My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations; but you have made it a den of robbers

The expression “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations; but you have made it a den of robbers” is a Gospel rebuke that the late Pope writes beside records of Church property and cardinal-electors’ finances. In the novel, its force lies in the contrast between a sacred institution’s stated purpose and evidence of concealed or improperly accounted-for wealth. For Jacopo Baldassare Lomeli, the verse turns an apparently private archive into an indictment of institutional conduct and a question of conscience.

The verse in the hidden papers

The words appear in the late Pope’s small, angular handwriting across a page of financial records that Jacopo Baldassare Lomeli finds in a concealed compartment in the Pope’s bedpost. The papers include bank statements, money transfers, apartment addresses, and an addendum prepared for the Pope’s eyes alone. The verse is not presented as a general meditation detached from events: it is set directly against the financial material the Pope had collected.

That material describes the scale and possible mismanagement of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See’s property. Its reported portfolio totals 347,532 square metres, with a potential value exceeding €2.7 billion but a stated book value of €389.6 million; paid occupancy is put at only 56 percent. The report concludes that much of the income may not have been properly declared. Against those figures, the scriptural image of a house made into a robbers’ den reads as a moral judgment on the gap between the Church’s mission and the handling of its resources.

A contrast made personal

The archive also lists official apartments occupied by serving and retired Curia members. Lomeli’s apartment is recorded as 445 square metres; the late Pope’s residence at Casa Santa Marta is listed as 50. The adjacent contrast gives the verse a pointed institutional setting: the Pope’s own modest accommodation stands beside records of far larger official apartments and a property portfolio whose declared income appears incomplete.

The papers also contain summaries of personal bank records. Lomeli discovers his own account balance among them, alongside the balances of other cardinals, including Aldo Bellini, Joshua Adeyemi, and Joseph Tremblay. The biblical rebuke therefore implicates more than an impersonal accounting system. Its placement among private financial details makes the Pope’s concern extend to the conduct and wealth of the Church’s leaders, while also disturbing Lomeli, who recognizes that his own information has been secretly obtained.

Reform, secrecy, and accountability

Bellini recalls that the late Pope’s pontificate began with a push for financial transparency: he demanded proper books, disclosure of accounts, outside tenders for building work, and receipts. He brought in accountants and management consultants to examine files, installing them in offices at Casa Santa Marta. Bellini describes the ensuing leaks and internal resistance, and says the Pope became increasingly isolated and distrustful. The verse in the hidden papers thus echoes a reform campaign that had met not only administrative obstacles but a growing crisis of confidence inside the Holy See.

The Pope’s own investigation also raises questions about means and responsibility. Lomeli finds that he had used his authority to obtain colleagues’ private financial records from the Vatican Bank, a discovery that unsettles Lomeli even as the papers expose possible wrongdoing. He later circulates a report concerning Joseph Tremblay and says he broke the seals on the papal apartment to investigate a potentially excommunicable offence. He accepts responsibility for both actions and leaves the other electors to judge the evidence. The verse’s accusation does not settle those disputes; instead, it sharpens the question of how a Church seeking to expose corruption can do so without reproducing secrecy or evading accountability.

From quotation to indictment

The expression joins the Gospel’s language of prayer to the novel’s concrete records, making the financial investigation a test of whether the Church’s practices correspond to its religious purpose. The late Pope’s handwritten addition completes the contrast: the house meant for prayer has, in his view, been made a den of robbers. Lomeli’s discovery turns those words into more than a private lament. They help frame the documents as a moral challenge that the electors must weigh, while leaving unresolved how much can be proved and what justice requires.