God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican

by Gerald Posner

A deeply reported, New York Times bestselling exposé of the money and the clerics-turned-financiers at the heart of the Vatican—the world’s biggest, most powerful religious institution—from an acclaimed journalist with “exhaustive research techniques” ( The New York Times ).

From a master chronicler of legal and financial misconduct, a magnificent investigation nine years in the making, God’s Bankers traces the political intrigue of the Catholic Church in “a meticulous work that cracks wide open the Vatican’s legendary, enabling secrecy” ( Kirkus Reviews ). Decidedly not about faith, belief in God, or religious doctrine, this book is about the church’s accumulation of wealth and its byzantine financial entanglements across the world. Told through 200 years of prelates, bishops, cardinals, and the Popes who oversee it all, Gerald Posner uncovers an eyebrow-raising account of money and power in one of the world’s most influential organizations.

God’s Bankers has it a revelatory and astounding saga marked by poisoned business titans, murdered prosecutors, and mysterious deaths written off as suicides; a carnival of characters from Popes and cardinals, financiers and mobsters, kings and prime ministers; and a set of moral and political circumstances that clarify not only the church’s aims and ambitions, but reflect the larger tensions of more recent history. And Posner even looks to the future to surmise if Pope Francis can succeed where all his predecessors to overcome the resistance to change in the Vatican’s Machiavellian inner court and to rein in the excesses of its seemingly uncontrollable financial quagmire. “As exciting as a mystery thriller” ( Providence Journal ), this book reveals with extraordinary precision how the Vatican has evolved from a foundation of faith to a corporation of extreme wealth and power.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Religion, Politics, Economics, Business, Finance

752 pages, Paperback

First published February 3, 2015

About the author

Gerald Posner is an award winning journalist, bestselling author and attorney. The Los Angeles Times dubs him "a classic-style investigative journalist." "His work is painstakingly honest journalism" concluded The Washington Post. The New York Times lauded his "exhaustive research techniques" and The Boston Globe talked of Posner's "thorough and hard-edge investigation." "A meticulous and serious researcher," said the New York Daily News.

Posner's first book, Mengele, a 1986 biography of the Nazi "Angel of Death” Josef Mengele, was the result of a pro-bono lawsuit Posner brought on behalf of surviving twins from Auschwitz. Since then he has written ten other books from the Pulitzer Prize-finalist Case Closed, to bestsellers on political assassinations, organized crime, national politics, and 9/11 and terrorism. His upcoming God’s Bankers has spanned nine years of research and received early critical praise.

ohn Martin of ABC News says "Gerald Posner is one of the most resourceful investigators I have encountered in thirty years of journalism." Garry Wills calls Posner "a superb investigative reporter. "Posner, a former Wall Street lawyer, demolishes myths through a meticulous re-examination of the facts," reported the Chicago Tribune. "Meticulous research," Newsday.

Anthony Lewis in The New York Times: "With 'Killing the Dream, he has written a superb book: a model of investigation, meticulous in its discovery and presentation of evidence, unbiased in its exploration of every claim. And it is a wonderfully readable book, as gripping as a first-class detective story."

"What we need is a work of painstakingly honest journalism, a la Case Closed, Gerald Posner's landmark re-examination of the assassination of John F. Kennedy," concluded Joe Sharkey in The New York Times.

Gene Lyons, in Entertainment Weekly: "As thorough and incisive a job of reporting and critical thinking as you will ever read, Case Closed does more than buttress the much beleaguered Warren Commission's conclusion ….More than that, Posner's book is written in a penetrating, lucid style that makes it a joy to read. Even the footnotes, often briskly debunking one or another fanciful or imaginary scenario put forth by the conspiracy theorists, rarely fail to enthrall...Case Closed is a work of genuine patriotism and a monument to the astringent power of reason. 'A'"

Jeffrey Toobin in the Chicago Tribune: "Unlike many of the 2,000 other books that have been written about the Kennedy assassination, Posner's Case Closed is a resolutely sane piece of work. More importantly, 'Case Closed' is utterly convincing in its thesis, which seems, in light of all that has transpired over the past 30 years, almost revolutionary....I started Case Closed as a skeptic - and slightly put off by the presumptuous title. To my mind historical truth is always a slippery thing. The chances of knowing for sure what happened in any event - much less one as murky as the Kennedy assassination - seem remote. But this fascinating and important book won me over. Case closed, indeed."

Based in the mixed realms of politics, history, and true crime, his articles - from The New York Times to The New Yorker to Newsweek, Time and The Daily Beast - have prompted Argentina to open its hidden Nazi files to researchers; raised disturbing questions about clues the FBI missed in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing; sparked a reinvestigation of the Boston Strangler; and exposed Pete Rose's gambling addiction, which led to his ban from baseball.

Posner was one of the youngest attorneys (23) ever hired by Cravath, Swaine & Moore. A Political Science major, Posner was a Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of California at Berkeley (1975), where he was also a national debating champion, winner of the Meiklejohn Award. At Hastings Law School (1978), he was an Honors Graduate and served as the Associate Executive Editor for the Law Review. Of Counsel to Posner & Ferrar

Reviews

[BlackOxford · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can’t Touch Me

Despite its pretensions to the contrary, the Catholic Church is a typical, in fact the prototypical, large-scale corporate organisation: complicated, more than occasionally corrupt, and intensely resistant to reform of any sort. The Vatican is where organisational policy not just religious doctrine is made and enforced.

