Paul Casimir Marcinkus GCOIH (/mɑːrˈsɪŋkəs/; January 15, 1922 – February 20, 2006) was an American Catholic prelate who served as president of the Institute for the Works of Religion, commonly known as the Vatican Bank, from 1971 to 1989.

[2] In 1950, Marcinkus began to fulfil special assignments for the Holy See and became friendly with Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini, later Pope Paul VI, while studying canon law at the Gregorian University.

[3]: 156 [4] Upon earning his degree in 1953, he completed the two-year program for prospective diplomats at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy and was assigned to Bolivia[5] in 1955 and to Canada four years later, serving as secretary in the nunciature of the Holy See in both instances.

[12] In July 1982, Marcinkus was implicated in financial scandals being reported on the front pages of newspapers and magazines throughout Europe, particularly the collapse of the Banco Ambrosiano, in which Propaganda Due (aka "P2"), a Masonic Lodge, was involved.

][citation needed] The scandal widened, after the body of Calvi, whose Banco Ambrosiano had dealt with Marcinkus, was found hanging under London's Blackfriars Bridge in June 1982.

[15] The Vatican eventually paid £145 million in a settlement with creditors, with Marcinkus observing in 1986 that "You can't run the Church on Hail Marys.

[20] Loris Serafini, director of a museum in Canale d'Agordo overseeing a collection covering John Paul I's life, refers to the purported murder as "an unshakable myth",[21] and Chico Harlan and Stefano Pitrelli, writing for the Washington Post, report that: "One papal doctor believed heart attack was the likeliest cause of death.

[21] As of 2008, a case of a missing person had been reopened after claims that Emanuela Orlandi, daughter of a Vatican employee, had been kidnapped and later killed on orders of Marcinkus were made by Sabrina Minardi, a former girlfriend of Enrico De Pedis, boss of the gang, Banda della Magliana.

[22][needs update] Marcinkus returned to the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1990 before retiring to Arizona, where he lived as an assistant parish priest at St. Clement of Rome Church in Sun City.

[29] Marcinkus was portrayed by actor Randall Paul in Roberto Faenza's 2016 film La Verità Sta in Cielo ('The Truth Lies in Heaven').