Intrigue of the Vatican led me here.

	I would give you a long, telling intro into what spurred me into researching the Vatican, but, I'd rather not bore you.  Let's just say that, as a Christian, it is hard for me to consider the Vatican a credible source for information, given that they have proven themselves as untrustworthy as any evil corporation, greedy Wall Street firm, or corrupt government.  I claim Christ as my savior, and my faith will not tremble, but, I do believe the Vatican to be working AGAINST Christ, and NOT for Him.

      In the child-sex abuse scandal that rocked the religion, they have proven themselves, in almost every instance, to be working against Christ, by acting in a way opposite of the Bible's teachings.

      In finances, their is a lengthy history of shady practices and coverups.

      In military, there was the Crusades.

      Their wealth is stronger than the top 5 Corporations of the United States.  They own real estate in almost every neighborhood in Europe and America.
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      The headline on March 9, 2012's Daily Mail (UK) reads: Vatican City could be hub for money laundering, says U.S.

          Naturally, this caught my eye.

          Here's a short list of research I've compiled.

          From the article mentioned above, here's a snippet:

          Drug enforcement chiefs have for the first time identified the Vatican as a possible centre for money laundering from criminal activity.

          The report by the American State Department's International Narcotics Control Strategy lists the Holy See as one of 68 countries including Yemen, Algeria and North Korea, describing it as a 'country of concern' for money laundering or other financial crimes.

          The news comes just weeks after a series of leaked documents from within the Vatican and which were dubbed 'Vatileaks', revealed allegations of corruption and money laundering within the Holy See and which forced officials into issuing a series of denials.

          The documents said that despite Pope Benedict signing a new anti money laundering law to make it more difficult for illegal funds to be recycled through Vatican accounts, there was a massive loophole which made it impossible to take action against any offense committed before its introduction on 1 April 2011.

          Prosecutors in Rome are currently investigating two transfers totaling 23 million Euros from the Vatican Bank, or the Institute of Religious Works to give it its proper name, to two smaller banks.

      The transactions took place in September 2010 and as a result the head of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi and his chief executive Paolo Cipriani, were placed under official investigation by Rome prosecutors and the 23 million Euro was also seized as part of the investigation.

          Officials were tipped off about the two suspicious transactions by the Bank of Italy, as the Vatican Bank was said to have 'failed to disclose fully' all the information it was supposed to regarding the transactions as per international banking laws.

          Investigators involved in the case said they have met with 'a deafening silence' as they try to get to the bottom of the case, with requests for information being constantly dodged - at the time the Vatican said it was 'perplexed and astonished' at the allegation and gave its full backing to Gotti Tedeschi and Cipriani." ~ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2112159/Vatican-classed-likely-involved-money-laundering-Yemen-Algeria-North-Korea.html

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          From the book THE VATICAN BILLIONS by Avro Manhattan:

          "The Vatican has large investments with the Rothschilds of Britain, France and America, with the Hambros Bank, with the Credit Suisse in London and Zurich. In the United States it has large investments with the Morgan Bank, the Chase-Manhattan Bank, the First National Bank of New York, the Bankers Trust Company, and others. The Vatican has billions of shares in the most powerful international corporations such as Gulf Oil, Shell, General Motors, Bethlehem Steel, General Electric, International Business Machines, T.W.A., etc. At a conservative estimate, these amount to more than 500 million dollars in the U.S.A. alone.

                "In a statement published in connection with a bond prospectus, the Boston archdiocese listed its assets at Six Hundred and Thirty-five Million ($635,891,004), which is 9.9 times its liabilities. This leaves a net worth of Five Hundred and Seventy-one million dollars ($571,704,953). It is not difficult to discover the truly astonishing wealth of the church, once we add the riches of the twenty-eight archdioceses and 122 dioceses of the U.S.A., some of which are even wealthier than that of Boston.

                "Some idea of the real estate and other forms of wealth controlled by the Catholic church may be gathered by the remark of a member of the New York Catholic Conference, namely 'that his church probably ranks second only to the United States Government in total annual purchase.' Another statement, made by a nationally syndicated Catholic priest, perhaps is even more telling. 'The Catholic church,' he said, 'must be the biggest corporation in the United States. We have a branch office in every neighborhood. Our assets and real estate holdings must exceed those of Standard Oil, A.T.&T., and U.S. Steel combined. And our roster of dues-paying members must be second only to the tax rolls of the United States Government.'

                "The Catholic church, once all her assets have been put together, is the most formidable stockbroker in the world. The Vatican, independently of each successive pope, has been increasingly orientated towards the U.S. The Wall Street Journal said that the Vatican's financial deals in the U.S. alone were so big that very often it sold or bought gold in lots of a million or more dollars at one time.

                "The Vatican's treasure of solid gold has been estimated by the United Nations World Magazine to amount to several billion dollars. A large bulk of this is stored in gold ingots with the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, while banks in England and Switzerland hold the rest. But this is just a small portion of the wealth of the Vatican, which in the U.S. alone, is greater than that of the five wealthiest giant corporations of the country. When to that is added all the real estate, property, stocks and shares abroad, then the staggering accumulation of the wealth of the Catholic church becomes so formidable as to defy any rational assessment.

                "The Catholic church is the biggest financial power, wealth accumulator and property owner in existence. She is a greater possessor of material riches than any other single institution, corporation, bank, giant trust, government or state of the whole globe. The pope, as the visible ruler of this immense amassment of wealth, is consequently the richest individual of the twentieth century. No one can realistically assess how much he is worth in terms of billions of dollars."

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		According to this NY Times article from 2006 ( http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/22/business/22marcinkus.html?ei=5088&en=c901b123fdc97274&ex=1298264400&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1151093461-LLC2cSCYRbVVzUkyd51R+w ), it clearly shows how The Vatican Bank is no stranger to shady banking business.

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          “Most [Ed.: i.e., a sizable chunk] of [Ed.: Papal] Rome’s wealth has been acquired through the sale of salvation. Untold billions of dollars have been paid to her by those who thought they were purchasing heaven on the installment plan for themselves or loved ones. The practice continues to this day…There are the further [Ed.: Roman Catholic Church] abominations of corrupt banking practices, laundering of drug money, trading in counterfeit securities, and dealings with the Mafia (fully documented in police and court records), which the Vatican and her representatives around the world have long employed. Nino Lo Bello, former ‘Business Week’ correspondent in Rome and Rome bureau chief for ‘New York Journal of Commerce’, writes that the Vatican is so closely allied with the Mafia in Italy that ‘many people…believe that Sicily…is nothing more than a Vatican holding’.

                      The Roman Catholic Church is by far the WEALTHIEST institution on earth.” – Dave Hunt (“A Woman Rides the Beast”; 1994; Pages 75 and 76)

          http://www.toughissues.org/handoutsnew/Wealthy%20Church.htm

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          And, I won't even quote the last one.  I will simply let you read for yourself.  It's pretty controversial.

          http://jubilee2012.50webs.com