In a series of interviews aired on Belgian television, Becciu discussed Pope Francis' role and his own conviction for fraud and embezzlement.

Becciu, who served as the papal chief of staff until his resignation in 2020, is currently appealing a five-year prison sentence for misusing church funds.

"It will be necessary to clarify the exercise of papal authority" Becciu said. The cardinal insisted that the pope should be removed from the temporal governance of Vatican City. "That is, he should no longer be a head of state."

Convicted Cardinal Becciu

In a historic ruling, the Vatican Criminal Court on Saturday sentenced Becciu, 75, to five and a half years in prison.

This marks the first instance of such a high-ranking church official facing prison time for financial misconduct.

Becciu was found guilty on several charges, including misappropriation related to a significant loss-making investment in a London property.

The court found that Becciu failed to ensure due diligence while overseeing an investment of around $200 million between 2013 and 2014.

This investment represented nearly one-third of the total assets of the Vatican State Secretariat at the time.

Court finds limited fraud charges

Although Becciu was found guilty of misappropriation, he was cleared of other fraud allegations tied to the London deal.

Brokers and financial advisors involved—Enrico Crasso, Raffaele Mincione, Gianluigi Torzi and Nicola Squillace—were handed prison sentences ranging from five and a half to seven and a half years for related charges including fraud and money laundering.

Joint fraud scheme

Cardinal Becciu faced further charges involving 570,000 euros allocated to Cecilia Marogna, allegedly under the guise of humanitarian aid.

The court found they conspired to misuse these funds, resulting in Marogna's sentence of three years and nine months.

"The court recognised that both parties committed serious fraud" the Vatican judge said in the written ruling.

Family ties

The court also determined Becciu transferred 125,000 euros from the Vatican to a charity managed by his brother, Antonio.

While the charitable purpose was deemed legitimate, Becciu breached Vatican penal codes by directing funds to a close family member.

Becciu maintains innocence

During the Belgian TV broadcast, Becciu maintained his innocence, arguing that the pope was misled about his actions.

"I guess someone took revenge on me" Becciu speculated.

He attributed his downfall to jealousy over his close relationship with the pope.

Despite the court's rulings being lighter than the demands of the prosecution, Becciu's defence team announced plans to appeal, challenging the legitimacy of the entire trial process.

Sources

The Pillar

AP News

English Katholisch

CathNews New Zealand

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.

Source

• Religion News Service
• Religion News Service
• The Pillar

A hearing Thursday produced both a previously unknown, and unauthorised, recording of a phone call with Pope Francis, as well as testimony from the prosecution's star witness, who essentially blamed everyone in the system - both above him and below him, but not himself - for what went wrong.

Let's begin with the phone call.

The recording apparently was made by a relative of Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, one of the defendants in the trial, who's facing charges related to transfers of Vatican money to a Catholic charity in his native Sardinia and also his financial dealings with a self-described lay security consultant named Cecilia Marogna.

Although reporters and other members of the public were escorted out of the hearing room Thursday before the recording of the conversation was played, the news agency AdnKronos provided a transcript.

The recording occurred in late July 2021, just three days before the trial opened and not long after the pope's colon surgery, and the recording was apparently preserved on a cell phone belonging to one of Becciu's nephews.

In the call, Becciu clearly wanted Pope Francis to acknowledge that he had authorised payments through Marogna to a British firm to secure the release of a Colombian nun who had been kidnapped by Islamic militants in Mali in 2017.

The firm was paid roughly $350,000 for its expenses, and then $500,000 was paid in ransom.

The nun, Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez, was eventually released and met Pope Francis in the Vatican afterwards.

Asked if he remembered being briefed on the transactions, Francis appeared to confirm that he had been: "I remember that, vaguely, but I remember, yes, I had it [the information], yes."

Becciu then says he can't call the pope as a witness but asks him for a written statement that he had authorised the expenses. Francis suggests that Becciu put something on paper and send it to him, promising to look it over.

Prosecutors in the Vatican trial introduced the recording after having obtained it from Italian financial police, who are conducting their own investigation of a charity in Sardinia linked to Becciu.

Clearly, the prosecution hoped it would put Becciu in a bad light for having taped the pontiff surreptitiously, though defence attorneys pounced on it to argue that it illustrates why the pope needs to be questioned to establish what he knew and what he approved.

From the beginning, defence lawyers have argued that the people charged in the trial didn't do anything that wasn't fully approved by their superiors - including the "substitute," meaning the number two official in the Secretariate of State, at the beginning Becciu and now Venezuelan Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra; the Secretary of State, Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin; and Pope Francis himself.

Prosecutors don't dispute that authorisation occurred but insist it was granted under false pretences because, they claim, the defendants misrepresented the nature of the transactions involved.

As for the star witness... continue reading

He has tried and failed twice to convince the court of his entitlement.

Not only have Becciu's claims been dismissed, but he has been ordered to pay thousands in damages and court costs to Italian newsmagazine L'Espresso.

Becciu filed the lawsuit against L'Espresso in November 2020.

His foray into the court came just weeks after Pope Francis sacked him from his curial positions and ordered him to resign his rights as a cardinal.

In his lawsuit, Becciu claimed L'Espresso's coverage of the financial scandal at the Secretariat of State had contributed unfairly to the pope's decision to fire him.

The media damaged his reputation so badly, Becciu told the court it would cost him the chance of being elected pope in a future conclave.

He sought 10 million euros in damages from L'Espresso.

The court has not stated exactly what Becciu said in his case, or how much he will have to pay in costs.

This is Becciu's second legal setback in as many weeks.

A losing streak

Becciu's attempts to prove his entitlement to compensation via Italy's legal system isn't working.

Earlier this month, a court in Como ordered him to pay nearly 50,000 euros in legal costs and damages. That judgement was the outcome of a lawsuit he filed against his former deputy at the Vatican Secretariat of State, Msgr Alberto Perlasca.

The Como court had already rejected Becciu's suit last December.

It picked up the case again this month, with a secondary ruling, where the judge found Becciu liable for abusing the legal process in trying to sue Perlasca.

Perlasca is the star witness for the prosecution in Vatican City, where Becciu is one of ten defendants on trial for financial crimes.

Becciu sought half a million euros from Perlasca. He claimed his former deputy's cooperation with Vatican investigators caused injury to his (Becciu's) health and lifestyle.

The Como court ruled last year there was "no concrete harmful conduct in the plaintiff's narrative".

It found Becciu's claims of harm "completely lacking in any … quantification" that would justify the damages he sought.

This month the court directed Becciu to pay 40,000 euro in court costs to Perlasca and a friend of Perlasca's named in Becciu's lawsuit. He was also ordered to pay Perlasca 9,000 euros in damages.

The Vatican City trial

In the ongoing Vatican City trial, Becciu is accused of abuse of office, embezzlement and conspiracy. He is also charged with attempting to suborn Perlasca's testimony.

In leaked footage of Perlasca's interviews with Vatican prosecutors, he confirmed that, acting on Becciu's instructions, he helped arrange over half a million euros in money transfers to Cecilia Marogna.

Marogna, a self-styled geo-political analyst, claims to have been Becciu's personal spy at the Secretariat of State.

Perlasca also said he prepared an envelope with about 15,000 euros in money transfers for Becciu, who told him Francis had approved them.

He said Becciu "became very angry" with him for discussing the transfers and had demanded to know why he had not deleted records of the transactions from secretariat records.

Source

• The Pillar