Continuing with David Yallop's work ' In God's Name:An Investigation into John Paul 1's Murder'.

.... Like Rome itself, Vatican wealth was not built in a day. The problem of a wealthy Church – and all who aspire to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ must regard that wealth as a problem – has its roots as early as the fourth century. When the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and gave colossal wealth to the then Pope, Silvester I, he created the first rich Pope. Dante ends the Inferno with the lines:

Alas! Constantine, how much misfortune you caused, Not by becoming Christian, but by the dowry
Which the first rich Father accepted from you.

The Catholic faith’s claim to uniqueness is valid. It is the only religious organization in the world which has as its headquarters an independent State, Vatican City, which is a law unto itself. At 108.7 acres it is smaller than many of the world’s golf courses, is the size of St James’s Park in London and approximately one eighth the size of Central Park in New York City. A leisurely stroll right round Vatican City takes something over an hour. To count the wealth of the Vatican would take rather longer.

The modern wealth of the Vatican is based on the generosity of Benito Mussolini. The Lateran Treaty which his government concluded with the Vatican in 1929 gave the Roman Catholic Church a variety of guarantees and measures of protection.

The Holy See obtained recognition of itself as a Sovereign State. It was exempted from paying taxes both for its properties and its citizens, exempted from paying duty on imported goods; it had diplomatic immunity and accompanying privileges for its own diplomats and those accredited to it by foreign powers. Mussolini guaranteed the introduction of Catholic religious teaching in all State High Schools and the entire institution of marriage was placed under Canon Law, which ruled out divorce. The benefits for the Vatican were many, not least the fiscal ones.

Article one. Italy undertakes to pay the Holy See, on the ratification of the Treaty, the sum of 750 million lire and to hand over at the same time Consolidated 5 per cent State Bonds to the bearer for the nominal value of one billion lire.

At the 1929 rate of exchange this package represented 81 million dollars. A 1984 equivalent figure is approximately 500 million dollars. Vatican Incorporated was in business. It has never looked back.

To handle the windfall, Pope Pius XI created on June 7th, 1929 The Special Administration. He appointed to run the Department the layman Bernardino Nogara. Apart from having many millions of dollars to play with, Nogara had another very important asset. One hundred years earlier the Roman Catholic Church had completely reversed its position on money lending. The Church can rightfully claim to have changed the meaning of the word usury.

In the classic sense usury means all gains from money lending. For over eighteen hundred years the Roman Catholic Church had dogmatically stated that the charging of any interest on a loan was absolutely forbidden as being contrary to Divine Law. The prohibition was restated in various Church Councils: Arles (AD 314), Nicea (325), Carthage (345), Aix (789), Lateran (1139) – at this Council usurers were condemned to excommunication – various State Laws made the practice legal. It was still heresy, that is, until 1830. Thus, by courtesy of the Roman Catholic Church, usury now means lending money at exorbitant rates of interest.

Self-interest produced a total reversal on the Church’s teaching with regard to money lending. Perhaps if celibacy was no longer the rule for priests it might move the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching on birth control.
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