Money and the Rise of the Modern Papacy: Financing the Vatican, 1850-1950 (review)

Aside from its diplomatic aspects, much of the history of the modern Papacy remains obscure. Important popes, such as Leo XIII, Pius XI, and Pius XII, still lack scholarly biographies, as do any number of historically key curial personalities such as Cardinals Pietro Gasparri and Mariano Rampolla. Institutional histories are also scarce. For post–1870 curial congregations and offices there has been nothing equivalent to Lajos Pásztor's magisterial La Segreteria di Stato e il suo archivio, 1814–1833. The field of English-language studies is especially sparse. The dearth of reliable scholarship has contributed to a situation where even serious writers discuss the Vatican without understanding how it is organized or how it works. The appearance of this history of modern papal finance is, therefore, especially welcome. The author, a distinguished student of the modern Papacy whose recent biography of Benedict XV ably resuscitated the reputation of an important, though underestimated, figure from the period of World War I, has mined an impressive array of primary and secondary sources to prepare what will stand for some time as the definitive treatment of a complex and contentious subject.

This work accomplishes two goals. The first is to provide a lucid account of the methods used by the Vatican to finance itself in the period 1850–1950. If this book did nothing else it would still make a major contribution to our understanding of the modern Papacy. Papal finances have been a source of endless misunderstanding. Popular fiction and the more polemical forms of history are likely to imagine an immensely wealthy Vatican whose assets make the Papacy a silent (if not actually nefarious) presence in boardrooms and executive offices around the globe. More prudent and informed opinion is no less susceptible to misunderstanding, often swinging to the opposite extreme of positing a Vatican so strapped for funds that it barely holds its head above the financial waters. The author demonstrates that despite occasional blows, such as the collapse in the late 1880's of Rome's building boom in which the Vatican had invested heavily, the popes usually had sufficient resources to fulfill their responsibilities, although at times of international crisis, such as the world wars, those resources were stretched thinly. This careful examination of papal finances produces many useful historical byproducts. The author, for example, refutes the canard that Pope Pius XII's attitude toward the Nazis was influenced by papal financial interests in Germany. The author provides another service by highlighting the crucial contributions of such financial advisors as Enrico Folchi, Ernesto Pacelli, and Bernardino Nogara, personalities who are central to the history of the modern Papacy but who are usually relegated to the margins of that history.

The book's second accomplishment is to illustrate how changes in the Vatican's financial policies impacted the institutional development of the Papacy. The increasing dependence after 1870 on Peter's Pence, for example, contributed to the rise of a papal cult of personality and enhanced the visibility and influence of those churches (particularly the American church) whose size, loyalty, and wealth made them significant contributors. The author is especially convincing in his argument that despite the absence of formal Vatican-State conciliation in the period 1870–1929 papal investments in the Italian economy and the activities of Catholic capitalists created an informal conciliation based upon the common economic interests of the Vatican and the Italian financial elites, interests that required close and constant interaction.

This excellent book treats an important though neglected subject with care and sophistication. It deserves a place on the bookshelf of anyone interested in the history of the Papacy.