Bernardino Nogara was the financial advisor to the Vatican over many years, appointed by Pope Pius XI. He is considered by many to be the father of the modern wealth of the Catholic Church.
The Pope appointed the lay-person Bernardino Nogara, who through shrewd investing in stocks, gold, and futures markets, vastly increased the Catholic Church's financial holdings.
Dr Pollard, a leading historian of the modern papacy, shows how until 1929, the papacy was largely funded by Peters Pence collected from the faithful, and from the residue the Vatican made its first capitalistic investments, especially in the ill-fated Banco di Roma.
After 1929, the Vatican received much of its income from the investments made by the banker BernadinoNogara in world markets and commercial enterprises.
This process of coming to terms with capitalism was arguably in conflict both with Church law and Catholic social teaching and becoming a major financial power led the Vatican into conflict with the Allies during the Second World War.
A quick speculation on gold, at the approach of the war which Pius XI knew to be unavoidable, allowed Nogara to increase Vatican Incorporateds financial power in a fabulous manner.
In June 1942, all the property and real estate entrusted to the Church for her pious charitable and apostolic works entered into the stock market game with the creation of the Institute for Religious Works.
«In capitalistic terms, Nogaras service in the cause of the Roman Catholic Church was an incredible success» at the time of his official retirement in 1954 and his effective retirement, at his death, in 1958.
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