Oreo Book Club: God’s Bankers by Gerald Posner

We met at the home of Norton Schwartz to review his recommendation of God’s Bankers by Gerald Posner. The deeds and mis-deeds of some of the Popes and the clerics who ran the Vatican Bank and investments were detailed in the book. The close ties to the Fascists in Italy and Nazis in Germany during and after World War II were cited in the book, as well as the post-war involvement of money laundering and in ethically challenged investments. Some felt the Vatican and the Pope should be excused from blame because of Communist threats and different attitudes towards wartime criminals at that period of time. Others believed that the Pope and Vatican officials had lost their moral compass and still have not found it.
—Norton Schwartz