Counting Peter's Pence

Despite its pious title, the Institute for Religious Works in Rome is much less interested in theology than in economics. It is the Vatican's bank for investing the resources of Roman Catholic religious orders and charities from many parts of the world. Set up by Pope Pius XII 27 years ago, the institute manages a sizable portion of the Holy See's vast securities portfolio. Its guiding principle is the maxim that 1,000 lire sown today can reap 10,000 for charity tomorrow.

As the new year began, an American prelate in the Vatican took charge of the institute's affairs. He is Paul Marcinkus, a 47-year-old native of Cicero, Ill., and former special assistant to Pope Paul. In a 2 1/2-hour ceremony in St. Peter's basilica in Rome, a choir chanted and Swiss Papal Guards stood stiffly at attention while Marcinkus prostrated himself at the Pope's feet to be made a bishop. The next morning, the burly Marcinkus, who stands 6 ft. 3 in., star ed his new job as the institute's Secretary of the Administrative Office.

Since the president of the institute, 84-year-old Alberto Cardinal di Jorio, plays only a nominal role, Marcinkus is now a key man in Vatican finances.

The Bishop as Banker. The Holy See, which is as secretive as a Swiss bank in money matters, has never revealed the extent of its temporal wealth. But according to the expert opinion of bankers, economists and others who closely study its affairs, the securities that it owns in many countries are worth more than $2 billion. By best estimates, the Vatican holds 2% of the shares quoted on Italian stock exchanges. It is a stock holder in several Italian banks, including one called the Bank of the Holy Spirit.

It has blocks of stock in insurance firms, steel corporations, a leading tourist organization, the Lancia automobile company and several construction firms. As the largest shareholder in Generale Immobiliare, Italy's largest construction firm, the Vatican helped finance the Rome Hilton and the huge Watergate apartment complex in Washington.

The wealth goes far beyond share holdings. Not counting the churches and other properties owned by dioceses around the world -- which are completely independent of the Vatican's financial control -- the value of the Vatican's real estate holdings runs into billions. The Real Estate Department, which is not headed by Marcinkus, owns apartments in Rome plus land in the hills around the city. It has other properties in Europe, South America and the U.S. A third section in the Vatican's financial structure, the Special Administration Department, has handsomely multiplied the $83 million that Mussolini paid in 1929 under the Lateran Treaty to compensate the church for territorial losses sustained in the unification of Italy.

Papal Advance Man. An unofficial advisory panel of bankers and financiers counsels the Vatican. Among them is Guido Carli, president of the Bank of Italy. By his own admission, Marcinkus needs all the help he can get. A genial and highly popular prelate who studied at Rome's Gregorian University for priests, he is a first-class organizer, but readily confesses: "I have no banking experience." Since 1959, he has been a member of the Vatican Curia--the central administration of the church. He was principal planner and advance man on Pope Paul's foreign trips and his English-language interpreter in meetings with such men as President Johnson.

Marcinkus' new job is not all high finance. The bishop-banker grants subsidies to needy dioceses and disburses the money for the salaries of Vatican employees, from cardinals on down to sacristans. Anyone who resides within the walls of Vatican City is entitled to bank at the institute.

For running this complex, Marcinkus earns something less than $6,000 a year, just about a teller's salary in a New York City bank. He lives in a modest three-room apartment in a residential home for American priests within walking distance of his office in Vatican City. There are, of course, other compensations. Marcinkus does not have to publish any balance sheet, and neither does he have to face the hazards of an annual stockholders' meeting. He is ultimately answerable only to Pope Paul--who, at least until recently, has been answerable only to God.

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