Mother Teresa had millions in Vatican accounts, says Italian journalist in new book

An Italian journalist has alleged that Mother Teresa amassed millions in US dollars and Italian currency in secret Vatican accounts, the Daily Beast reported.

In his latest book titled Original Sin, journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi says he found accounting slips from secret accounts which Mother Teresa kept in her charity’s name in the Vatican bank.

The Daily Beast report quoted Nuzzi as saying that the accounts had so much money that the Vatican bank would have gone under if she withdrew or moved her accounts to another banking institution.

Nuzzi said Mother Teresa was such an important account holder that she was ushered in through a secret door “so that no one suspected she was the bank’s wealthiest patron”, the report said. Mother Teresa was sainted by Pope Francis in 2016.

The report said the book also deals with the short-lived papacy of Pope John Paul I, whose term was slightly more than a month. Nuzzi claims the theory that John Paul I was murdered was wrong and that he “succumbed to the weight of the corruption and criminality”, according to the report.

The journalist says the Vatican is still under the shadowy network of administrators, who, he says, forced Pope Benedict VI to retire and blocked several reform proposals of Pope Francis.

The rest of the book deals with crimes by clerics against children and young initiates and links with the Mafia.