Sexual scandal makes better press, but it is in finance that the system of ecclesial government is most dramatically out of control. Posner's analysis shows that this condition is neither temporary or superficial but a result of the fundamental ethos of secrecy and the complete absence of even the most basic procedures for ensuring the integrity of accounts or the disposition of resources.

It might be supposed that the centralised power of the papacy would be sufficient to impose reform, at least within its direct reach inside the Vatican walls. Alas, dictatorship of any variety, including the religious, has some strange politics. Virtually any financial crime can be justified by anyone in the clerical hierarchy on the basis of protecting Mother Church's wealth, reputation, or the hierarchy itself.

It turns out that there is little agreement about the true economic interests of the Church not just among senior officials but within the bowels of the organisation. Consequently any attempt to implement procedures or controls on the movement of money, or even the recording of where it might be, is resisted as a matter of conscience and principle.

What Posner shows without explicit statement is that for at least the last two centuries, it has been in no one's interest to fix the situation. Large-scale money-laundering, currency manipulation, fraud by Individual clerics and their secular accomplices are all functional traits of an organisation intent on avoiding any external influences whatsoever.

In short, laxity in matters financial means freedom of action. The situation is not accidental or even incidental; it is purposeful and reflects what is really desired by the folk in charge. Although some token changes have been made - the employment of professional non-clerical managers, the belated association with international financial control organisations, the partial adoption of audited accounts - these are unlikely to have any lasting effect within an organisation that considers itself, as a matter of religious doctrine, to be beyond all rules.

[David Eppenstein · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read a good book about the Church or its history in some time. When I saw this book in the store I picked it up hoping it would be better than the last couple I've read. I wasn't expecting much because, let's face it, can a book about finances be all that engaging? In truth, it does deal a lot with banking transactions and financial matters but the technical stuff can be glossed over. If I have a complaint it is the book's length, just over 500 pages and then copious notes and a bibliography. It appears that the author has invested a great deal of time and labor in this book. The material is clearly exhaustively researched and investigated. I feel the author was handicapped by knowing his material too well and finding it difficult to impossible to leave anything out. Had this book been edited more thoroughly and objectively it could have read like a contemporary thriller because all the elements are there. However, I read Church history safely from the distance of the present because I find it's hypocrisy, violence, arrogance, and ignorance laughably entertaining. I have come to believe that God must be protecting this institution because its operation has been so inept and on the wrong side of virtually every issue of Western history and development that its survival is truly miraculous. Well after reading this book I wasn't laughing. This book made me ashamed of the Church I was raised in. While the book is ostensibly about the Church bank and its financial dealings the author takes several generous detours into Church history and current events. These detours probably weren't necessary and did contribute to its excessive length but they were certainly informative and enlightening. I knew about the lunacy of Pius IX and later about the "Prisoner of the Vatican" and the deal with Mussolini. What was upsetting to learn was the Church's modern history. It would appear the hierarchy of the Church has learned nothing from its own history. It persists in its stupidity, arrogance, and ignorance and hides behind an opaque veil of secrecy "to protect the Church". The Church needs no protection. The protection is for the benefit of the MEN entrusted with administering the Church. To learn of Pius XII's war time silence makes him a moral coward in my book. That he is being considered for sainthood I find appalling. John Paul II, as well liked as he was, comes off rather tarnished as well. Benedict, surprisingly, is revealed as an uninvolved incompetent. John XXIII gets good marks but Francis is hopefully proving to be the saving grace of the modern Church. That the banking activity described in this book along with the people involved took place under aegis of the Church, the contemporary Church, is hard to believe. It's hard to believe even knowing how corrupt and vile a history this revered institution has. The author is cautiously optimistic that in light of Pope Francis' actions that events detailed in this book will become just another part of the Church's sordid history and maybe future readers will be able to chuckle about.

[David V. · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took a while to read this book. I'd received it as an ARC from the publisher. It's 700 pages, has footnotes on many pages, and the last 175 pages are more notes. Thoroughly researched book about the power and money struggles within the Vatican. This will blow some minds when it's released in February 2015. Inept and/or naive leadership; money laundering(including Mafia funds); people in power positions who have no knowledge or experience in what they're supposed to be doing; ignoring advice from those who do know; backbiting; arrests; hiding Nazi gold which was stolen from Jewish Holocaust victims; stealing insurance payments that were supposed to go to Holocaust survivors; hundreds of sexual abuse cases by priests that were hidden for years; murder mysteries, and yet the prestige remains.Holy and moral? Hardly.

I would have liked to see drawings, portraits, photos, etc of the different Popes mentioned. It would have helped to identify them.

