ROME — Pope Francis insisted Monday that corruption is a “cancer” that makes people look for easy money and ends up making everyone poorer.
“Corruption undermines the dignity of the person and shatters all good and beautiful ideals,” the pontiff tweeted Monday. “All of society is called upon to make a concrete commitment to combat the cancer of corruption which, with the illusion of quick and easy profits, in reality impoverishes everyone.”
The pope’s emphasis on economic corruption follows on the heels of a series of reports of shady financial dealings going on behind the Vatican walls.
As Breitbart News reported last week, the Vatican invested more than a million dollars to finance the Rocketman film, a biopic of singer-songwriter Elton John with a graphic scene of gay sex using money donated by the Catholic faithful through worldwide “Peter’s Pence” collections.
Vatican prosecutors are reportedly examining a series of Holy See investments made through the Malta-based Centurion Global Fund that financed an eclectic series of projects including real estate, mineral water, websites, and films. Vatican capital makes up around two-thirds of the funds managed by Centurion Global.
Through the fund, the Vatican became a 25 percent partner in Lapo Elkann’s eyewear company Italia Independent to the tune of $6.65 million, while more recently becoming a $11.1 million partner with industrialist Enrico Preziosi, the chairman of the Genoa soccer team.
Along with the Rocketman film, the Vatican also sank $3.65 million into the production of the 2019 Men in Black International film featuring Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson.
The Vatican’s biggest investment ($17.7 million) went to the Swiss-Swedish ABB company, which produces parts for nuclear power stations and allegedly participated in the destruction of a Malaysian rain forest.
During his recent trip to Asia, Pope Francis suggested that nuclear power plants should be at least temporarily banned because of their destructive capability.
The pope also recently declared that all Church investments should support ethical enterprises. “If from Peter’s Pence you invest in a weapons factory, the pence is not a pence there, eh?” he said.
Francis acknowledged that the Secretariat of State’s investment of some $200 million in a London luxury property development in Chelsea had caused a “scandal.”
“They have done things that do not seem clean,” he said.
The Vatican Press Office has issued a brief statement regarding the most recent news reports, acknowledging the Vatican’s “ongoing investigations” into investment in the Centurion Global Fund as well as others.