Corruption at the Core of the Vatican

By Betty Clermont | 10 August 2025
The Open Tabernacle

(Image by Jerome Clarysse from Pixabay)

Pope Leo XIV is close to Opus Dei

During a meeting on May 14 with the Opus Dei prelate, Monsignor Fernando Ocáriz, “the Pope expressed his closeness and affection” for the prelature of Opus Dei. “In a familial atmosphere of trust, Leo gave the prelate his paternal blessing” as reported by Victoria Cardiel for the independent Catholic News Agency and published by the National Catholic Register.

Who is Opus Dei?

There is no more comprehensive and thorough expose’ than the book, Their Kingdom Come: Inside the Secret World of Opus Dei (1997, 2006) written by Robert Hutchison.

“Opus Dei is an official institution of the Catholic Church. It has around 90,000 members, both men and women. 98% are laypeople. The remaining 2% are priests,” Hutchison wrote. It’s headquarter is in Rome.

“Opus Dei provides spiritual formation aimed at helping people develop their spiritual life,” and most members try to follow this guideline, Hutchison noted. But he also stressed, “Opus Dei expressly forbids members to disclose their affiliation unless expressly authorized to do so.”

Opus Dei is the only organization in the Church designated as a personal prelature. “This enables Opus Dei to operate as it wishes, where it wishes, in total obscurity, with or without papal consent, unburdened by any oversight,” Hutchison explained.

At the top, Opus Dei leaders form a transnational elite. “They seek to colonize the summits of power,” Hutchison states.

In an article published Jan. 24, 2025, Spriha Srivastava wrote, “President Donald Trump addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday. But one of the biggest moments came when Ana Botín, the executive chair of Santander, introduced herself by subtly challenging Trump’s familiarity with her. ‘You may not know me as well as the other panelists,’ she said before adding that Santander’s global customer base was larger than that of Bank of America, whose CEO, Brian Moynihan, was onstage with her, or JPMorgan.’”

Banco Santander S.A. is “the largest bank in the Eurozone by market value and one of the largest banks in the world in terms of market capitalization.”

Because Opus Dei was founded in Spain, the Spanish Botin family has long been associated with “the Work” as its members refer to their organization.

The bank has had a terrible history of cheating its customers and running afoul of regulations.*

Santander funds Opus Dei business schools. “Santander’s interest in higher education is a deep interest, long term, because we understand that at the university are studying the leaders who will run the country in the future,” explained a company official.

Opus Dei’s flagship university is in Navarre, Spain. Its graduate business school, IESE, founded in 1958, “has growing alliances in key areas such as Latin America, China and Eastern Europe, campuses in Barcelona, Madrid, and New York City and teaching facilities in Munich and Sao Paulo,” according to a 2012 report in the Economist. They also operate a global network of MBA schools stated Bloomberg.

Part 2: Money Laundering

“Remember: Wealth can’t be separated from power. Power begets wealth and wealth begets power,” Robert Reich, professor and former United States Secretary of Labor, warned us.

“Opus Dei knows very well that money rules the world, What gives Opus Dei its importance is that it deploys its immense financial resources,” Javier Sainz Moreno, professor of Law at Madrid University, told Hutchison. And for them “the ends justify the means,” Hutchison wrote on pp 261, 262.

“Opus Dei is the most powerful force in the Catholic Church” Hutchison explains in his Introduction. “This book reveals that Opus Dei has become the Catholic Church’s paramount financial power” noted the amazon.com website.

“Control of the Vatican finances became Opus Dei’ most pressing objective,” Hutchison stated on p 363.

Pope Leo is close to Opus Dei as were his three predecessors.

“Cardinal Karol Wojtyla’s election was backed by Opus Dei to insure the organization’s elevation to personal prelature,” Hutchison stated on p257. Pope John Paul II changed the Code of Canon Law in 1983 to make it official.

“Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, Opus Dei’s closest ally in the Roman Curia, was elected in record time, requiring only three ballots,” Hutchison wrote in his Introduction.

Because the book was published in 2006, it does not include information on the election of Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergolio in 2013. I wrote an article documenting Pope Francis’ closeness to the prelature – THE OPUS DEI POPES: PART 3 – FRANCIS including: After Pope Francis’ election in March 2013, Banco Santander made itself available “at the Vatican’s disposition” as a consultant. “Santander, owned by the Botin family, is preparing training courses” for Vatican staff.  The bank “will have a presence that is going to mean a new leading role of Santander in the Vatican.”

“Close to Opus Dei” means that Leo, like his three predecessors did, will turn a blind eye to their using the Vatican City State’s sovereign immunity from all outside regulations and laws to launder money.

After 9/11, in order to curtail funding of terrorists, international financial regulators began exercising oversight on states that failed to comply with their rules regarding money laundering and other hidden monetary transfers. These were known as Anti-Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regulations.

Regulators required financial institutions to stop doing business in unregulated countries like the Vatican City State according to the Financial Times,

“If a state is perceived to be at risk for money laundering, its financial institutions – in this case, the Vatican Bank in particular – usually pay a price. Depositors may take their business elsewhere, worried about possible seizures of assets, while banks in other countries may impose higher transaction costs to cover more aggressive ‘due diligence’ measures. In general, a state’s ability to play the global financial game is impeded,” explained Vatican expert, John L. Allen Jr.