[Marta SSX · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,6⭐
Demorou a concluir a leitura deste livro, mas já está!!
Estas quatro estrelas fraquinhas devem-se ao facto de ser um livro com um conteúdo muito pormenorizado tornando -se, em certos capítulos, enfadonho e, por vezes, confuso, devido a tantos pormenores, e muitas pessoas e entidades citadas. Às páginas tantas, já andamos perdidos... Por mim, o livro poderia ter menos 100 páginas, não se perderia nada e ficava muito mais claro, objetivo conciso. Não obstante, é uma leitura interessante, e muito esclarecedora sobre os meandros da instituição religiosa mais poderosa do mundo e o seu enriquecimento vergonhoso, pervertido, infausto e recesso.
Fiquei a conhecer alguns factos que me elucidaram sobre a vida mundana, criminosa, ilícita de muitos indivíduos da classe eclesiástica.
O autor narra o envolvimento político e financeiro de muitos senhores da igreja desde o Papa Pio XII até ao atual Papa.
Até a polémica relativa ao santuário de Fátima e ao suposto ouro nazi armazenado, o autor abordou.
Aprendi muito, mas como já referi achei o livro demasiado exaustivo.

[Amber · Rating 3 out of 5]

RAGE, rage against the dying of the light...

I'm convinced that's the only thing a sane person can feel toward the Catholic church after reading this book. Regardless of how you feel about God, one thing is abundantly clear: God is not in charge of this organization. Men are. Corrupt, conceited, self-centered, greedy, narrow-minded, short-sighted, cowardly men no better than anyone else on this green planet, and often a lot worse than some. If these douchebags have really been doing God's will for the last 150 years, I want no part of their God. Thanks solely to this book, I had to add a new "merit" shelf to my bookshelves: "made me rage."

The first third of the book focuses heavily on the Vatican's role in allowing the Holocaust to happen, and allowing the Nazis to escape with their plunder when it was all over. While Posner makes it clear no one could ever prove the Vatican was laundering stolen Nazi money or smuggling Nazis out of Europe after the war, the circumstantial evidence leaves little room for doubt.

I don't think I've vread any book about the Holocaust, as horrible as it was, that literally made me cry tears of anguished fury. Most books about the Holocaust put you in the middle of the horror, and something in me withdraws as a matter of emotional protection. And they highlight the seeming inability of anyone to stop it, which promotes a feeling of helplessness that leads to a grim, dry-eyed hollowness.

But Pope Pius XII's repeated indifference and silence as millions of Jews were slaughtered and the proof was offered to him, and his repeated refusal to even directly mention it, let alone openly condemn the humanitarian cataclysm that was unfolding, in the face of repeated pleas, even as thousands of Jews were being marched past the Vatican literally in sight of his balcony, just opened my floodgates. He was more concerned about the damage a bombing raid did to a couple of buildings.

Pius had perhaps more power than any other single person on Earth to use his voice as a tool to mitigate or influence what was going on, and he refused to use it - not just once, but over and over. The fact that he, a man who held himself out as God's chosen representative on Earth, as a leading moral authority in the world, HAD the power to make a difference and refused... I think THAT's what made me literally sick to my stomach and made me weep with grief and frustrated fury. Don't even get me started on the laundering of stolen Nazi war plunder and the smuggling of Nazi fugitives out of Europe. It makes me wish I believed in Hell so I could picture those pieces of shit roasting in it right alongside their Nazi pals.

Remember that infamous shot of George W. Bush reading to schoolchildren on 9/11, that was circulated as evidence of his cluelessness and indifference? He's got nothing on Pius. During WWII, while he knew perfectly well what was going on, Pius XII devoted more energy to making a documentary about himself than to saving a single Jewish life or lifting a finger to mitigate Nazi atrocities against Jews. Yes, this is considerably different than the mainstream histories which paint Pius as a white knight. That's why they call it an expose.

You might ask, “But Switzerland also didn't take sides during the war or condemn the Holocaust. And Switzerland was also suspected of being a major center for laundering Nazi war plunder. Why no equivalent rage at Switzerland?” The answer is two-fold: (a) Switzerland doesn't hold itself out as the world's ultimate moral authority and keeper of God's will, and (b) when the time came to talk about reparations to the Jewish people for its role in laundering looted Jewish wealth, Switzerland eventually came (though dragged kicking and screaming) to the settlement table. The Vatican never relented and has not apologized nor paid a cent in Jewish reparations to this day.

But this is not a book that's just about WWII and the Holocaust. It covers the financial and political aspects of the Church's history from the late 19th century up to 2014, and virtually none of it makes the church look very good. Posner doesn't openly editorialize much – he doesn't have to. The facts alone are enough to leave you with a bad taste in your mouth.

Here's a quick rundown:

Part 1: How the church lost most of its papal estates in the late 19th century and had to learn to make money from money instead of making it from property. They despised Jews for making money and considered the pursuit of money immoral, but decided that having money is nicer than having the moral high ground.

Part 2: How the church sat back and watched Hitler slaughter millions of Jews and not only did nothing, but actively and repeatedly resisted pleas from numerous nations to speak out against the genocide as a moral authority. Oh, and no one can definitively prove it, due in no small part to the Vatican's 70 years of stonewalling, but the Vatican probably also laundered millions of dollars of Nazi war plunder, smuggled Nazi fugitives out of Europe after the war, and sheltered them in South America.

