The Archbishop of Naples, Cardinal Michele Giordano, has confirmed that he is under investigation for involvement in a gangland money-lending racket allegedly run by his brother, Mr Mario Lucio Giordano.
Following a dramatic Saturday morning raid by 30 finance police on the Curia offices in Naples, the cardinal told reporters: "My lawyer says that I am under investigation on charges of criminal association, extortion and usury."
However, after offering a "better" explanation, Cardinal Giordano said: "The point is that certain sums of money were paid out from Curia offices to my nephews - one is an architect, the other a small builder - for work done, and my nephews in turn handed these cheques over to their father, at the time heavily in debt. . .
"For that reason, the investigators imagine, completely wrongly, that there may be some link between the [Naples] Curia and the crimes with which my brother has been charged."
Mr Mario Lucio Giordano, the cardinal's brother, was arrested on Thursday on charges that he and Mr Filippo Lemma, a bank manager in the little town of Sant' Arcangelo near Potenza, had run a usury racket which lent money at interest rates as high as 400 per cent per annum.
They were also charged with extorting money from clients by means of requests for blank cheques or, indeed, whole cheque books.
The Naples investigators extended their inquiry to Cardinal Giordano (67) after consulting his brother's financial records.
During the raid on the Curia offices on Saturday, police took away extensive documentation including 10 computer disks which they hope will throw light on various movements of money, up to £350,000 at a time, which allegedly passed through the cardinal's bank account.
Cardinal Giordano has emphatically denied any wrongdoing whatsoever. He has admitted only that he had lent his brother a series of blank cheques, which were subsequently cashed for between £28,000 and £36,000, at a time when his brother was in difficulty because of the failure of a building project.
Furthermore, the cardinal claims that the money lent came from his own personal savings rather than from diocesan funds.
The dramatic raid on the cardinal's offices prompted many messages of solidarity from senior Italian Church figures.
These included Cardinal Ruini, president of the Italian Bishops' Conference, who said:
"I would like to confirm my admiration for, faith in and fraternal friendship with Cardinal Giordano, certain in the knowledge that very shortly it will become clear that these accusations against him are totally without foundation."
The senior Vatican spokesman, Dr Joaquin Navarro-Vals, was rather more circumspect in his initial comment, saying: "The Holy See is close to every Bishop in moments of joy and of trial and is following the case closely."
The investigation into the cardinal is all the more ironic since he has long been a fierce and outspoken critic not only of the Neapolitan mafia, the camorra, but also of the widespread practice of usury.
Cardinal Giordano has been Archbishop of Naples since 1987 and was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 1988.