Paul Casimir Marcinkus

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Casimir Marcinkus (born January 15, 1922 in Cicero , Illinois , † February 20, 2006 in Sun City , Arizona ) was an American Catholic archbishop and director of the Vatican Bank from 1971 to 1989.

Life

Marcinkus, the son of Lithuanian immigrants in the USA, grew up in Cicero, a suburb of Chicago . He was ordained a priest in Chicago on May 3, 1947 . Through the mediation of Cardinal Stritch , Marcinkus got a post in the Vatican in 1952 . On June 21, 1963, Pope Paul VI awarded him . the honorary title of Surplus Secret Chamberlain of His Holiness ( Monsignor ) and on December 8, 1964 the title of House Prelate of His Holiness . On December 24, 1968 he was by Paul VI. appointed titular archbishop of Horta and consecrated by him on January 6, 1969; Co-consecrators were the Archbishops of the Curia, Sergio Pignedoli and Ernesto Civardi . Marcinkus was previously Pope Paul VI's bodyguard . been active; During this time he was nicknamed "The Gorilla". In 1970 he and Pasquale Macchi saved the Pope's life in an assassination attempt in the Philippines. From 1971 to 1989 Marcinkus was director of the Istituto per le Opere di Religione , the "Vatican Bank". During this period the Banco Ambrosiano collapsed in 1982, which had close business connections with the Vatican Bank.

Ambrosiano's president, Roberto Calvi , went into hiding, but on June 18, 1982 he was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London , his pockets filled with bricks. That same day, Calvi's secretary, Graziella Corrocher, fell to her death from a window in the bank in Milan . In both cases one spoke of both suicide and murder . The lawyer Michele Sindona , a close friend of Marcinkus and also works for the Ambrosiano, died in prison on March 22, 1986 of cyanide poisoning .

While investigating the irregularities at Banco Ambrosiano, it was found that Calvi and his aides had founded more than 200 "ghost banks", financial institutions that only existed in his books but created a maze of confusion for those who tried to get to the heart of it Conspiracy to advance. One real bank, Cisalpina in the Bahamas , managed by Calvi and Archbishop Marcinkus, was apparently deeply involved in laundering cocaine funds from Latin America with the help of the World Finance Corporation in Miami .

At times Marcinkus could not leave the Vatican because there was an arrest warrant against him. The Vatican Bank paid US $ 241 million as compensation to 120 creditors of the bankrupt private bank - "in recognition of moral participation," as the Holy See announced.

According to press reports, Sabrina Minardi, the ex-lover of Mafia boss Renatino De Pedis, claims that De Pedis kidnapped 15-year-old Emanuela Orlandi in 1983 on behalf of Archbishop Marcinkus.

In 1990 Marcinkus resigned as pro-president of the Pontifical Commission for the State of Vatican City and retired to the city of Sun City , a suburb of Phoenix in the US state of Arizona . He worked there as vicar in the parish of St. Clemens until his death and lived in a house on the edge of a golf course.

The affair was filmed in 2001 under the title I Banchieri Di Dio with Rutger Hauer as Marcinkus.

literature

Non-fiction

  • Heribert Blondiau, Udo Guempel: The Vatican justifies the means. Murder of God's banker . Patmos Verlag, Düsseldorf 1999, ISBN 3-491-72417-1 .
  • John Cornwell : Like a thief in the night. The death of Pope Johannes Paul I. Zsolnay-Verlag, Vienna - Darmstadt 1989, ISBN 3-552-04111-7 .
  • Nino Lo Bello : The Vatican in Twilight. The unholy business of the Papal States . Heyne, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-453-03745-6
  • Nick Tosches: Doing business with the Vatican. The Sindona affair . Droemer Knaur, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-426-03970-2 (original "Power on earth").
  • David A. Yallop : In the name of God? The mysterious death of the 33-day Pope John Paul I; Facts and Background . Rowohlt, Reinbek 2001, ISBN 3-499-61175-9 (original "In God's Name").
  • Gerald Posner : God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican . Simon & Schuster, 2015, ISBN 978-1-4165-7657-0 (English).

Fiction

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Annuario Pontificio per l'anno 1964 , Città del Vaticano 1964, p. 1261.
  2. ↑ Annuario Pontificio per l'anno 1968 , Città del Vaticano 1968, p. 1659.
  3. ^ ORF : God's banker died June 22, 2006
  4. ^ Spiegel.de August 9, 1982: A piece from the madhouse
  5. ↑ spiegel.de March 2, 1987: God and Money
  6. ↑ Dirk Schümer: Is there a second corpse in the gangster grave? , in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of July 3, 2008.
predecessor Office successor
Cardinal Alberto di Jorio President of the Governorate of the Vatican City (executive)
1981–1984 		Cardinal Sebastiano Baggio
personal data
SURNAME Marcinkus, Paul Casimir
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Archbishop and President of the Vatican Bank
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Cicero , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH February 20, 2006
Place of death Sun City , Arizona