Part 3: How the church transformed itself in the postwar era into a global financial and corporate powerhouse, with investments in businesses so diverse they included casinos and porn publishers, answerable to no one, using a complex maze of shell corporations to escape regulation and taxation, as well as public scrutiny. During this 30-year period, the Vatican bank got itself embroiled in numerous financial scandals, some so sordid they inspired a subplot in The Godfather III. The troubles culminated in criminal charges in the early 1980s against the American archbishop, Paul Marcinkus, who had run the Vatican bank during most of this time, and left the Vatican in massive debt and with its worldwide reputation in tatters. Although the archbishop escaped conviction thanks to jurisdictional problems created by the Vatican's status as a sovereign state, several non-clergy bankers ended up serving long prison sentences... or dead. At best, it's a tale of incompetence, recklessness, and lack of oversight, and the alternative interpretations are worse. The best that can be said is that there's no indication any Pope was ever directly implicated... the worst they were guilty of was zero oversight and not taking an interest. The Vatican did end up paying a $244 million settlement because of this mess... which is $244 million more than the Jews got.

Part 4: How the church attempted to reform its financial life, but strangely still thought it was a good idea to continue making deals it had to keep secret because the participants knew they would create enormous scandals if they ever became public. Did they learn nothing from their troubles?

Part 5: How the church again came under fire for its role in the Holocaust in the 1990s, and specifically whether its millions included Nazi gold stolen from Holocaust victims. The church continued its traditional policy of silence, secrecy, deflection, denial, stonewalling, lying, and to this day it has never softened. It beat litigation in the United States on jurisdictional grounds.

Part 6: How, just when they thought they had beaten the Nazi gold rap, and could get back to work on repairing its world reputation, the Vatican got sidetracked by a little thing called the child sex abuse scandal, and again deployed its favorite weapons: silence, secrecy, deflection, denial, stonewalling, lying, jurisdiction. Rather than taking financial responsibility, the Vatican quickly restructured its organization to make sure it couldn't be held directly liable for the acts of individual priests – only their local diocese could, and a number of American dioceses went bankrupt in the resulting flood of litigation.

Part 7: How Pope Francis, a Jesuit and the Church's first-ever South American pope, came along in 2013 and gave the church a much-needed PR shot in the arm. He managed to brilliantly build a reputation as a liberal reformer without actually reforming any substantive church doctrine. However, Francis showed (or shows?) some hope of being a genuine and vigorous financial reformer and at press time, was rapidly moving the Vatican bank toward compliance with EU financial laws that may allow the Vatican to eventually shed its dark reputation as a tax and money laundering haven.

[Baal Of · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an exhaustively researched, and exhausting book, covering the history of the Vatican bank. The amount money-laundering, fraud, and criminal activity performed by the Catholic Church is overwhelming, and I find it amazing that anyone has the gall to defend this corrupt criminal organization anymore. Posner is an insider, as a practicing Catholic, so it's difficult to entertain the claims that this book was written as an attack, and yet, by presenting the facts, with 200 pages of bibliographic notes and references, he reveals a thoroughly disgusting organization that responds to criticism with denial, silence, or cries about persecution. The most recent pope, Francis, has actually recognized the problem, and has made strides to correct a lot of problems because as Posner says, "he knows the damage that has been done to the credibility of the church." I was impressed that he also addressed the fact that Francis has a reputation of being a great reformer, but that in actual fact "he never promised to make any substantive reforms or alter long-established doctrine."
It appears that at least as far as financial behavior is concerned, the church has been drug, kicking and screaming, into the modern age, after being black-listed by the EU, and having numerous lawsuits and criminal charges brought against it. Maybe some of these changes will stick.
I found this book to be enlightening, but also very tedious, because of the large number of names and dates to keep track of. It's worth reading, but I didn't find it enjoyable.

[Melisende · Rating 3 out of 5]

"God’s Bankers has it all: a rare exposé and an astounding saga marked by poisoned business titans, murdered prosecutors, mysterious deaths of private investigators, and questionable suicides; a carnival of characters from Popes and cardinals, financiers and mobsters, kings and prime ministers ..."

So with that I was eagerly anticipating a journey into the underbelly of Vatican politics and double-dealing from the time of Peter to our current Pope Francis. However, the early years were briefly touched upon until we reach the reign of Gregory XVI (1831 - 1846) when the cash-strapped Church was looking for ways to boost their coffers. Thus, the age of lay-financiers, prelates and shady businessmen begins with the Church taking uncertain steps into the world of investment and money-lending. From the reign of Leo XIII the Vatican Bank steps tentatively onto the world stage whilst headed by a select group of financial outsiders, steering the Bank through revolutionary Italy, the stock-market crash and the creation of the Papal State - the Vatican City. It is in the 20th century that the Vatican Bank takes a rather interesting stance on Germany during the 1930s and 1940s - the Vatican has spread its investments thought Fascist Italy and Germany, and is at odds with itself over preserving financial independence and fighting communism or speaking out against documented atrocities. We then move forward through the years of assisting war criminals to the influx of dubious Italian and Sicilian businessmen into the banking hierarchy, and support for fledgling anti-communist movements worldwide.

This a is lengthy tome - with copious notes. It is not a light read - and the reader may find themselves re-reading past chapters.