The IOR is the eighth most popular destination for laundered money, ahead of the Bahamas, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, the London Telegraph reported in January 2010.  “Persons close to Opus Dei controlled the Vatican Bank (otherwise known as the IOR, Istituto per le Opere di Religione),” noted Hutchison on p 295.

One adviser to the Vatican told the Financial Times that “it was the bankers’ fear of being tarnished by their links with the Vatican Bank – and fears of fines from emboldened regulators – that led [the Vatican] to clean up its act.”

In September 2010, Italian financial authorities seized 23 million euros from two Vatican bank accounts held in Italian banks because the Holy See refused to disclose the source of these funds. According to court documents, prosecutors stated the IOR deliberately flouted anti-money-laundering laws “with the aim of hiding the ownership, destination and origin of the capital.”

So Pope Benedict had no choice but to establish the Financial Information Authority (FIA) in 2011 with “full powers of supervision over all the institutes and offices of the Holy See, the Roman curia, and Vatican City, including the IOR.” Establishing this “watchdog” department was a requirement by the EU in order for the Vatican City State to continue to use the lire as its currency.

On March 16, 2012, under pressure from the U.S. Treasury Department, JP Morgan Chase notified the Vatican that it closed the IOR account in its Milan branch because the IOR was “unable to respond” to requests for information about the provenance of the deposits. JP Morgan had been requesting the information since 2010. JP Morgan reported 1.8 billion euros ($2,200,000,000) had been deposited in the last 18 months in that account and then transferred to an IOR account in Frankfurt. And this is one account out of how many IOR accounts around the world?

On January 1, 2013, “the Bank of Italy, which had placed the Vatican Bank under intense scrutiny, blocked Deutsche Bank Italia from operating financial services inside the Vatican, including the use of credit cards at its museums and retail stores, after the Vatican failed to meet a Dec. 31 compliance deadline.” Per The Economist: “The reason for the central bank’s tough stance is that it has to comply with the European Union’s banking and anti-money-laundering law. This law permits EU banks to operate in non-EU countries only if these have adequate regulatory frameworks and supervisory controls in place.”

The Vatican began losing $40,000 a day in sales revenue. On Feb. 12, 2013, the Vatican announced that it found a consortium in Switzerland – another country that does not belong to the European Union – as a replacement for Deutsche Bank Italia. The fact that the Vatican chose a Swiss firm to manage financial services inside the Vatican “isn’t a good, transparent sign,” noted Carlo Marroni, a Vatican expert with the Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore.

Under pressure, the IOR released its first public financial statement for the 2012 fiscal year in July 2013. But the names of the depositors and where bank funds are invested were secret.

The IOR announced in July 2014 that there were no longer any anonymous accounts. Depositors are now restricted to “Catholic institutions, clerics, Vatican employees or former employees with salary and pension accounts, as well as embassies and diplomats accredited to the Holy See.”

However, this is no guarantee the remaining depositors will not be used as “fronts” for illegal activities. “Investigators found that dirty money can also pass through non anonymous accounts belonging to priests.” For example, in 2012, four priests came under investigation for operating IOR accounts for the Mafia to launder money.

The 2024 annual report of the Financial Information Authority was released by the Vatican on April 9, 2025. The FIA recorded 129 incoming cross-border cash declarations above the amount of EUR 10,000 amounting to more than €18 million, and outgoing declarations totaling €5.2 million (emphasis mine) according to the pillarcathoic.com website.  (10,000 dollars or Euro per transaction is the amount set by the AML/CFT regulations that require reporting.)

On April 8, 2015, it was reported that magistrates in Rome “are expressing their dissatisfaction” that still no work was being done by the IOR to counter money laundering.

That was the last recorded criticism of the Vatican’s money laundering. Whether those who regulate money laundering have lost their zeal for enforcement now that 24 years have passed since 9/11, or those who want to launder money found more lucrative returns from other financial institutions, we do not know.

Other Indications of Corruption in the Vatican

Like all plutocrats, Opus Dei favors the political party who will lower taxes for the wealthy and reduce or eliminate regulations. “Close to Opus Dei” means being close to the right wing of the Church, culture wars and political allies of the prelature’s leaders.

“Pope Leo is clear on his opposition to the attempted ordination of women,” reported Jonathan Liedl in the May 9 article in the National Catholic Register.

“Pope Leo affirmed that priests must be celibate … as he met in St. Peter’s Basilica with about 400 bishops and cardinals from 38 countries attending this week’s special Holy Year celebrations for clergy,” reported Nicole Winfield on June 25 for apnews.com.

“Prior to his papal election, Cardinal Prevost spoke out rarely, but forcefully, against disordered sexual practices and ideologies. At the 2012 Synod on the New Evangelization, he raised concerns among his fellow bishops that Western media and pop culture fostered ‘sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the Gospel,’ including the ‘homosexual lifestyle’ and ‘alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children,’” Liedl wrote.

