Rome Newsroom, Nov 18, 2020 / 09:30 am (CNA).- Cardinal Angelo Becciu said Wednesday he is taking legal action against an Italian media outlet for publishing “unfounded accusations” against him.
In the Nov. 18 statement, the former senior … […]
CNA Staff, Nov 18, 2020 / 07:00 am (CNA).- A cyber security expert has urged the Vatican to take immediate action to strengthen its defenses against hackers.
Andrew Jenkinson, group CEO of Cybersec Innovation Partners (CIP) in London, told CNA that h… […]
Vatican City, Nov 18, 2020 / 06:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis pointed to the Blessed Virgin Mary as a model of prayer that transforms restlessness into openness to God’s will in his livestreamed general audience address Wednesday.
“Mary accom… […]
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Nov 17, 2020 / 06:00 pm (CNA).- The Vatican is investigating usage of the papal Instagram account after Pope Francis’ official page liked a racy picture of a scantily-clad model.
The picture “liked” by Pope Francis’ verified account, Franciscus, features Brazilian model and Twitch streamer Natalia Garibotto wearing a lingerie outfit that resembles a school uniform. Garibotto’s mostly-uncovered posterior is visible in the picture. The exact time of the “like” is unclear, but it was visible and reported by news outlets on November 13.
The photograph was unliked on November 14, after CNA asked the Holy See Press Office for comment. An official for the Holy See Press Office declined to comment on the event.
Sources close to the Vatican press office confirmed to CNA that the pope’s various social media accounts are managed by a team of employees, and that an internal investigation is underway to determine how the “like” happened.
COY Co., Garibotto’s management and publicity firm, used the papal account’s like for publicity purposes, posting on its account Friday that the firm had “received the POPE’S OFFICIAL BLESSING.”
According to Garibotto’s social media account, subscribers to her website receive “sexy content, follow back on socials, [the ability to] chat with me directly, monthly cash prize giveaways, signed Polaroids, and more!”
Neither Garibotto nor Pope Francis’ official account follow each other on Instagram. Pope Francis’s Instagram account does not follow any other accounts.
On Twitter, Garibotto commented “At least I’m going to heaven,” and “Brb on my way to the Vatican.” Pictures posted to her Instagram account suggest she was not, in fact, at the Vatican.
CNA Staff, Nov 17, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).- Police have found hundreds of thousands of euros in cash hidden in two homes of a suspended Vatican official under investigation for corruption, according to Italian media reports.
Fabrizio Tirabassi was a la… […]
Vatican City, Nov 17, 2020 / 06:00 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Tuesday named Pittsburgh priest Fr. David J. Bonnar the next bishop of Youngstown, Ohio.
Bonnar, 58, succeeds Bishop George Murry, S.J., who died June 5 from acute leukemia.
The bishop-elect … […]
Vatican City, Nov 16, 2020 / 02:17 pm (CNA).- It is a core tenet of the Catholic faith that demons are real, and as said in the St. Michael prayer, that they “prowl about the […]
Vatican City, Nov 15, 2020 / 06:20 am (CNA).- Jesus is telling us today to stretch out our hand to the poor, Pope Francis said in his Angelus address Sunday.
Speaking from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square Nov. 15, the fourth World Da… […]
Vatican City, Nov 15, 2020 / 04:35 am (CNA).- Pope Francis said that the needy are at the heart of the Gospel as he celebrated a Mass marking World Day of the Poor Sunday.
In his homily in St. Peter’s Basilica Nov. 15, the pope urged Catholics t… […]
Vatican City, Nov 12, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- The Vatican announced Thursday that it had appointed an interim president of the foundation which owns and operates a scandal-ridden dermatological hospital in Rome.
Fr. Giuseppe Pusceddu, a member and the superior of the Italian province of the Congregation of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception, was named Nov. 12 as the interim president of the board of directors of the Luigi Maria Monti Foundation.
The Luigi Maria Monti Foundation owns and manages Rome’s Istituto Dermopatico dell’Immacolata, or IDI, along with other health structures. Pusceddu was also named president of IDI Farmaceutici srl, a pharmaceutical agency connected to the hospital.
Fr. Pusceddu succeeds Antonio Maria Leozappa, a layman, as president of the foundation. Pusceddu’s appointment marks the first time the foundation’s leadership has been returned to a member of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception since Benedict XVI appointed a Vatican commissioner to look into the hospital’s finances in 2013.
The IDI has been plagued by problems for a decade. After years of systematic theft and fraud by hospital administrators, leaving it with 800 million euros in debt, the hospital was declared bankrupt in 2012.
In 2015, the Vatican’s Secretariat of State stepped in, arranging to purchase the hospital out of state-administered bankruptcy through a for-profit partnership with the religious order that owned and managed the hospital — an arrangement which also ended in financial scandal.
The Vatican’s Nov. 12 statement said that “pending the appointment of new management, which will have to guide the foundation in continuing to face the difficult challenges of the moment,” Pusceddu and the other board members are entrusted with adapting the statutes of the foundation to better reflect the charism of its founding influence, Bl. Luigi Maria Monti.
“The Holy See, as before, will not lack its closeness and support to the Foundation and its works,” the statement concluded.
After the IDI was driven into bankruptcy by a series of embezzlement scandals, it was purchased in 2015 by a for-profit partnership created by the Secretariat of State and the religious order that had owned the hospital, the Sons of the Immaculate Conception.
To carry out the purchase, the partnership received — through a complex series of transactions — 50 million euros, in a loan from the Vatican central bank, APSA, although APSA had agreed with European banking regulators not to make commercial loans.
In an attempt to take the loan off APSA’s books, officials in the Secretariat of State then asked the Papal Foundation, a U.S.-based charitable foundation, for a $25 million grant. The grant was approved, but subsequent questions from board members led to controversy and opposition. The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, has said that he organized the loan and the grant.
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