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The Vatican has opened a new investigation into a disgraced cardinal’s alleged spying on Pope Francis.
Becciu is already on trial on charges of financial mismanagement and corruption.
However, on March 17, Becciu testified in the Vatican Court that he was innocent of the embezzlement, abuse of power and witness tampering charges.
He said he claimed his innocence with a “clear conscience”.
Now prosecutors say the clear conscience cardinal secretly recorded a call with the Pope just days before the trial began for alleged offences involving financial mismanagement and corruption.
Becciu knew that, at the time, Francis was convalescing after major invasive colon surgery.
During the call, Becciu allegedly attempted to coerce the pope to say something that could have redeemed him at the trial.
“You have already condemned me; it’s useless to go to trial,” Becciu told the pontiff in the recorded phone call, referring to a letter he received from Francis in which the pope presented him with the charges by Vatican prosecutors.
The cardinal then asked Francis to confirm that he authorised the expenditure of 500,000 euros for an agency to negotiate the liberation of a nun who had been kidnapped in Mali.
“See, I recall that I informed you about all of this … remember?” Becciu said, according to the transcript of the conversation published by Italian news outlet Adnkronos.
Becciu also asks whether Francis intended to remove a seal of pontifical secrecy on the Vatican’s international dealings, including ransoms paid for its clergy.
“This is your decision Holy Father, I won’t force you if we won’t observe the pontifical secret,” he said.
In the recording, the voices of Becciu’s niece, Maria Luisa Zambrano, and an unidentified man can be heard listening in on the conversation.
Prosecutors claim that their presence violates Vatican secrecy laws.
Francis can be heard answering simply, “I understand,” but the pontiff insisted he intends to remain above the dynamics of the trial, asking Becciu to send a written declaration of his case.
Then on Saturday, just two days after prosecutors filed the new evidence against Becciu, Becciu told reporters he had another meeting with the Pope who said he could continue attending public events as a cardinal.
According to The Pillar, Becciu described the conversation as ‘cordial’, and that he had offered the Pope the clarifications he deemed necessary about Becciu’s mounting scandals.
Becciu did not tell reporters precisely what he clarified for Francis nor why he deemed it necessary to meet with him.
Becciu’s private visit with the Pope did not appear on the Holy See’s daily list of papal audiences.
Becciu served as sostituto at the Secretariat of State, a role which practically serves as papal chief of staff, from 2012-2018.
The cardinal was formally charged with embezzlement, conspiracy, abuse of office, and subornation of witnesses on July 3, 2021, though he had been at the centre of several roiling financial scandals at his former department for years, including the London property deal on which the Vatican lost more than 100 million euros.
Sacked in September 2020 from his curial positions and made to resign the rights and privileges as a cardinal, Francis subsequently allowed Becciu to participate in the Consistory convoked by Pope Francis for the creation of new cardinals and in the discussions in the following days on the reform of the Roman Curia.
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