A newly publicized email from the “Epstein Files” has stirred renewed speculation about the 2013 resignation of Pope Benedict XVI. However, according to a detailed report by LifeSiteNews, the claims contained in that email collapse under closer scrutiny.
As LifeSiteNews reports, the U.S. Department of Justice released more than three million documents on January 30, including an email dated February 21, 2013, that was allegedly sent to former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. The message suggested that “the most important change in the Vatican may not be Pope Benedict XVI’s sudden retirement but the change in leadership at the Institute for Works of Religion.”
The email referenced the 2012 removal of Ettore Gotti Tedeschi from his leadership role at the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), commonly referred to as the Vatican Bank. It claimed that Tedeschi “was fired” amid investigations and that his intercepted calls revealed fears “that he would be assassinated because he knew the Vatican’s secrets.” It further implied a connection between these events and “the extraordinary resignation of Pope Benedict.”
Yet LifeSiteNews carefully dismantles these assertions, noting that several key elements in the email are inaccurate or misleading. First, the outlet clarifies that the IOR is not technically the “Vatican Bank,” but rather an institution that manages assets for religious works and relies on other banks to function within the broader financial system.
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LifeSiteNews explains that after the September 11, 2001 attacks, stricter international anti-money-laundering standards were implemented. Pope Benedict XVI, deeply concerned about the Holy See’s credibility, appointed Gotti Tedeschi in 2009 to help bring Vatican financial operations into compliance with these standards. According to LifeSiteNews, Benedict instituted a new anti-money-laundering law on December 30, 2010, along with the creation of the Financial Information Authority.
The article reports that internal resistance within the Roman Curia led to amendments of that law in January 2012 without Benedict’s knowledge. Later that year, Gotti Tedeschi was voted out by the IOR supervisory board. However, LifeSiteNews stresses that this vote did not constitute a lawful dismissal and that the cardinal commission overseeing the IOR refused to accept the move for nine months.
Importantly, LifeSiteNews identifies what it calls a “serious inaccuracy” in the Epstein email: Gotti Tedeschi was not replaced by Ernst von Freyberg as one of the final acts of Benedict’s pontificate. Instead, von Freyberg was appointed on February 15, 2013—three days after Benedict publicly announced his resignation.
The LifeSiteNews report also addresses allegations that Tedeschi was entangled in a corruption scheme. While he was mentioned in an investigation involving Italy’s Finmeccanica defense company, the outlet notes that he was not a suspect and that the accusations in the broader case were later deemed “unfounded.” Claims about “47 folders seized by law enforcement” and supposed “compromising” material are described by LifeSiteNews as exaggerated journalistic dramatizations.
Ultimately, LifeSiteNews concludes that the Epstein email “presents several elements that do not correspond to the reality of the facts and should not generate any special speculation.” The report further questions why someone of Larry Summers’ stature would rely on Jeffrey Epstein for insight into Vatican affairs, especially when the email in question was largely a forwarded message from investigative journalist Edward Jay Epstein, an entirely different individual.
In the end, according to LifeSiteNews, the declassified email does not offer credible new evidence connecting changes at the IOR to Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation. Rather, it “reiterates a confused narrative, built by accumulating suggestions, chronological inaccuracies, and interpretive distortions.”
For Catholic readers seeking clarity, the takeaway is straightforward: while the resurfaced email has revived intrigue, LifeSiteNews’ analysis indicates that it fails to substantiate claims of a hidden causal link between Vatican financial reforms and Benedict’s historic decision to step down.
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