INTERNATIONAL CAPITALISM7 Days 22 December 1971

"Pax the Pope will plead on Christmas DayBut what w ill God say when the W orlds Richest Shareholder has its final AGM?

Pope Paul: his coffers are crammed with earthly blessings

LAST WEEK there were rumours of a split within the Roman Catholic Church about the adminstration of its £400 million overseas aid programme. The Vatican is trying to centralise its various charity outfits in one single organisation. Cor Unum (One Heart), but missionaries and other decentralising elements within the Church are suspicious of this move. They see it as yet another attempt by the conservative Roman bureaucracy to block their initiative. The clash is expected to come to a head at a meeting of Cor Unum in Rome next month.

This dispute marks another chapter in the wrangle over the Vatican’s money that has been smouldering for several years. A skirmish in this battle was fought recently between the French daily Le Monde and the Vatican daily l'Osservatore Romano, a paper that has the unique distinction of printing many of its articles in Latin. Le Monde published an article on October 27 under the title: “Is the Holy See the worst employer in Italy?”. The article discussed a topic which is taboo in Vatican circles: the conditions of employment of the 1,000 lay personnel within the Vatican itself. They have no trade union rights — no right to strike, and not even the right to form their own union.

They get no over-time bonuses, seniority is not recognised, and they can be dismissed without notice. Although they only work from 9 to 3, they are prevented from having any other employment. Their salaries are secret: on the basis of what is known Le Monde calculated that a married journalist working in the Vatican would get 243,000 lire per month whereas a journalist on a comparable Italian paper would get 320,000 lire, and would work five days a week as opposed to six in the Vatican. It is not therefore surprising that the Vatican, although it sends observers to the International Labour Organisation, has so far found itself incapable of joining it.

No Strikes in the VaticanL ’Osservatore Romano replied to this

attack a fortnight later, on November 9. “The Holy See, which serves the whole Church, cannot allow strikes which would suspend its activities”, the paper declared. The Vatican is not an employer, since it is not concerned with profit, does not produce goods and does not provide economic services. “In the Vatican there is not that tension between capital and labour that marks the world of labour in civil societies”. The Vatican compared itself with UNESCO and FAO which, it pointed out, also ban trade union organisation among their employees.

Le Monde replied to this defense, calling it a “clumsy statement”. “It is hard to understand why ‘the spiritual mission’ in which the Holy See’s

employees are engaged should imply that they have no material needs”. The paper also pointed out that there had been strikes in the Vatican in the printing works and among the security guards; L'Osservatore Rom ano pretended to ignore these.

The World's Largest ShareholdersThis criticism of working conditions

within the Vatican itself is only a small part of the hassle over the Vatican’s economic role. The Vatican may or may not be the worst employer in Italy. But it certainly is the largest financial enterprise in Italy and the largest share-holder in the world. In 1965 the Economist estimated that the Vatican had a portfolio of quoted securities worth over £2,000 million of which only a tenth were held in Italy itself. This is a highly conservative estimate — Time magazine has estimated the portfolio at three times the Econom ist figure. But even if the Econom ist figure were correct it would give the Vatican realisable assets equal to the offical gold and currency reserves of France and double those of Britain.

Sell-out on ContraceptivesThe Vatican’s financial and industrial

power has been built up over centuries, and is administered by a skilful and discreet army of ecclesiastical financiers and Catholic laymen (“confidential agents”) in Italy and elsewhere. In Britain merchant banks such as Hambros, Samuel Montagu and Rothschilds have long-standing links

with the Vatican.The latest estimate o f the Vatican’s

economic range calculates that it has a say in the affairs o f around 140 different - industrial and commercial enterprises. At times this wide-ranging investment leads it into embarrassment: last year it had to sell its shares in the chemical firm SERONO, after the Italian press pointed out that this firm were the makers o f the contraceptive pill Luteola.

Among the firms in Italy which it controls are: Pesenti, makers of 32 per cent of Italy’s cement; Italgas, who provide gas in 36 Italian cities including Rome, Turin and Venice; the pasta firm M olini e Pastificio; Snia-Viscosa, who make 70 per cent o f man-made fibres in Italy. They also have shares in such firms as Pirelli, Alfa R om eo, Alitalia, CIT (the Italian tourist agency), and shipping lines like Lloyd-Triestino, Adriatica and Tirrenia.

It is deep into land and property speculation. Much o f its land is retained from the papal empires o f old. In Italy alone it has 600,000 acres o f land. It owns a 75 per cent share in the Rome Hilton and has a substantial share in the Rome Grand Hotel: Cardinal Spellman once had Indonesian President Sukarno evicted for holing up with two callgirls in a luxury suite there. The Vatican has its own financial apparatus, the key to which is It Banco d i San to Sp irito , founded in 1606, and now boasting a capital of $12.8 million. In all the Vatican has a controlling or strong share in 27 different banks.

Although its economic activities have been based in Italy the Vatican has increasingly spread its money around the world. It banks much o f its capital in London, and has been active in France (Immobilière des Champs- Elysees), the USA (Montedison, the “Oyster Bay Cove” villa village on Long Island) and India (Madras-Aluminium). A further impulse has come from the demand by socialist left in Italy that the Vatican pay taxes on its share income, under the law introduced in 1962 that makes this mandatory in Italy. The Vatican claims exemption under its 1929 agreement with Mussolini, but since early 1969 it has been selling some of its shares in Italy and moving capital abroad.

Tax-evasionThe greatest defense open to the

Catholic financial apparatus is its secrecy. It publishes no budget and all estimates of its wealth are based on informed speculation. The real wealth is imponderable for another reason: the Vatican has the richest art collection in the world, with priceless resources in paintings, churches, and art treasures accumulated over its 2,000 years of experience. It is certainly one of the richest states in the world. At the recent controversial Synod of Bishops in Rome demands were voiced that the Vatican publish details on its finances. But, judging from the latest row over Cor U num, the crusty financiers at the centre are more determined than ever to keep control in their hands.

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