Italian magistrates suspect a Vatican cardinal may have diverted 30 million euros in state funds from a children’s hospital to save a church-owned clinic.
Italian media also alleged that wiretaps show Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi tried to keep details of the operation from Pope Francis.
Cardinal Versaldi, who is prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, and Rome’s Bambino Jesu paediatric hospital denied any wrongdoing.
The hospital denied even one euro had been diverted.
Magistrates suspect that a portion of 80 million euros destined for Bambino Jesu by the Italian senate may have gone instead to save the Istituto Dermatologico dell’ Immacolata (IDI).
The IDI is a dermatological clinic in Rome owned by a Catholic religious order.
The cardinal said he had not kept anything from the Pope.
Rather he had wanted to spare Francis the technical details of the financial operation to save IDI.
At the time of the alleged funds diversion, Cardinal Versaldi was president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See.
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