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arrangement the
worthless securities of Banca di Roma were restored to their original
value and the Vatican, as the major shareholder, now boasted a fortune of $632 million.
    The Banci di Roma deal draws little attention from Church historians. But it represented an important theological development
within the Roman Church. The Holy See was now involved in usury,
and usury represented one of the most grievous sins of Catholic tradition. "Usury," wrote St. Ambrose, "is whatever is added to capital." Emperor Gratian used this definition in his drafting of the
canon laws of the Church. The practice of earning interest from loans
and investments was condemned by the councils of Nicea (324), Carthage (371), Orleans (538), and Clichy (626). This ruling was
upheld by the thirty-sixth canon of the Council of Aix (789), and the
Third Council of the Lateran (1179) decreed that "usurers shall not
be admitted to communion, nor, if they die, to Christian burial; and
no priest shall accept their alms." Benedict IX condemned usurers as
heretics in his encyclical Vix Perrenit that was promulgated on
November 1, 1745. On July 29, 1836, the Holy Office issued a statement to remind Catholics that the condemnation of profits from
loans applied to the whole Church and that this fundamental principle of capitalism was anathema to all true believers.

    Pius XI, in sanctioning the investment in Banca di Roma, was
making a significant break with tradition that would have ramifications for other dogmas and doctrines of the Church-ramifications
that would result in the aggiornamento (the modernization process)
of Vatican II. Prior to this dramatic departure from the rigid dictates
of canon law, the Church held that its teachings were semper eademteachings that were changeless and immutable-teachings that
bound its adherents to a certain way of life and bestowed upon them
a clearly defined Catholic character. But with the creation of the Special Administration of the Holy See, something remarkable happened. The changeless changed. A practice that had been condemned
as the "most grievous manifestation of wanton greed" was now being
sanctioned by Holy Mother Church-not for the good of the
faithful, but for the cause of its own gain.
    With the windfall from Banca di Roma, Nogara purchased IIR
stock in the open market so that the Vatican, by 1935, would become
the largest shareholder of state-secured businesses in the country, and
from holding these shares it would accrue millions in interest. One
such company that the Vatican came to control was Italgas, which
became the sole supplier of natural gas to many Italian cities.5
Another was the Societa Generale Immobiliare, one of Italy's oldest
construction companies.6 In time, Immobilaire would become an
international conglomerate that would serve to topple governments,
wreak financial havoc throughout the world, and embroil the Vatican
in a host of sensational scandals.
    By the outbreak of World War II the Vatican acquired major interests in textiles, steel, mining, metallurgical products, fertilizer
plants, farming products, timber, ceramics, railroads, timber mills,
pasta products, and telephone and telecommunication companies.
The list of such holdings filled over seventy pages of accounting
ledgers. Several of these firms produced items that were antithetical
to Catholic teachings, including bombs, tanks, and even contraceptives.7 But what was condemned from the pulpit served to enhance
the portfolio. In 1935, when Mussolini needed armaments for the
invasion of Ethiopia, a substantial proportion of the weapons came
from a munitions plant that Nogara had purchased for the Holy See.

    After gaining majority control of leading Italian companies,
Nogara handpicked trusted laymen to serve as directors of the various
boards and financial managers of the various banks. Many of these
trusted individuals were members of the "Black Nobility," members
of aristocratic