Page 43 of The Medici Return

“I am anything but papabile. There have been but two German popes. But I do have influence with other cardinals. I can be persuasive. Ascolani is trying to neutralize that threat.”

“He knows you would never support him?”

“No question. He does.”

“I’m curious,” Malone said. “Why is a five-hundred-year-old I-owe-you important? What would it matter?”

He motioned with his drink. “That is where the church’s reputation comes into play.If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out ofhis mouth.Numbers 30:2 is quite clear. Could it be dishonored? Sure. But not without consequences.”

“Ascolani knows about the pledge?”

“Oh, yes. I knew Casaburi coming to me would raise questions, and I assumed the head of the Entity would be interested.”

“So you played to the microphones?”

He nodded. “Exactly. And all was fine until Casaburi mentioned that pledge.”

“And you think obtaining it will giveyouleverage?”

“It will definitely give me something to use against Ascolani. Which explains my interest. What is yours? Chas says you are retired and own a rare-book shop in Copenhagen. Why are you here?”

“I’ve been asked to find out what is going on. And a Swiss Guardsman is dead. My job is to sort it all out.”

“This seems a matter for the Vatican, not the United States.”

“Lucky for you we’re nosy.”

He smiled. “Indeed. Lucky for me.”

The whiskey was settling inside him, working its way through his bones. It felt good. Comforting. He was finally tiring. But he could not go to his apartment. It was surely being watched. Stamm had invited him to use the guest room, which was sounding better and better by the moment.

“You know, the first financial manager of church property was St. Lawrence, a deacon of Pope Sixtus II,” he said. “He suffered martyrdom in the third century. Rather than obey an order to reveal the church’s wealth during persecution under Emperor Valerian, he was roasted to death on a gridiron. Before that happened he gathered poor and sick Christians and told the emperor that they were the church’s treasure. Things have really changed.”

Malone just sat there. Listening.

“The Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See, the supreme financial control authority, is forbidden from even looking into the bank’s affairs. How is that possible? It is all up to a committee of cardinals to exercise vigilance over the bank. Highlysensitive information confined to a small number of people who are, I might add, highly unqualified.”

“You sound disgusted.”

“I am. For so long there was an unwritten rule within the bank to keep no documentation. Incredible. As a token of appreciation for that restraint an envelope with cash was attached to any information someone was allowed to see.For your personal charities, a note would say. That meant ‘publish no balance sheets, disclose no assets or liabilities, ask no questions.’ No wonder bankers all over the world wanted to do business with us. The people in the bank are polite, reserved, and taciturn, but criminals nonetheless.”

“That’s a strong statement.”

“Yes, it is. But the truth. The whole place is riddled with corruption. The last thing the Holy See wants is for some medieval pledge to surface that obligates the church to pay hundreds of billions. What baffles me, though, is that the Medicis are gone and have been for a long time. But Casaburi seems quite sure that he is a legitimate Medici heir.”

“Why bring it up if he is not?”

He tipped his glass at Malone. “Exactly. That bluff could be easily called.” And downed the rest of the whiskey.

His life had changed radically over the course of the past twenty-four hours. He was nearly sixty years old, relatively young for a cardinal, part of the so-called new majority that the current pope had cultivated with a calculated handing out of red hats. All of them were good, learned men, which the church desperately needed. But he’d found that many cardinals possessed an escape hatch for their consciences, taking public positions that they did not privately agree with so as to avoid popular criticism.

Not him.

He’d been outspoken on economic reform, openly criticizing the culture of greed in modern capitalism. His stand on gay rights had drawn a lot of attention. How awful for people to be judged solely by their sexual orientation. One particular quote of his had drawn a lot of interest.If a same-sex couple are faithful, care for oneanother, and intend to stay together for life, do we really think God would say, “None of that interests me. I only care about their sexual orientation.”For him everyone was loved by God, as a part of His creation, and no one should be discriminated against. Ever. He had repeatedly questioned why the church could not offer the sacrament of matrimony to everybody, equally.

He’d stayed on the good side of his colleagues with his opposition to abortion and embryonic stem cell research, and his outspokenness against physician-assisted suicide. Though, if the truth be told, he was unsure why any of those were bad. Nothing was black and white. Everything seemed shades of gray.

Doctrine was clear to him. It remained the same, but the church’s understanding of it changed over time. It had to. Times changed. Thoughts changed. Morality changed. But truth never changed, only a greater understanding of it came as we grew older. He was not arrogant enough to think, as some of his fellow cardinals did, that the church owned the truth. No. The truth owned us. It was something we encountered, not something we possessed. So he was not afraid of what was to come.

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