Cover image of "Merchants in the Temple," a book about the vatican

It’s well known that the history of the Catholic Church is rife with tales of corruption and murder—and that internal conflicts roiling the Church continue today over pedophile priests, the role of women, divorce, and gay marriage as well as theology. What’s less well known are the particulars about long-running battles over money and power inside the Vatican. Those reports may have forced the resignation of Pope Benedict VI in 2013. And in Merchants in the Temple, a 2015 book about the Vatican, investigative journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi speculated that corruption might eventually induce Pope Francis to follow Benedict into retirement. Instead, Francis emerged unscathed from the Vatican leaks scandal. But as I write, the 88-year-old pope lies in a Roman hospital in critical condition with pneumonia. And the forces are gathering for the conclave of Cardinals that might soon follow to select his successor.

Long-standing rumors of corruption

Reports of old-fashioned corruption involving money and power have been swirling about the Vatican for decades. More than forty years ago rumors surfaced that long-standing corruption led to the murder of the last Italian Pope, John Paul I. He reigned for just 33 days in 1978 and was reportedly in good health. Some close observers believed that the radical Vatican reform proposal he brought forward caused his death because it would have forced out the greatest beneficiaries of the Vatican’s extensive financial operations. While most observers dismissed those rumors, there is extensive proof that the Vatican’s finances were in fact riddled with corrupt influence. In Merchants in the Temple, Nuzzi cites lengthy passages from internal Vatican documents—and even tape recordings of secret meetings involving Pope Francis—to update the tale of ecclesiastical corruption.

Merchants in the Temple: Inside Pope Francis’s Secret Battle Against Corruption in the Vatican by Gianluigi Nuzzi (2015) 261 pages ★★★☆☆

Photo of Pope Francis meeting with department heads in the Curia, as he did in the period chronicled in this book about the vatican
Pope Francis in 2017 in one of his periodic meetings with the heads of Vatican offices. Image: L’Osservatore Romano – Catholic News Service

A hero pope, with many flaws

Francis emerges from the pages of this book as a hero, though a hero with faults of his own. Unlike his predecessors, who initiated reform measures but failed to follow up on them, Pope Francis was resolute since the moment of his investiture in 2013. Nuzzi details a series of bold and risky moves by the Pope to bring outsiders, including lay experts, into the Vatican to investigate its financial affairs. And he continued to support them vocally through the ensuing battles over the application of their recommendations. Francis went so far as to dismiss a number of cardinals from their posts, and no wonder.

Citing internal documents, Nuzzi describes the astonishing inefficiency, ineptitude, and embezzlement that runs rampant through the Church’s finances. What he reveals is shocking. billions of euros intended for the poor were misspent on luxuries for the Vatican hierarchy, funneled to outside vendors and financial institutions through sole-source contracts, or simply unaccounted for. And the Vatican bank has been used extensively for money-laundering.

Don’t shoot the messenger

However, Merchants in the Temple is not easy going for the reader. It appears that the book was written in haste and then poorly translated from the Italian. The chronology is confusing. The cast of characters is immense and disorienting. And Nuzzi never clearly explains the daunting Byzantine structure of the Vatican. (That may not be entirely his fault, however: there are two Vatican banks, not one, and a passel of “commissions” with vague-sounding names that compete with one another for money and power.)

Perhaps the old lament, “Don’t shoot the messenger,” should be applied here. Despite the book’s flaws, the message comes through clearly: the obvious need for radical change. And in fact Francis has instituted significant reforms. However, as Nuzzi writes, “Today the Vatican bank is still impenetrable in many respects, a world unto itself. . . Francis—the great, singular Pope—has to count the number of his friends every day to make sure he will not be left alone.” In many ways, it’s still business as usual in the Vatican.

About the author

Photo of Gianluigi Nuzzi, author of this book about the vatican
Author Gianluigi Nuzzi in 2013. Image: Wikipedia

The Wikipedia page for the author is just three sentences long. It reads as follows: “Gianluigi Nuzzi (born 3 June 1969) is an Italian journalist, writer, and television host. He is the author of His Holiness: The Secret Papers of Benedict XVI. He considers himself Roman Catholic.” In other words, it doesn’t even include a reference to the book I’ve reviewed here.

Nuzzi and a fellow investigative journalist went on trial in the Vatican after the publication of this book. They faced eight years in prison for their work. However, ultimately the two journalists were acquitted in what was widely known as the Vatican leaks scandal. Meanwhile, the men who were their sources were convicted of leaking the documents at issue.

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