Last year’s police raid on the offices of the Vatican Secretary of State, leading to computers and documents being taken away for further examination, was conducted by the Vatican’s own police force at the instigation of the Vatican’s own public prosecutor. Earlier this month an Italian at the centre of the corruption allegations was arrested, after appearing before Vatican magistrates.

The Holy See has evidently run out of patience with those inside and outside who have long exploited the Vatican’s activities in banking and finance for their own corrupt purposes. The most notorious was the case of Roberto Calvi, found hanging beneath Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982. Known as “God’s Banker”, he was thought to be the victim of an organised crime racket connected to the Vatican Bank.