Vatican's Financial Auditor Speaks Out

Video Description

Libero Milone was appointed by Pope Francis to be the Vatican's first ever auditor general in 2015. In a historic move, he was told that he had access to all areas, and would be free to audit the accounts of any Vatican department he wished. Formerly he had worked as chairman and CEO of Deloitte in Italy, as well as a number of big firms in the UK and USA. Milone was shocked to see the standard of accounting and bookkeeping in certain parts of the Vatican, and claims he started to encounter problems with the Vatican's 'old guard' when he started to ask questions about certain transactions and sums of money. After only two years in the job, he abruptly resigned, he claims by force because he was starting to uncover major financial mismanagement and fraud at some of the highest levels of the Catholic Church. Now Milone is taking a €9.3m lawsuit against the Vatican for unfair dismissal, loss of income, and emotional distress. The case was thrown out by a Vatican court, but Milone is now appealing. In this extended one-on-one interview with EWTN's Colm Flynn, Milone talks about working with Pope Francis to bring about financial reform, and the problems he resistance he started to come up against, and why he is now speaking out and telling his story.