Vatican questions how priest moved $17 million meant for missionary work into investment fund

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has asked aides to get to the bottom of how at least $17 million was transferred from the Vatican’s U.S.-based missionary fundraising coffers into an impact investing vehicle run by a priest. The story of what happened to the money and how is one that has vexed Vatican officials on both sides of the Atlantic for over two years, all the more because it appears the transfers were completely legal. But they have nevertheless prompted the new leadership of the Vatican’s missionary fundraising operation in the U.S., The Pontifical Mission Societies, to fire the staff and board of directors who approved them, and overhaul its bylaws and statutes, to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.