Over the past few weeks, Italy has been back at the heart of events.

The director of the embattled Vatican bank and his deputy resigned yesterday, following the latest developments in a finance scandal that has landed one monsignor in prison and added urgency to Pope Francis’s reform efforts.

The Vatican said the seizure by police of €23m from a Vatican bank account and the investigation of two top bank officials was due to a simple misunderstanding that should be clarified quickly.

AN “error of procedure” at the Vatican bank is being exploited to attack the Vatican with a money- laundering investigation, the bank’s president said in an interview published yesterday.