Last year, I put up a brief blog entry about a company called the Follieri Group, whose apparent mission is buying and selling real estate of the Catholic Church being discarded by dioceses. I also noted that the group claims to have excellent connections in the Vatican and that one of the principles is a nephew of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican Secretary of State and number two man at the Holy See.
Since then I have received many emails, mainly from reporters looking for more information on this group. It looks like Joe Feuerherd of the National Catholic Reporter has beaten the rest of them to the punch with a lengthy investigation into the company and its goals and practices. He even quotes my blog entry, although the quote doesn’t add anything of substance to the story.
How well wired is the Follieri Group? In early 2005, Catholic blogger Domenico Bettinelli, editor of the Catholic World Report, summed it up: “Unless [Andrea Sodano’s] name was Wojtyla, you couldn’t get a better connection.”
I think it’s a good line, but maybe if you quote the editor of the “far right-wing” Catholic World Report you can show that there’s no conservative-liberal dividing line on this, or something.
Regardless, it seems that Follieri is making the most of its connections.
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