[Matt Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The dinosaurs never really went extinct. A lot of them did, but not all of them. Those that survived evolved and you see what became of the dinosaurs every day: birds. Dinosaurs persist because they learned how to fly.

Did you know the Roman Empire still exists today? Not as Italy. Italy is too wholly its own different thing to be considered Rome's evolutionary descendent. So too, the Holy Roman Empire essentially just became a proto-Germany rather than Rome's actual offspring. And the Byzantine Empire is more like Rome's weird half-brother who hung around for a really long time while eventually dying out (more or less) because of the Turks.

No. The Roman Empire, that great political entity that marks the end of what's known as the Ancient Period of Western Civilization, burned out just a few centuries into the A.D. (or C.E. as they're trying to call it and teach students in classes now), birthing the Dark Ages and Medieval culture, replaced by the largest religious institution the world has ever known: The Roman Catholic Church (more colloquially: The Catholic Church).

This book, God's Bankers, being about the banking system of the Catholic Church and The Vatican, is one that immediately captured my attention. I'm not Catholic. I've never been Catholic. I will almost assuredly never BE Catholic. And yet I've always been utterly fascinated by the Catholic Church. Hell, the first thing I ever wrote as a writer involved The Catholic Church and The Pope (and may it one day see the light of day). It's cropped up in more of my writing than I've actually intended, and part of that is because it's such a regimented, caste-based religious institution, which, as an idea, is so foreign to me and the sects of Christianity I was exposed to as a child.

Up front, let me say that this book is in no way about Catholic dogma or the religious beliefs of the Catholic Church. It's exclusively interested in the banking system of the Vatican and the forces within (and without) the Vatican that feeds into that particular institution. It chains everything from the earliest needs of the Vatican for a banking system all the way to the reforms instituted as of mid-2014, taking digressions to explain not only the politics of the elections of various Popes, but also the financial dealings with important Vatican Bank investors like Michele Sidona and Roberto Calvi.

Posner (who I was unfamiliar with before this book) is a really, really talented writer who did an ungodly amount of research on this topic (the back 200+ pages of this book are all notes and bibliography that he collected over the ten years of research he invested. It's staggering, impressive, and he does an excellent job of condensing that information into easy-enough-to-understand concepts. Sure, there's points at which I got completely lost about the ins and out of who was investing what where, but that's to be expected in a book about banking and it was the sorta thing I just had to roll with. In that, the actual banking intricacies of this book were a struggle and mighty dense and difficult to get through.

The saving grace of this book? How utterly batsh*t insane the Vatican could be when it comes to their banking system (and other things) over the past 150 years. You have things like active bank accounts in the names of dead Cardinals, money laundering that makes Swiss Banks look clean, and completely insane connections and dealings with both laundering money for the Italian Mafia and spiriting away bonafide Nazis to South America by liquidating actual Nazi gold. Watching this institution descend into unbelievable corruption and criminal activity is jaw-dropping to say the least. To watch The Vatican respond to scandals by saying "this is slander" and "we are a soverign nation" is outlandish to the point where it's comical that they don't have any defense or anything to say when they get caught (and my god do they get caught what seems like hundreds of times over their morally questionable banking system).

All of those bits were things I ate up with a spoon. They were delicious in a way I hadn't even dreamed when I started, and if you knew all of the things I shared with anyone who was around me when I was reading it they would tell you the same. So honestly, if this book sounds like something you are interested in you should absolutely read it and see just how amazing this system is. Know that at a certain point it becomes almost impossible to keep track of all the names and acronyms participating in scandal after scandal after scandal, but man. Watching the dirty dealings of what is supposed to be the moral authority on planet earth deal with issues this almost completely unbelievable? Man, this was so much everything I wanted.

Oh, and everything the Church has ever done or said about the Holocaust and Anti-Semitism is unbelievable. I read this book, I still can't believe it. And how they handled the "Wow the Jews were robbed blind during the Holocaust and now they want some of those possessions (among other things gold, that was turned into Nazi Gold) paid back as reparations for, you know, mass theft and attempted genocide, is stupefying in its audacity. Truly, there's stuff in this book you have to read to believe. It will make your blood boil, but it will make you really consider the mentality of what it must be like to think you're Rome in a world where that left Rome behind almost 2,000 years ago.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

God's Banker's: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican - by Gerald Posner, is an expose style history book, which closely examines the sovereign Vatican City's history within the international banking and financial systems. Beginning in the mid-19th century, the Vatican's attitude toward money, and the Catholic taboo against interest bearing loans. begins to unravel as the Vatican City loses territory to Italian nationalists, and is relegated to a small city state, first encompassing the City of Rome, and then just a small portion of it. This lost the Vatican its agricultural revenue, much of its land taxes and its resource base, and forced it to shift focus, gaining money from donations, church levees, and finally, international finance. The Vatican became an important centre of commerce during WWII, as its neutral status guaranteed it financial flexibility to play both the axis and allied financial systems to its benefit. The expose continues into modern time, addressing bank bailouts, mafia ties and more.

