The Vatican wants Britain to stay in the European Union, the pope's foreign secretary has declared.
Archbishop Paul Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States within the Holy See, suggested "Brexit" could weaken Europe.
In an interview with ITV, the English cleric who has a weekly meeting with Pope Francis, gave a clear signal of Rome's view of the best outcome of the forthcoming in/out referendum on continued EU membership.
"The Holy See respects the ultimate decision of the British people - that's for the British electorate to decide," he said.
"But I think we would see it as being something that is not going to make a stronger Europe."
It was a case of "better in than out", he added.
It came amid reports that banking giant Goldman Sachs has donated a "substantial six-figure sum" to Britain Stronger In Europe, the pro-EU group chaired by the former Marks & Spencer boss Lord Rose.
A spokesman for the campaign declined to be drawn on individual donations but said it was "pleased to be raising money from a wide range of sources - both large and small companies and individuals and businesses from all walks of life".
Arron Banks, the millionaire Ukip backer behind the Leave.EU group, said it would have told the bank to "stuff it".
"This comes as no surprise to those of us who have said all along the referendum will be a campaign of the British people against the establishment of international bankers, multinational corporate tax dodgers and out-of-touch politicians.
"We need Britain to regain control of its laws, its borders and its taxes and bankers that can switch their money from Luxembourg to the Caymans without shame are no friends of the British people.
"It will be the thousands of small platoons of ordinary folk that donate their fivers and their tenners that will fund the people's campaign to leave the EU and that's why we will win. If Goldman Sachs had offered Leave.EU six figures we would have told them where to stuff it."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article