The Inside Story of the Success of the ‘Pope’s Hospital’

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In a statement, the hospital called AP’s report a “hoax” that “contained false, dated and gravely defamatory accusations and conjectures that had been denied” by the second investigation. It threatened legal action.

Both the Vatican and Bambino Gesu pointed to the second report as evidence that all of the allegations — except one involving space constraints — were “unfounded.”

The head of the first investigation, however, fully stood by the report he delivered to Parolin, in April 2014. At the time, he told the hospital employees who worked with him on the investigation that it would be used as a guide for reform by the hospital’s board.

“What we wrote in that report was the exact truth,” Dr. Steven Masotti said in a June 2 telephone interview. “Now things are completely different,” he said. “You have kind of a revolution in the hospital. Literally no one is in there anymore of the old guard. … And they’re trying to fix those problems, based on a number of reports, including our report.”

The leader of the second investigation, Sister Carol Keehan, said in an email that she was disappointed by the AP story, saying it distorted, “misrepresented and trivialized the significant review the clinical team and I did.”

She said some of AP’s statements were factually incorrect, though she didn’t say which ones.

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“My worry is not for me or the pope. It is for the parents who will be frightened by your distorted picture of the Bambino, and parents have enough to worry about when their children are sick,” Keehan said. “I also worry for the staff who will feel so disparaged by your portrayal of the work they try so hard to do each day.”

A third report, a 2014 external audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers, also found that the original mission of the hospital to care for poor children “had been modified in the last few years” to focus on expansion and commercial activities, without sufficient governance controls.

The hospital president, Giuseppe Profiti, resigned in January 2015, nine months into a new three-year term, just before Keehan’s team began its clinical evaluation. The treasurer and human resources director also left.

This article originally appeared in Religion News Service. [lz_pagination]