Frankly, I thought this was a poor example of what could have been an excellent book. The financial shenanigans that took place in Rome throughout history have always been fascinating, and central to much of world finance and history. Even the accusations that the Vatican funneled Nazi loot and Jewish plunder from the concentration camps is fascinating and horrifying. Posner, however, does not necessarily do this justice. He focuses more on the tabloid expose, rather than hard facts. He narrows in on coincidence to try and correlate events. He even has an entire chapter devoted to the name Nogora, who was the Vatican City's central banker of sorts, and who brilliantly funneled money from place to place during the war. Allied Intelligence Services listed a man under that name as a Nazi spy, but the author speculates, was it the same man? Was it a different man? And then goes on the insinuate even though he has little or no evidence either way. This was about the point where I decided I would stop reading.

The book has its positives, to be sure. It is interesting to examine the banking structure of a City State, as there are few left in the world. and one as historically important as the Vatican will always be interesting. This book, however, offers only a tantalizing glimpse into the internal finances and international clout of the Holy See, instead, filling the tome with insinuations on Nazi and Mafia connections which may or may not be true.

The author does not skimp on sources, and the book itself is refreshingly well sourced. Every other statement is sourced to completion, and the back source list is organized by chapter, making fact checking a breeze.

As you can probably see, this was a bit of a disappointment for me. It is interesting and well sourced, but the insinuations, guess work, and expose style writing leave a lot to be desired from a book supposedly about the Vatican City's historical financial and monetary policy. Instead it is a journalistic style book looking to drive home an accusatory point, not a professionally written historical analysis or financial outlook, which could have offered much more concrete evidence to the authors insinuations. Interesting material, poor delivery, I would not recommend this book.

[Justin Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great "non-fiction" book, in the sense that it's gripping and racy, but not particularly good history (it's a chronicle, a recording of facts, rather than an understanding of them) nor a good book. This latter is the thing's main problem: the subtitle was clearly an afterthought, and Posner has just thrown in everything he researched, rather than finding the excellent core of the book (i.e., the story of the Vatican Bank) and sticking to that. So you have to read a bunch of stuff about late 19th century popes, which is dull, and the early 2th century popes, which isn't particularly interesting, and then about Pius XII, which horse has been beaten to death, and only then do we really get to the good stuff--over a hundred pages in. Take my word for it, you can just start reading at the founding of the IOR.

After that, it's mostly great stuff, with the caveat that he really does stick a whole bunch of stuff in there. It's not clear to me why the child-abuse stuff is in there, even allowing for the "and power" part of the subtitle; not clear why the papal elections stuff is in there (though that's a bit fresher, at least).

So, basically, there's 300 pages of roaring, roiling idiocy and corruption, and the odd attempt to reel it all in. Fun fact: the popes the most likely to try to deal with corruption are those who are the least publicly popular (so, not John XXIII, not JPII), up until Francis, who might just be pulling off the double act.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a depressing book; over 500 detailed pages of Vatican crimes in an unrelenting list. It is the story of money laundering, murder, suicide and pedophilia. It reads like a history of the Mafia; kidnappings, murders, suicides and suitcases of cash in hidden accounts. Posner followed the Vatican banks as they laundered Nazi booty extracted from Jews and used to protect Nazi criminals fleeing Germany after the war. A series of pacts, signed by Hitler, extracted taxes from Catholic churches and guaranteed the Vatican's silence regarding the Holocaust. It also funneled “blood money” from Nazi victims into secret accounts. The Popes hid behind their status as an independent state until the unrelenting number of lawsuits and scandals forced the pope to resign. Their desire to keep the bank open and be recognized as a legitimate bank forced the latest pope to try to improve transparency. It remains to be seen if the Vatican can join the modern world. It is still a world of men where homophobia is the policy as the ignore the rampant homosexuality that exists.

[Lulu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mafias in cloaks.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

God's Bankers incorporates a history of the financial dealings of the Catholic Church through the ages and the murder of a lay banker for the Church in 1982. It discusses corruption and the quest for power.

[Shaun · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a slog!

This book starts out promising - a successful banker, with significant ties to the Vatican, hanging dead under a bridge. Suicide or murder? Who knows!

From there, unfortunately, we dive into an uninspired recounting of some of the important moments in the history of the Catholic Church, with a stop-and-go focus on its banking issues. I think the problem the author encountered was a lack of material. The history of the Catholic Church is staggeringly long, but there did not seem to be banking-only material to fill those vast swaths of emptiness. And what did fill them was often tedious and repetitious: 1. The Church was behind the times; 2. Some people wanted to bring the Church up to modern speed; 3. Those people faced resistance from traditionalists; 4. Reform did occur, but slowly.

To be sure, there are interesting moments. Clearly the Vatican bank was a profitable place to launder money for some unsavory Italian fellows, and clearly there were lots of corrupt insiders who sought to personally benefit from a lack of oversight. But the author either lacked the information or the authorial talent to give either of these potentially steamy issues any pop or pizzazz. Instead, what we get is a largely just a series of descriptions of events and people (most of whom have Italian names that, admittedly, I had a very hard keeping track of) without much depth or personality. Only the various Popes stood out as having interesting, conflicted personalities. The Popes' underlings were interchangeable and (in a book covering as much history as this did) fleeting.

