This is the first time the Vatican has publically announced a prosecution using measures introduced in 2009 to fight money-laundering and financial crime.

The two accused, Giuseppe Profiti and Massimo Spina, are said to have diverted 422,000 euros (about NZ$660,000) from the hospital's fundraising foundation to pay for renovations on Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone's apartment.

It is said the money transfers from the hospital (often called 'the pope's hospital') began in 2013 after Bertone retired from office as Vatican secretary of state.

Profiti has admitted to transferring the money. He says it was an investment so the foundation could use the apartment for fundraising events.

Profiti and Spina's trial is set to begin before a Vatican tribunal this week. They could face prison sentences of three to five years if convicted.

As they are Italian citizens and not clergy, they could dispute the tribunal's jurisdiction.

When the Vatican confirmed last year that Profiti and Spina were under investigation, Bertone's lawyer said the 82-year old cardinal had "never asked for, nor authorized payment for the restoration work from hospital funds".

No charges have been laid against Bertone.

However, he is said to have made a contribution of over NZ$230,000 to the hospital after a book was published in late 2015 detailing how much was spent on his apartment.

Source

• CathNewsUSA
• Reuters
• Crux
• Image:Agenpress

An Associated Press (AP) report saying it isn't is a hoax based on an incorrect, old report, says the hospital president, Mariella Enoc.

Enoc has been the hospital president since 2015.

The AP report's focus is on the time before Enoc took over as president. It says under its previous 2008-2015 administration, the mission of the "pope's hospital" as Bambino Gesu is known, had shifted to focus on profits over childcare.

In a statement on Monday the hospital threatened legal action against AP for what it said was a report containing "false, dated and gravely defamatory" accusations.

It said the report's accusations had been long been disproven by a Vatican investigation, which was led by a team of Americans who spent three days at the hospital in 2015.

The investigators' subsequent report "disproved" all the first report's allegations — except one involving space constraints — and declared the hospital in many ways "best in class."

It also said the Vatican should be proud of its hospital for the quality of care it provided, the staff's devotion to children and their families and employees' sense of pride at working there.

Enoc says since she took over as president,"the climate [at the hospital] today is more serene, and I urge everyone when there is a problem ... that we talk and talk and not keep it inside and then have it explode," she says.

"We can't always say 'yes,' unfortunately, but we can communicate."

Source

• TIME
• Catholic Herald
• Image: Alessia & Calliope