Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Italian archbishop guilty of fraud

Archbishop Gerardo Pierro, head of the southern Italian Archdiocese of Salerno from 1992-2010, has become the first bishop ever in Italy to be sentenced for fraud by a state court.

A judge in Salerno handed the 77-year-old prelate a ten-month suspended sentence on 18 July. 

He and two other men were charged with defrauding the Region of Campania of more than €2.5 million in public funds in order to refurbish an archdiocesan community centre and transform it into a luxury seaside hotel.

The fraud charges stem from 2006, when the archdiocese was in the midst of restoring a non-profit holiday village it has long operated on Salerno's southern coast. 

The archdiocese stood to profit by transforming its rustic holiday campground into an up-market hotel.