The other issue I had was that the focus jumped around so much. The book spends huge amounts of time on the priest sex scandals in the 90s and 2000s as well as the Church's engagement during WW2. Both of these are interesting, and the latter did have some interaction with its financial dealings (especially inasmuch as the Church may have taken in Nazi money), but these tangents seemed more like the author's port in a storm of boringness. If you can't write an engaging book about the history of Vatican banking, perhaps you shouldn't try to write a book about the history of Vatican banking?

I think the author would have been better served narrowing his focus. It is obviously possible to write excellent books about banking (Smartest Guys in the Room, Rise and Fall of LTCM, All the Devils Are Here, just to name a few). But these books focused on individual crises and the personalities of the key individuals surrounding them. You actually got to know the various CEOs and the other players. Perhaps the author could not locate a key pivotal moment that would be worth diving into. But even a series of more focused vignettes might have been better.

Anyway, nice idea, so-so execution, probably only recommended for individuals with an especial interest in this topic.

[Bert Forsythe · Rating 2 out of 5]

This just wasn't the book I expected to read. You won't understand the moment of the book (Francis' modernization - though is this about murder? atonement for ww2 and mafia connections?? exposing the burden of modern financial regulation???) until the last chapter and the last two of 513 pages.

From the author's interview with Steven Colbert, I thought this book would go deep in history and keep a focus on the money and a sort of financial intrigue. Like one of the 5 post-crisis hardbacks of former bankers or NYT journalists that are trending at any given point since then. Instead, its theme scandal, with occasional loose ties to a secretive institution that from what I gather was the church's investment bank.

God's Bankers felt too much like a data dump written in the form of a law review article (if you've ever had the pleasure). Informative despite its punishing style, I'd recommend only to the most patient and interested of readers.

[Russell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although well reasearched and written, this book is not fast paced, nor about God's Banker. It contains some pages on the actual financing done by the Vatican, and 600 pages that you could find in other books about the Vatican. It goes through all of the Popes, how they were elected, their personal habbits, reforms, the growth of catholic religion in Italy, Europe and America, WWI and WWII, the holocaust and almost tries to avoid talking about financing.
I had hoped to find a book full of intrigue and back alley finances and instead found a very long history lesson. The history was interesting and if that is what you are looking for you have found it. But the finance part that the title and summary suggests is sparse. Some information on hidden gold and possible Nazi ties, but I just wish it had been 400 pages shorter.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

It just wasn't good. There was an incredible amount of information but not all of it was particularly relevant and there was almost no analysis of that information. I still don't have the greatest understanding of the Vatican Bank even though I slogged through almost 800 pages of this tome.
He seems to be more interested in scandals than a thorough review of the Vatican Bank. And listen. I am a gay atheist so it is not like I am at all vested in the catholic church but can we deal with the vatican bank and leave all the other tangents for another time?

[Nabilah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensively researched, this understandably thick book will open to your eyes to the criminal activities of the Vatican. Religions indeed cannot be separated from money and power because the longevity of a religion lies less on the ideology and more on the ability of the religion to manage and grow its resources.

[Nigel Watchel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has changed my dislike of the RC church to abhorrence and disgust. They were complicit in the Holocaust, money laundering for various criminal gangs and the continued coverup of pedophile priests and have yet to make meaningful progress in fixing these issues.

[Sw · Rating 1 out of 5]

Great topic, but this book is unreadable. It's a 600-page long newspaper article that does not take a single breath for perspective or commentary. What a shame!

[K. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Trigger warnings: death, war, Holocaust, genocide, violence, murder, suicide, theft, child sexual abuse, embezzlement??

I only picked this up because I'm doing a Read Around the World challenge and I needed something for Vatican City. This fit the bill. Under normal circumstances, there is NO way in Hell I'd read a book about a history of finance because that's the opposite of what I'm interested in.

That being said, this was pretty interesting. I'd never really thought about the Vatican having a bank and the purposes for which said bank could be used. So that side of things was a thinker. But going into this, I anticipated that it would be a history of the Vatican's money stuff from, like, centuries ago. And instead, it's essentially the 20th century. And while there was a LOT going on financially for the Vatican during the 20th century, I would have been interested to read about all the money the Church acquired during, say, the 16th century during the Age of Sail when ships were bringing luxury goods to Europe from all the new places Europeans were "discovering".

Anyway. It did give me an interesting overview of the Vatican's political role throughout the 20th century and the process of electing a new pope. But as an Australian, I flinched every time George Pell was mentioned and I honestly wanted more about the revelations around child sex abuse at the hands of priests than was included. I understand why there wasn't more depth (it's somewhat off topic) and why it wasn't more victim focused. But it still would have been an interesting inclusion.

So yeah. Ultimately? Interesting, but not compelling reading.

[Gabriella · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting tale, as I am always curious to learn about stuff I don't know very much about! However, the lack of information regarding the current pope was a little disappointing to me. I understand that this book was completed only shortly after his crowning, I can understand why there isn't much info. Solid read!

