Pope launches investigation into Sistine Chapel choir scandal

POPE FRANCIS has ordered an investigation into alleged financial irregularities involving the Sistine Chapel Choir.

Two directors of the choir, founded in 1471, are accused of using proceeds from concerts for their own personal ends. The Holy See released a statement in which it confirmed that he had authorised an inquiry some months ago “into some economic-financial aspects” of the Coro della Cappella Musicale Pontificia. It gave no further details but said the inquiry, by Vatican magistrates, was ongoing.

At 547 years old, the choir of young boys and adult men is believed to be the world’s oldest. Its choristers sing at papal masses and travel the world performing concerts.

La Stampa, the Italian newspaper that broke the story yesterday, alleged the choir’s director and head of administration diverted earnings from concerts into a private bank account and used the cash for personal expenses. The head of administration is a layman while the director is a Salesian priest.

In 2015 the choir released a CD through the label Deutsche Grammophon, the first recording ever allowed to be made inside the Sistine Chapel.

In May, the choir performed at the gala opening of an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York called Heavenly Bodies, a celebration of the fashion world’s engagement with the devotional traditions of the Catholic Church.

Renowned for its Michelangelo frescoes, the Sistine Chapel was built between 1473 and 1481 for Pope Sixtus IV, from whom its name derives. It also boasts frescoes by Renaissance masters Botticelli, Perugino and Pinturicchio.

When popes die, or resign, as in the rare case of Benedict XVI, the chapel is closed to the outside world and becomes the setting for a conclave, the secret election of a new pontiff.

Meanwhile, the Vatican was mired in another scandal after the Pope opened an inquiry into an American bishop accused of sexual abuse and harassment. The Pope accepted the resignation of the bishop, Michael Bransfield, from West Virginia.

It came as Pope Francis met a delegation of US bishops to discuss the burgeoning sex abuse scandal in the Church, including allegations that he himself ignored allegations against American cardinal Theodore Mccarrick.

In July, Mccarrick became the first cardinal to resign in nearly a century after Church officials said allegations that he had sexually abused a boy of 16 almost 50 years ago were credible and substantiated. Allegations that Pope Francis knew about the abuse and did nothing about it were made last month by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, the former Vatican ambassador to Washington, who called on the Pope to resign.

In Germany a leaked report found more than 3,600 children were assaulted by nearly 1,700 Catholic priests between 1946 and 2014. Most victims were boys, half of them under 13. The Catholic Church said it was “dismayed and ashamed” at the findings.