investigated on charges of fraud
-Marcinkus forges documents to cover Calvi’s fraud (Williams, 168)
-John Paul II is warned of corruption but elevates Marcinkus instead (Williams, 169)
1980s-1990s – McCarrick rises as major financial player with Vatican
1982 Close associate to IOR Roberto Calvi is murdered
-IOR pays settlement to his bank’s creditors
-John Paul II pledges full transparency in dealings with Ambrosiano – brings in German lay banker Hermann Abs
-John Paul II assassination attempt in Fatima, Marcinkus saves John Paul’s life
1986 Sindona is murdered in prison
1987 James Grein tells John Paul II in person about McCarrick’s abuse
-Italian court warrant against Paul Marcinkus who evades arrest by staying inside Vatican City until 1991
1992 Gelli convicted of financial crimes
1990s Martin Frankel (David Rosse) affair
-St. Gallen Mafia organizes against the pontificate of John Paul II
2007 Paulo Gabrielli hired as butler for Benedict XVI
2009 Vigano audits IOR, finding 55 million+ hidden away, changing IOR from deficit to surplus
– Benedict becomes aware of financial irregularities
2010 €23 million from the IOR seized by Italian government alleging laundering
-Benedict creates Vatican financial Watchdog for all including IOR
2012 Vatileaks scandal – published letters reveal sexual and financial corruption involving the Vatican Bank. Alleged plot to overthrow Benedict revealed by Butler Gabrielli.
-Moneyval report shows positive developments from Benedict reform
-Benedict completes investigative dossier on curia corruption but does not act on it before resignation.
-Chairman Ettore Gotti Tedeschi ousted amid laundering scandal – later acquitted of money laundering
2013 Francis IOR review begins. Appoints alleged active sodomite (“who am I to judge”) Ricca as head Vatican Bank
-Annual reports begin which are praised by secular media as transparent
-Ernst von Freyberg as new head
-Moneyval says Francis has brought some improvements
-Power of Italian Mafia Ndrangheta (also established in Victoria, Australia) threatened by IOR reform
2014 Promising reform, Francis creates Secretariat of Economy and names Pell (from Victoria) its head also Council for the Economy to work on analysis of Sec of Econ with its head Marx – acquires Patrimony of Holy See, also the office of the Auditor General Libero Milone
-Francis approves measures on IOR approved in Part by Pell
-Von Freyburg steps down and Jean-Baptiste de Franssu replaces him
-Pell finds 1.09 billion euros hidden away among Vatican finances
2015 Hospital Dermatopathic Institute of the Immaculate (IDI) purchased by Secretary of State
-Francis allegedly seeks loan to bail out IDI
2016 Secretary of State suspends external audit of Vatican finances without consulting Pell.
-Francis strips power from Pell’s Secretary of Economy and gives it to Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA)
2017 McCarrick engineers bail out for IDI hospital via Papal Foundation with help from Parolin – Pell attempts to veto
-APSA forces different external auditors against Pell (and Vatican auditor general Libero Milone) who accuses APSA of “serious irregularities”
-Milone resigns and states later he was forced out by Vatican because he was uncovering corruption, implies that Pell’s conviction is connected to Pell’s uncovering corruption
2018 Vatican Bank joins Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA), which allows the Vatican bank to have its own IBAN code to facilitate wire transfers. – indication of improvements
2019 Pell convicted and no longer prefect
-London scandal buying luxury property with Peter’s Pence in association with shady-launder bank BSI (de Franssu points out it scandal broke due to IOR’s self-policing)
-Vatican-backed Maltese Centurion Global Fund helps fund sodomite film Rocketman
2020 Pell exonerated and freed
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Paul Williams, The Vatican Exposed (Prometheus: 2003)
Rupert Cornwell, God’s Banker (Dodd, Mead: 1984)
Charles Murr, The Godmother (2017)
Taylor Marshall, Infiltration (Crisis: 2019)
Fr. Paul Kramer, The Mystery of Iniquity (Unmasking Iniquity: 2011)
David Yollop, In God’s Name (Basic Books: 2007)