On the world stage, the Vatican plays a unique and mysterious image.
Its name itself is full of mysteries: it may refer to the Vatican City State, which covers an area of only 0.44 square kilometers and has a population of less than 1,000; It may also refer to the "Holy See," the central governing body of the Roman Catholic Church, just as the "White House" represents the executive branch of the U.S. government, and "Washington" represents the entire U.S. government.
The word "Vatican" has a double meaning.
In other words, it has two identities.
On the one hand, it is a state with territory, with secular power and status.
On the other hand, it is also the central governing body of the world's largest and oldest transnational religious organization, with an important religious identity.
Thus, the Vatican is a theocratic country, and its leader, the Pope, is also known as the Pope.
The Pope is not only the head of state of the country, but also has the highest legislative, judicial and executive powers.
He professed to be the "representative of Christ on earth", with the supreme divine right, the leader of the Holy See and the spiritual teacher of Catholics worldwide.
The Vatican has a large number of properties and investments in many countries and plays a considerable influence in various sectors of the Italian economy, especially banking and real estate.
In addition, the generosity of Catholics around the world is one of the Vatican's sources of income.
One can imagine how vast the wealth and interest network behind the Vatican is.
However, to understand how the Vatican's vast web of interests is weaved, we have to start a thousand years ago.
The dark economy in the feudal era
The Vatican was originally the nucleus of the medieval Papal States.
Beginning in the 4th century, the bishops of the city of Rome took advantage of the decline of the Roman Empire to occupy the surrounding lands, and in the 6th century they actually took control of the city and became the "pope".
When Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire, the bishops became more and more powerful.
The emperor and the big landowners gave the church a lot of money and land, making the church richer and stronger.
As a result, the church became a tycoon and colonizer with large fields and countless slaves, and the church's wealth grew as a result of various gifts.
After the Franks converted to Christianity, the kings competed to see who gave more to the church.
They gave land, money, jewelry, precious furniture, and so on to the church.
Spain was no exception, and in the early Middle Ages, bishops and abbots became magnates, feudal lords.
Spanish monks collected money and grain on their own land and made farmers work for them.
The church in Italy is even richer and more powerful.
In the sixth century, large tracts of land owned by former Roman emperors in Sicily and Calabelli were owned by the Roman bishop Grigori I.
The medieval church became the largest tycoon in Western Europe, holding at least one-third of the Catholic land.
They used faith to hold the countries of Western Europe together, praising the hierarchy in feudal society, especially the oppression and enslavement of the peasant masses, from which they themselves profited.
The "prophets" and "mentors" who led the early Christians through communal life were widely said to be poor, temperate, despise worldly money, and sacrifice themselves if they wanted to go to heaven.
The bishops in the church are in charge of the commune's money and speak on behalf of the church.
The prestige and power of the bishops was not derived by their "moral image", but by their stewardship of the commune's property.
As the bishop of the imperial capital of Rome, he had a lot of money and political influence, and the Holy See slowly developed from the bishopric of Rome.
In order to consolidate its influence, the developed Holy See did everything to get land and property.
In order to get people to continue to donate money and materials, they have concocted all kinds of miracles and played countless tricks and scams.
For example, when the joys of heaven and the pain of hell no longer appealed to people, they brought the bones of saints from afar, showed them everywhere, and built new churches.
In addition, many clergy, including the Pope, relied on forged documents to take possession of property, and in order to make themselves richer, they did not hesitate to use fake documents to defraud money.
The Pope and the Synod also vigorously defended the Church's right to receive gifts and threatened those who fought with them with excommunication penalties.
However, the papal desires are endless, and the income of the papacy is not even enough.
Most popes are profligate in their lives, leaving their successors with nothing but debt.
For example, when people refer to Reeve X, it is said that he spent all the money of three popes: his own, his predecessors, and his successors.
Polhall said that Rif X had even done so to get money that he used carpets and silverware from his palace and even statues of saints in the chapel of the Holy See as collateral for loan sharks.
Rif X owed a lot of debts, and even sold the treasures of the Holy See in order to pay off the debts, even the papal crown.
After selling, it is still not enough to pay back.
All the bankers of the Holy See went bankrupt because of the bankruptcy of their profligate successors.
The beginning of capitalism in the Vatican
In 1789, the bourgeois revolution took place in France, and although the power of the Holy See was shaken by this reform, it was not defeated, especially with the support of Spain and France, these "Catholic" countries became colonial empires, they invaded the Americas and enslaved the natives, and extended their power to the East, which helped the consolidation and unification of the Catholic Church in the post-Reformation period.
Until the reign of Pius IX, the Catholic Church's close ties with capitalism developed rapidly.
In 1830, a close alliance between the Catholic Church and the bourgeoisie first surfaced.
Political and economic interests have constantly driven the upper echelons of the Church, causing Catholic organizations and clerical factions in some countries to join hands with the bourgeoisie to embark on the road of capitalism full of temptation.
In 1834, the Vatican established the "Bank of Rome" with a capital of 300,000 zkuti, focusing on real estate speculation.
In the same year, the "Holy Spirit Bank" came into being, and many church enterprises involved in flour, salt and other industries were transformed into "private" joint-stock companies.
In 1836, the high priests Po Mirini and C. le Molinini set up a provident office in Rome, and just ten years later their deposits had reached 10 million lire.
In 1852, the Vatican increased its investment in the "Bank of Rome" and attracted Rome's largest financier.
In 1845, the Vatican AG "Angelica Marcha Holy Water Company" was founded to operate the running water in Rome – from 1871 to 1875, the company's dividend increased tenfold.
In 1852, the Vatican and British capital jointly formed the "Anglia-Roman Gas Company".
