Anyone know anything about Vatican banking?

There is a rather basic Wikipedia article on the Vatican Bank, but its vague and a lot of the information is outdated. A cursory web search turns up suprisingly little.

Anyone have any good one-stop info sources on the Vatican and money? I'm curious about things like how much $$$ they have, where and how they invest it, who is really in charge of their finances, and to what extent they have been hit by the recent financial turmoil. This latter one really intreagues me, acutually. I haven't heard ANYTHING about the Vatican and the recent financial crackups...are they in trouble financially? Sitting pretty? Actually, I don't even know if they use the euro or have their own currency, as Vatican City is an independent nation.

Any opinions, conjecture, or links welcome. Thanks in advance.

P.S.: The most recent MSM article of note on the subject I could find is from last autumn. The Wall Street Journal wrote of a changing of the power structure and spoke vaguely of "more transparency." It also noted:

"The IOR [Vatican bank, which is called the Istituto per le Opere di Religione, or IOR] doesn't administer loans or publish its financial results. Its clients are mainly Vatican officials, clergy and private individuals who are invited by the bank to open accounts. Located in a medieval tower inside the world's smallest state, the IOR is regulated only by a small commission of cardinals who report to the pope."

More at source:
online.wsj.com...

[edit on 4/11/10 by silent thunder]

The documentary , ring of power , makes the claims that the city state of inner London controls the Vatican money .

I bet that have all that Odessa gold squirreled away in Argentina somewhere.

But seriously, isn't the Roman Catholic Church the largest holder of real estate in the world?

Originally posted by this_is_who_we_are
But seriously, isn't the Roman Catholic Church the largest holder of real estate in the world?

It's one of them but the last stat I heard on this says actually its McDonalds.

Originally posted by Max_TO
The documentary , ring of power , makes the claims that the city state of inner London controls the Vatican money .

Yes, I'm aware of the Vatican-London-Washington DC constellation of theories...I wouldn't rule such theories out per se, but I'm curious if there are other explanations.