[Hania · Rating 3 out of 5]

some real juicy stuff mentioned so overall glad I read it

[Zoltan Pogatsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating. Whether you are religious, or not, you have to read this about the Vatican. It is not a critique of religion, not even the Pope, just a simple objective description of all the economic machination that takes place in the background. Offshore accounts, maffia, freemasons, murder, bankrupties, scandals, and money, money, money. Once you read this, you will think of the Vatican as something akin to Liechtenstein or Luxemburg.

[Eneida Paulo · Rating 2 out of 5]

A well researched account but mired with minute details that I felt could have done without. Too dry for me.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been curious for years about the Vatican bank. This was a great way to learn about all you're likely to know unless they someday become totally transparent.

Aside from a little back and forth this is a sweeping chronological history of finances at the Vatican.

For hundreds of years there wasn't actually a bank, just a massive bureaucracy of money handling.

The issue of indulgences is reviewed briefly.

The real meat of this book doesn't begin until the 20th century due to the fact that the Vatican had never even done an internal financial audit until the 1920's. That undertaking took 6 years and the result was that they were essentially broke.

Now my one complaint with this book would be that it is too long and includes too many details that could have been left as footnotes, only there are already copious footnotes as well as over a hundred extra pages of notes at the end. So, I got accustomed to skimming through various sections that seemed to get bogged down. I commend Mr. Posner on his research but a condensed version would go a long way in making this more accessible.

It is after the Vatican's audit that they decide to get serious about their finances and open their own bank. That's when things get serious and then, of course, WWII happens.

It is interesting to see the Vatican's ambivalence about the war. They don't care for the fascists but to them communism is the least acceptable form of government even though it might be closest to the state of governance advised by Jesus. Every person looking out for their comrades as other persons. The Vatican sides with Mussolini and eventually Hitler.

For comparison, the Vatican views US capitalism as an abhorrent abomination.

Most interesting, considering that the US has been, by far the most lucrative "market" of believers for them for the last century.

WWII and beyond have been very lucrative for the Vatican as they abuse their sovereignty.

The book goes into great depth regarding Vatican ties to the Mafia, offshore accounts, shell companies, and the slow process of bringing these things into the light.

Read this and then learn about fractional reserve banking and the CAFR reports.

Humans may one day be free. Or...

[Chris P · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best and most exciting history book on the Vatican and its finances this reader has ever read, written in a contemporary fashion including plenty of new information that has not been disclosed before. In the Preface, Gerald Posner clearly lays out what he intends to do and executes. Despite being 702 pages long including the Notes but excluding the Index, this reader was never bored with the narrative as other history books can drag and when authors color the narrative with their inferences, values, and prejudices. Posner is a master storyteller and his superior clear and direct writing style (he is an attorney after all) moves the story along at a brisk pace keeping this reader in rapt attention right to the end. Posner lets the reader decide what is and isn't important and make their own judgement on the facts and story he reveals. So few authors can do this and it is refreshing and so appreciated by this reader. The footnotes and end notes also uncover very interesting tidbits and amazing stories within stories. Many chapters were jaw dropping surprising. Upon completing the book, this reader came away with a feeling of "WOW!" God's Bankers deserves the Pulitzer Prize!

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers a vast time period. The book at times reads very quickly, the first 60 pages are like a spy thriller, and the last 100 pages covering Popes Benedict and Francis, go quickly. The Vatican Bank is a very complex entity sometimes run by men who were knowledgeable about finance, and may have been politically indifferent, at other times woefully unprepared men were in well over their heads coupled with outsized egos. Various Popes, in some cases had no interest in finance and were surrounded by yes men were not equipped ethically to reign the bank in, and others just flat out had their own agendas. The Vatican's role in sheltering of Nazi's and their gold is unforgivable and unconscionable. A side note, anyone living in Chicago in the 50-70's will find Cardinal Cody and Mackinus roles although, highly questionable, very engaging in a true Chicago manner of "how to get things done".

On a positive note, Pope Francis seems to have cleaned up the bank, with the help of a former Liechtenstein intelligence man.

If you are engaged by in-depth financial reports, currency, Vatican secrecy and strategy this is an informative book. If you are looking for a non-fiction Dan Brown type account of Vatican finances you may find this a bit slow going.

[Jacob Stutsman · Rating 3 out of 5]

God's Bankers is a sprawling epic by virtue of its subject alone. Over the course of 500 pages, Posner seems to trace every last tangential thread of Vatican scandal over the past 150 years, financial or otherwise. There's no doubt a lot of ground to cover (at least 12 popes, plus dozens of cardinals, financiers, and businessmen, are mentioned here), but at some point, it all becomes a bit too much. It starts to feel like just "one thing after another," which undercuts the potency of the storytelling. For example, Posner opens up with an evocative scene of a suicide (or potential murder), but when the moment finally arrives hundreds of pages later, it's quickly glossed over. A more focused story of the Vatican's central bank might have been appreciated. Still, simply by presenting the facts, Posner lays bare the corruption that has endured at the heart of the Vatican's finances for decades. In that sense, it's a valuable book.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author Gerald Posner tackles the one thing murkier than the Vatican: The Vatican Bank.

In short, he lifts a lid on one an institution shrouded in mystery and intrigue. He spins a real-life action drama than includes a whole host of other entities.

If you like thrillers, you are sure to love this book.