ACT III WAS THERE A SECRET MAFIAVATICAN NETWORK?

On September 2, 1957, Michele Sindona enters the Grand Hotel Et Des Palmes in the Italian city of Palermo. Two bodyguards check the lawyer for weapons before he meets the crème de la crème of the criminal underworld. In a luxury suite sit representatives of the U.S. and Italian Mafias— rulers of drugs, weapons, and prostitution. “How can we launder millions of dollars?” they ask Sindona. “Don’t worry,” he replies. “I have a plan.”

At the center of the plan is the Vatican Bank. Sindona isn’t just a lawyer, he’s also a banker. From his own financial institution, he transfers Mafia money to the Vatican Bank— and then on to an escrow account abroad. So indirectly, the Vatican washes the blood and cocaine off the Mafia’s banknotes. For this crucial service the Vatican Bank collects a hefty 15%, a high commission that says “Don’t ask questions!” Insider Marcello Bordini later testified: “It took place every day, and the sums were very high. The method was utterly primitive and criminal.” And yet it still works to this day…

These financial transactions are only the beginning of the alliance between the Vatican and the Mafia. Sindona is a guest of the Holy See’s bank so often that Pope Paul VI makes him a financial adviser: “I was told, Michele Sindona, that you have been sent from God.” Sindona immediately gets to work: He merges all the semilegal and illegal assets to enrich himself and the Vatican. The cash flows of his two clients, the Mafia and Vatican, soon unite into a mighty river. But this was only the first step for Sindona and the Vatican Bank…