By 1875, the company's capital and dividends reached 3.25 million lire and 289,683 lire respectively, while in 1890 this figure had grown to 14 million lire and 1,928,366 lire respectively.
In 1883, the Vatican spun off another enterprise from the "Anglia-Roma Gas Company", the "English-Roman Electric Company".
The Holy See, which once blessed the feudal system with its divine brilliance, still closely guards the interests of the oppressor classes in the capitalist era.
The Vatican's financial empire and clerical disputes
During World War II, thanks to the care of American financial groups, the Vatican's investment showed an upward trend after the war.
Wall Street bankers, in order to win the Vatican's support for its policy of controlling Italy and other countries, provided the Vatican Special Administration with cheap foreign exchange and sold shares of various companies they controlled to the Vatican at preferential prices, inducing it to participate in various transactions and speculation.
After the Second World War, the Vatican became the owner of Italy's most advanced industries, involved in the textile, chemical and electricity industries.
If before the war, the Vatican was involved only in various joint-stock companies, trusts and monopolies as a small player, in the post-war period it was already far-sighted and dominated in certain areas of industry and commerce.
The capital of these large enterprises is either all owned or controlled by the Vatican.
Especially since the time of Pope Leo XIII, the Vatican has been actively investing in the construction industry.
For whom does the Vatican's huge annual income from such a rich and diverse source serve and be used for? Defenders of the Church insist that the Vatican's wealth is mainly used for poverty relief and to keep the papal court running.
However, this is not the case, and the vast majority of the Vatican's income is appropriated by the Pope, members of his family, cardinals, and other high-ranking ecclesiastical figures.
Among them, the cardinals "earn" the most lucrative income in the Holy See.
Their salaries are as high as $100,000 a year, while other senior clergy in the Holy See earn relatively modest incomes.
Nevertheless, this is only a small part of the income of the Holy See.
Large sums of money were used to contend with the progressive camp at the ideological level, to fight back against communism and cutting-edge science.
At the same time, these funds maintained the functioning of clerical organizations, clerical newspapers and various propaganda institutions, and even carried out subversive actions against the Soviet Union and other countries of the socialist camp.
In order to grow the Vatican's capital power, the Holy See also uses large amounts of income to buy new shares, marketable securities, and other investments.
However, huge wealth inevitably leads to conflicts of interest, and there are countless murders between the Holy See.
On June 18, 1982, a body hangs from scaffolding under a bridge on the banks of the River Thames in London.
The deceased was wearing a suit and carrying in his arms an address book full of contact information of Italian and British dignitaries.
Obviously, the identity of this deceased man is not ordinary.
After an investigation, the media revealed the identity of the deceased - Roberto Calvi, chairman and general manager of Italy's largest private bank.
The billionaire had a connection with Italy's top power brokers, and that connection was like a thread in a spider's web that tied him to the Vatican's top figures.
In the summer of 1983, the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee disappeared unexpectedly and her whereabouts are still unknown.
In 2019, investigators investigating the disappearance accidentally found thousands of human bones in the hidden underground space of the Vatican's Teutonic cemetery.
It can be said that these murders are the "products" left by the struggle between wealth and power within the Vatican, and how many of these "products" are there? I'm afraid there are not many of them.
The rights and resources of the Vatican in today's world
The modern Vatican is not only the heart of religion, it is also closely linked to the bourgeoisie in the world's largest capitalist country in the economic and political spheres.
Assessing the Vatican's influence in today's world, Eugene Rostow, former U.S. Undersecretary of State, vividly describes the Vatican not only as the nucleus of a vast spiritual and cultural community, but also as a vivid symbol of ideas and values, as well as a secretariat for coordinating transnational bureaucracies on a global scale.
He believes that the Vatican plays a pivotal role on the international stage, both in the spiritual and secular spheres.
So, what role does the Vatican play on the big stage of the contemporary world? And how does it exude its charm?
First, nearly 1.3 billion Catholics have gathered into a vast "invisible nation" where they see the Pope as spiritual guides; The ideas transmitted by the Holy See act like an invisible compass that guides their lives and guides their actions.
Therefore, compared to secular countries, the Vatican has unparalleled spiritual treasures.
For example, the Vatican's teachings on economic life are like guides, leading the ship of wealth for Catholic investors; The wisdom of married life is like a warm sun, shining on the support or opposition of believers on legislative issues, and so on.
Second, compared to most religious organizations, the Vatican is like a rich treasury with endless organizational resources.
The Vatican-led Catholic Church attaches great importance to institution-building, like an ancient tree, with deep roots and lush branches.
When feudal dynasties changed and kingdoms rose and disappeared, the Catholic Church remained standing.
An organization's resilience is an inestimable asset.
Moreover, because hundreds of millions of Catholics are in all corners of the world, across countries and continents.
In its report to George W. Bush, the U.S. Embassy in the Holy See mentioned that the Vatican is one of the few sovereign entities with footprints in almost every country in the world.
This means that the Pope and his Church, in almost every political environment, have an immortal presence and rich resources.
end
After a long period of exploration, we finally glimpse the mystery of the Vatican's thousand-year-old wealth and benefit network.
From towering churches to centers of power, the murders and intrigues behind these will be remembered by history.
However, as we tell this story, we must not forget to bravely confront the people of the past.
These past experiences are closely linked to today, reminding us not only to focus on the impact of money and power, but also to remember the power of justice and truth.
Just as the sun shines through dark clouds, only by constantly searching for the truth can the Vatican's historical story shine with hope in the future.
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[5] The Paper: Missing girl 36 years ago leads to an even bigger mystery, thousands of human bones were found in a Vatican cemetery.