Photo by Simonetta Calza-Bini of Rome

After serving for five years on the faculty of the University of Kansas, in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, NinoLo Bello returned to his original profession of journalism andwent overseas as a foreign correspondent. Stationed in Rome, heserved for three years as a correspondent for Business Week Magazine and McGraw-Hill World News. He later joined theNew York Journal of Commerce, operating as its Rome bureauchief for three years. For some eight years he did assignments forthe New York Herald Tribune, specializing in economic affairs.Mr. Lo Bello has also been a frequent contributor to magazinesand a reporter for United Features Syndicate.An extensive traveler and energetic writer, he is currentlyliving in Vienna with his wife Irene and two children.

A great deal has been written about the Roman Catholic Churchas a religious, charitable, and educational institution. But, untilnow, there has been very little information on the Church as abusiness organization. Here, for the first time, is acomprehensive and authoritative report that reveals the Vaticanas a nerve center of high finance.The extent of papal wealth has been traditionally cloaked insecrecy. Even within the Vatican's own walls there is no one in-dividual who has an overall view of its infinitely ramifiedfinancial operations. Church officials have consistently deridedall speculations on the magnitude of its resources but haveresolutely declined to release real figures. It has remained forNino Lo Bello—former Rome correspondent for Business Week and now a writer for the Herald Tribune's Paris EconomicReview— to fit the pieces of the puzzle together. The picture thatemerges is one of awesome fiscal power.Mr. Lo Bello describes in fascinating detail Vaticaninvestment in real estate—one-third of Rome is owned by theHoly See— electronics, plastics, airlines, and chemical andengineering firms. He also gives evidence that the Vatican isheavily involved in Italian banking and that it has huge depositsin foreign banks. Some of these accounts are in America, manyare in Switzerland. The Vatican financiers prefer numberedSwiss accounts because they allow them to maintain anonymitywhen gaining control of foreign corporations.In addition, the author establishes that the Vatican is one of the world's largest shareholders, with a portfolio that can con-servatively be estimated in billions.Although written in the objective, non-sensational style of thenewsman, this is a book that finally demonstrates the depth of theVatican's commitment to the world of big business.