"The money was only resting in my account": Former Irish Papal Nuncio

[PaddyJoe]

Muy interesante

THE FORMER papal nuncio to Ireland archbishop Gaetano Alibrandi left Dublin and the Vatican’s diplomatic service in 1989 after it emerged there were large amounts of unaccounted for money in three Irish bank accounts belonging to him.

Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, Mr Donlon said: “It came to our [Department of Foreign Affairs] attention that a substantial amount in three bank accounts in Dublin [held by the archbishop] were way in excess of what was needed to run the nunciature. The source [of the money] appeared to be South America.”

He continued: “Because of its size, we thought it appropriate to ask if the funds belonged to the Holy See.” When contacted for an answer, Dr Alibrandi “quickly answered ‘no’ and that they belonged to ‘family’. When it was pointed out to him that the money was then liable under Irish taxation law to Dirt, he said he would retire shortly and the accounts would be closed”.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...ce=twitterfeed

[Andrew49]

From the late 1960s Fr Bruno Mulvihill. tried to have child abuse by Fr Brendan Smyth addressed through direct contact with two papal nuncios, one bishop, an abbot-general and two abbots. From 1968 onwards he tried to have something done about his colleague.

A letter from him was sent to the bishop of Kilmore, Francis McKiernan, dated November 1st, 1974 - and a copy was sent to then papal nuncio Archbishop Gaetano Alibrandi.. In the letter he disclosed how “ever since 1964 I have known that a member of the community, Fr Brendan Smyth, is misbehaving: he is molesting children who attend bingo sessions. Two of them who are superficially known to me have told me about their troubles.” He “brought this matter to the attention of the abbot but to no avail”.

In March 2010 documents from Garda files produced during a legal action taken by a woman abused by Fr Smyth included the letter sent by Fr Mulvihill on November 1st, 1974, to papal nuncio Alibrandi and a similar letter of the same date to bishop McKiernan. Both dealt with Fr Smyth’s abuse of children.

In a statement to gardaí of June 1995, Fr Mulvihill recalled his attempts to raise his concerns about Fr Smyth with papal nuncio Alibrandi and Bishop McKiernan at a 1974 function in Kilnacrott. Archbishop Alibrandi “was not interested”. Bishop McKiernan “showed no interest”.

[Andrew49]

This is a fascinating story - hopefully McGarry will expand on this.

[Andrew49]

... the former personal secretary of this Montini, Archbishop Alibrandi, as the Papal Nuncio to Ireland from 1969-1989 was very close and supportive of the IRA leadership and was lobbying the Irish government on Ulster politics as early as 1970. Other stories circulate which must have involved the Papal Nuncio in 1970: “Take a look at the Timewatch programme on this shown on BBC2 in 1996. They had witnesses who said the CIA had a meeting with the Provo high command to be and leaders of the Catholic hierarchy in Co. Fermanagh in 1970.“

More curious wikipedia changes by someone in the Vatican include this paragraph on Cardinal Tomas O Fiaich: “The appointment was credited to the Papal Nuncio in Ireland, Archbishop Alibrandi, a controversial figure whom the Fine Gael and Labour National Coalition had already sought to have removed due to his perceived closeness to Irish republicans.” Which was changed to:

“The appointment was credited to the Papal Nuncio in Ireland, Archbishop Gaetano Alibrandi, a noted exponent of political dialogue with all sides and none in the heated Irish poli tico-cul tural context of the 1970s and 1980s. Dr Alibrandi’s efforts were not always appreciated by Garret Fi tzgerald and the less democratically minded elements of the former Irish fascist party, Fine Gael, and Labour.” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...oldid=29793555 )

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[disability student]

I was very surprised when i saw this. However drawing from my experiences in institutions, nuns usually charmed & favoured wealthy parents whose kids were in that school. It was that memory that we saw daily when wealthy parents came to visit their child. They were usually spared from corporal punishment,beatings,toilet regime et al.

When there was a new small building for boarders as it was then especially allocated to boarders, who rarely goes home until winter and summer. These nuns placed that boy from the west of Ireland, whose parents were very wealthy. He regularly goes home as they gave him a place in the new building. It's very clear to us that the nuns even Christian brothers were biased towards them.

It's pure hypocrisy coming from them as papal nuncio's case wasn't surprising in our eyes.

At end of the day, Nuns sold a land bank worth millions in late 90's and they are selling their old residence (not sold yet) for €5.2M.

Have a peek at this land bank:http://www.anthonyreddy.com/projects.../beechpark.htm

http://www.beechwoodcourt.ie/

[disability student]

Thought that it's curious/odd.. was it leaked on purpose to the media prior to Kenny's visit to the Vatican today and yesterday as well?

[Andrew49]

Seems to me that Sean Donlon is up to mischief ... obviously meant to put the Taoiseach on the back foot as he meets with Herr Ratzinger

[C. Flower]

Muy interesante


http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...ce=twitterfeed

Are we sure that it was not "the Family" ?

Given the recent Papal step down, reportedly at least in part in relation to financial corruption and misdoings, I thought it might be interesting to look back at this.