“As the bishop of Chiclayo in Peru, he said, ‘The promotion of gender ideology is confusing, because it seeks to create genders that don’t exist,’” noted Liedl.

“Christian values are being threatened by the malign influences of power politics and big money,” Hutchison wrote as quoted on the back cover of his book.

“Pope Leo Meets With JD Vance as U.S. Conservatives Hope for Better Relations” was the headline in The New York Times May 19 edition. The pope met with the Vice President “for a closed-door meeting at the Vatican, the first private conversation between America’s two most high-profile Catholics since the new pontiff was elected,” Elizabeth Dias reported.

In a letter dated July 25 Pope Leo XIV praised migrants. “Their courage and tenacity bear heroic testimony to a faith that sees beyond what our eyes can see and gives them the strength to defy death,” without mentioning Trump by name  according The Washington Post.

The U.S. episcopate – every bishop, archbishop and cardinal – was appointed by an Opus Dei-approved pontiff.

The prelate of Wall Street, New York’s Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan offered a prayer at Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017 and led the invocation at Trump’s second inauguration in 2025.

Compare Dolan’s implied support for Trump with that of the Episcopal Bishop of Washington D.C., Mariann Budde, who delivered a sermon at the National Cathedral the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration.  “She spoke directly to Trump who was seated in the front row. ‘I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” she said, invoking gay, lesbian, and transgender children, as well as undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers.”

The U.S episcopate as been only vocal in their opposition to Trump’s immigration actions.

On June 16, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, issued a statement: “In the context of a gravely deficient immigration system, the mass arrest and removal of our neighbors, friends and family members on the basis of immigration status alone, particularly in ways that are arbitrary or without due process, represent a profound social crisis before which no person of good will can remain silent.”

Like Pope Leo, Archbishop Broblio never criticized Trump by name.

Unlike other American religious groups, no U.S. bishop, archbishop or cardinal has ever declared any of his properties as sanctuaries for immigrants.

“A coalition of more than two dozen religious groups is suing the White House over its policy allowing immigration officers to arrest suspected illegal immigrants in houses of worship” the independent Catholic News Agency reported on Feb. 11, 2025.

“In their lawsuit, filed Tuesday at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., the 27 religious groups, including the Mennonite Church, the Episcopal Church, the Friends General Conference, and several Jewish groups including the New York-based Rabbinical Assembly, argue that the enforcement of immigration arrests in churches is ‘substantially burdening the religious exercise’ of the plaintiffs’ congregations and members.”

On July 28, “A coalition of Protestant denominations – including several synods of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America along with Quaker churches, Baptist churches, and community churches –  filed a lawsuit to challenge a policy from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration that makes it easier for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to arrest suspects at churches and other sensitive locations,” The Nation reported as posted on ncregister.com.

And no U.S. bishop has ever has ever put themselves in a position to be arrested as did Bishop William J. Barber II, founding Director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School.

“The Rev. William J. Barber was arrested May 6, 2025, in the U.S. Capitol following a prayer-protest against potential cuts to Medicaid. He warned congressional Republicans against weaponizing ‘our tax dollars against us’” as reported by nbcnews.com.

On June 2, “the Rev. William Barber led a group of clergy in several minutes of prayer inside the Rotunda building before the group was advised by a senior officer with the US Capitol Police that they were in violation of the building’s prohibition against demonstrations. Barber and several others can be seen continuing to pray as they are led away in zip-ties, in video taken by The Independent at the protest.”

“Clergy have said planned GOP cuts to Medicaid is a moral issue. It’s not a Republican or Democrat. It’s a moral issue,” Barber said.  “His Moral Monday rallies, held in DC, his home state of North Carolina and elsewhere, have rallied left-leaning faith leaders on issues that affect low-income communities across the country for more than a decade,” The Independent noted.

Conclusion

Opus Dei will continue to control the Vatican’s finances and politics as long as the city state has an exemption from international financial oversight.

*A sampling of Santander headlines:

Santander tops consumer complaints in Brazil

Huge Eurobank, rated ‘Britain’s worst,’ now accused of gouging U.S. consumers

Banco Santander S.A. Fined $200 Million for Advice Failings

Santander fined €16.9m by Spain’s stock market regulator for failing to provide buyers of its Valores bonds with the necessary information

Santander fined £12.4m by the [London] City regulator for serious failings in the way it sold thousands of customers investment products.

Santander Bank Fined $10 Million for Illegal Overdraft Fees by the [U.S.] Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

U.S. Federal Reserve: Santander fails to comply with state and federal regulations

Santander will pay almost $25 million to two U.S. states for predatory loans

Banco Santander fined 1 mln euros for failing to stop money laundering

Police search Santander’s Madrid HQ in money-laundering inquiry

Banco Popular, another Opus Dei bank, failed and was bought by Santander. “Popular’s 300,000 or so shareholders have now had the value of their investment reduced to zero. So have investors in some €2bn of bonds.” An article titled “The scandalous economic practices of Opus Dei,” was about Banco Popular’s predatory student loans.

Reprinted with permission from the author.

Betty Clermont is author of The Neo-Catholics: Implementing Christian Nationalism in America (Clarity Press, 2009).

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