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REPORT: High-Ranking Catholic Archbishop Accused Of Using Charity Funds For Apartment Renovations

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Update: This story has been updated to include The Pillar’s report that Archbishop Paglia’s office denied the allegation

Hundreds of thousands of euros designated for charity and missionary work were reportedly used to finance building projects in Rome, including the personal apartment of the archbishop overseeing the funds, according to Catholic news outlet The Pillar.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who is currently the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, served as head of the Pontifical Council for the Family from 2012 to 2016. Paglia allegedly pulled nearly 1 million euros designated by the Vatican for missionary and charity works in 2012 and diverted them to other entities, The Pillar reported Wednesday, citing senior officials connected to the Secretariat for the Economy and the Vatican’s Office of the Auditor General.

The archbishop has denied any wrongdoing and expressed his intention to pursue legal action against The Pillar, according to the outlet.

Most of the money initially went to the pontifical council’s general accounts and then, later, to an Italian contracting firm by the name of Edilizia Marconi, The Pillar reported. The construction group allegedly worked on improvements to the pontifical council’s headquarters. The group also made renovations to the archbishop’s own Vatican apartment that were worth hundreds of thousands of euros, the outlet reported.

“The money was transferred to normal management accounts for the pontifical council, and then [Paglia] used it to pay for the renovation of his apartment,” an unnamed source alleged, according to The Pillar.

Paglia told Holy See financial officials in a May 2015 memo that he had sent a large sum of euros to the Italian contractor, The Pillar reported. He also said he eventually replaced a significant portion of the diverted money, though sources alleged the money came from other pontifical council donations, according to the outlet.

“The sums were never ‘reimbursed’ … Yes, [Paglia] paid [600,000 euros] to one of these funds, but that came from new money … He received new donations, and he paid them over to the [Family of Nazareth], but he never paid [back] the old donations,” a senior Vatican source alleged, according to The Pillar.

A center for helping children with imprisoned parents did receive a significant donation of an unspecific amount from Paglia’s department in 2013, The Pillar reported.

Senior Vatican officials told The Pillar that Paglia’s alleged actions further underscore the need for the financial reforms Pope Francis issued earlier in December. The officials reportedly said Paglia’s purported “egregious example” was “not unique” within the church. (RELATED: 80-Year Old Nun Sentenced To Prison For Gambling Away School Funds)

Pope Francis issued a “motu proprio” (“on the pope’s own impulse”) Dec. 6, which deemed that certain funds are subject to oversight by the financial departments within the Vatican, The Pillar reported in a separate article. The reforms were established to “regulate…the various funds, foundations, and entities that, over the years, have sprung up within the curial institutions and are directly dependent on them,” the outlet reported, citing a statement from the pope.

By Thursday night, The Pillar had updated its original report to include a response from Paglia’s office. “Archbishop Paglia’s personal assistant emailed The Pillar, ‘to inform you that [Paglia] has instructed a lawyer based in the United States to initiate a lawsuit against your newspaper for the serious defamation represented by part of your writing,'” the editor’s note read.

“It is in fact gravely injurious to state that the bishop allegedly used Vatican funds for the expenses of his own private apartment, the renovation of which was instead entirely borne by him personally,” Paglia’s assistant continued, according to The Pillar.

On Twitter, Pillar editor and co-founder JD Flynn expressed agreement with a commenter who described Paglia’s lawsuit as “a textbook example of a SLAAP suit.” SLAAP stands for “strategic lawsuit against public participation” and “refers to lawsuits brought by individuals and entities to dissuade their critics,” according to Cornell Law School’s Legal Information Institute.

Paglia’s department at the Pontifical Academy for Life did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.