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    God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican
    God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican
    God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican
    Audiobook21 hours

    God's Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican

    Written by Gerald Posner

    Narrated by Tom Parks

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    A deeply reported, fast-paced exposé of the money and the cardinals-turned-financiers at the heart of the Vatican—the world’s biggest, most powerful religious institution—from an acclaimed journalist with “exhaustive research techniques” (The New York Times).

    From a master chronicler of legal and financial misconduct, a magnificent investigation nine years in the making, this audiobook traces the political intrigue and inner workings of the Catholic Church. Decidedly not about faith, belief in God, or religious doctrine, this audiobook is about the church’s accumulation of wealth and its byzantine entanglements with financial markets across the world. Told through 200 years of prelates, bishops, cardinals, and the Popes who oversee it all, Gerald Posner uncovers an eyebrow-raising account of money and power in perhaps the most influential organization in the history of the world.

    God’s Bankers has it all: a rare exposé and an astounding saga marked by poisoned business titans, murdered prosecutors, mysterious deaths of private investigators, and questionable suicides; a carnival of characters from Popes and cardinals, financiers and mobsters, kings and prime ministers; and a set of moral and political circumstances that clarify not only the church’s aims and ambitions, but reflect the larger dilemmas of the world’s more recent history. And Posner even looks to the future to surmise if Pope Francis can succeed where all his predecessors failed: to overcome the resistance to change in the Vatican’s Machiavellian inner court and to rein in the excesses of its seemingly uncontrollable financial quagmire. Part thriller, part financial tell-all, this audiobook shows with extraordinary precision how the Vatican has evolved from a foundation of faith to a corporation of extreme wealth and power.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateApr 19, 2015
    ISBN9781501260858
    Author

    Gerald Posner

    Gerald Posner (b. 1954) is a renowned investigative journalist. Born in San Francisco, California, he attended the University of California, Berkeley, and went on to a career in law. Posner earned international acclaim with Case Closed (1993), an exhaustive account of the Kennedy assassination that debunked many conspiracy theories. Case Closed was a finalist for the Pulitzer for history. Posner has written about topics as varied as Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele, 9/11, Ross Perot, and the history of Motown Records. His most recent book is Miami Babylon (2009), a history of glitz, drugs, and organized crime in Miami Beach. He lives in Miami with his wife, author Trisha Posner. 

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    Reviews for God's Bankers

    4/5

    44 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Such a good read. Church history is always a good read but this one goes from scandal to scandal
    • 4/5
      A great "non-fiction" book, in the sense that it's gripping and racy, but not particularly good history (it's a chronicle, a recording of facts, rather than an understanding of them) nor a good book. This latter is the thing's main problem: the subtitle was clearly an afterthought, and Posner has just thrown in everything he researched, rather than finding the excellent core of the book (i.e., the story of the Vatican Bank) and sticking to that. So you have to read a bunch of stuff about late 19th century popes, which is dull, and the early 2th century popes, which isn't particularly interesting, and then about Pius XII, which horse has been beaten to death, and only then do we really get to the good stuff--over a hundred pages in. Take my word for it, you can just start reading at the founding of the IOR.

      After that, it's mostly great stuff, with the caveat that he really does stick a whole bunch of stuff in there. It's not clear to me why the child-abuse stuff is in there, even allowing for the "and power" part of the subtitle; not clear why the papal elections stuff is in there (though that's a bit fresher, at least).

      So, basically, there's 300 pages of roaring, roiling idiocy and corruption, and the odd attempt to reel it all in. Fun fact: the popes the most likely to try to deal with corruption are those who are the least publicly popular (so, not John XXIII, not JPII), up until Francis, who might just be pulling off the double act.
    • 3/5
      An exhausting but probably important look inside this insanely secretive organization. Financial histories can be tricky to write, and realistically there is no way the Catholic Church is going to allow enough of their records to become public for a comprehensive look at this topic. Still an admirable effort, but the hundreds of men and positions within the Vatican quickly started to blend together.
    • 5/5
      A deep dive into the murky finances of The Vatican Bank. A true fiscal saga that includes Nazis, the Mafia, ultra rich tax evaders, and corrupt clerics and politicians. Posner really had to do his homework to amass this amount of detailed information. If financial intelligence or banking regulator are your idea of dream jobs, this is definitely the book for you.
    • 4/5
      Important history that helps fill in some of the "devilry" that went on during and after the war through the Vatican financial system. Well documented, and a good companion read for the book "The Pope and Mussollni".
    • 4/5
      Wow! what a ride through the best and worst of the money trail at the Vatican. Two quick notes: some of their bankers make Wall ST look likes sheep and It is amazing Pope Pius XII wasn't excommunicated, banished or at the very least run out of town.
    • 5/5
      Riveting and well researched expose of the Vatican Bank and the Catholic Church. If you have ever donated money to the Catholic Church, you will be very interested in how this money may have been used. Not necessarily for humanitarian or charity purposes. The character, intelligence and judgment of the various popes for about the last century come into serious question. The Pope's behavior during the Mussolini era and World War II is hardly consistent as a man of God. You read, you decide. Excellent book.