Anomalies abound in Vatican trial over diverted Papal donations

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican trial over $500,000 in donations to the pope’s pediatric hospital that were diverted to renovate a cardinal’s penthouse is reaching its conclusion, with neither the cardinal who benefited nor the contractor who was apparently paid twice for the work facing trial.

Instead, the former president of the Bambino Gesu children’s hospital and his ex-treasurer are accused of misappropriating 422,000 euros from the hospital’s fundraising foundation to overhaul the retirement home of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state under Pope Benedict XVI.

Prosecutors have asked for a guilty verdict, a three-year prison term and a fine of 5,000 euros ($5,910) for the ex-president, Giuseppe Profiti. They asked to shelve the case against the ex-treasurer, Massimo Spina, for lack of evidence: The trial determined he had no signing power or decision-making authority.

The trial, which began in July and resumes Saturday with the defense’s closing arguments, exposed how Bertone bent Vatican rules to get his retirement apartment in shape for him to move in after Pope Francis was elected in 2013 and named a new secretary of state.

And it laid bare the “opacity, silence and poor management” in handling Vatican assets, prosecutor Roberto Zanotti said in his closing statements.

Such lack of financial transparency and accountability has bedeviled the Holy See for centuries and has been a top concern for Pope Francis’ reform-minded papacy.