Word: archbishop
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...stand is to put pressure on the Vatican to bring its bank into line with Italian banking regulations. The Bank of Italy has long been resentful of the I.O.R.'s status as an unregulated "offshore," or foreign, bank in the heart of the country. In addition, Archbishop Marcinkus and his two principal lay assistants, Managing Director Luigi Mennini, 71, and Chief Accountant Pellegrino de Strobel, 70, are under investigation by Italian authorities in connection with the possibly fraudulent bankruptcy of Banco Ambrosiano...
...government. But Agostino Cardinal Casaroli, the Vatican's Secretary of State, has named three respected international bankers, all prominent Catholic laymen, to examine the I.O.R.'s role in the scandal.* Casaroli has pointedly not suggested that Marcinkus did anything illegal. At the same time, however, the Archbishop of Florence, Giovanni Cardinal Benelli, a former Vatican Under Secretary of State, has told the Italian magazine Il Sabato that "if there was any imprudence, it was because of incompetence and inexperience." Added Benelli: "The fact that Archbishop Paul Marcinkus is a friend of the Pope's doesn...
...impoverished Lithuanian parents who immigrated to Cicero, Ill., Archbishop Marcinkus had enjoyed a steady rise in the Vatican hierarchy before the scandal broke. After taking a degree in canon law at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, Marcinkus joined the Vatican's State Secretariat in 1952 and soon caught the eye of Archbishop Giovanni Battista Montini, who was to become Pope Paul VI in 1963. The new Pontiff made the tall (6 ft. 3 in.), burly American cleric part of an intimate circle of papal advisers. In 1964 the Pontiff selected Marcinkus, a born organizer, to be his advanceman...
...Vatican officials and conversations with Marcinkus, TIME Correspondent Wilton Wynn reports that the Vatican claims its relationship with Calvi and Banco Ambrosiano involved only normal banking operations. As for Marcinkus, he is still at his Vatican bank post, expressing confidence that the storm will pass. Says he: "The old archbishop is tranquil. His conscience is clear...
High-ranking Vatican sources have already suggested that Marcinkus will be staying behind when Pope John Paul II travels to Spain next month. The reason is that Vatican officials want the archbishop around to answer any questions that might arise concerning his role in the Banco Ambrosiano affair...