The move comes following accusations that Pope Francis' absolute power undermines defendants' rights.

Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi's defence comes as the Vatican tribunal finalises its written reasons for its December 2023 verdicts in the so-called "trial of the century".

The tribunal convicted Cardinal Angelo Becciu and eight others of financial crimes related to a €350 million investment in a London property.

However the tribunal has yet to fully explain its decisions.

Diddi published an essay last month in the peer-reviewed journal Diritto e religioni (Law and Religion), responding to criticisms from two academics and lawyers representing some of the defendants.

Their critiques have raised more fundamental concerns about whether a fair trial is even possible in an absolute monarchy where the pope wields supreme legislative, executive and judicial power — and used it in this case.

Secret decrees

The lawyers argued that the two-year trial and preceding investigation were unfair, highlighting the Pope's secret issuance of four decrees during the investigation. Critics claim these decrees altered Vatican procedures to favour prosecutors.

The four secret decrees, signed by the Pope in 2019 and 2020, granted Vatican prosecutors extensive powers including unchecked wiretapping and the ability to detain suspects without a judge's warrant.

Diddi denied that the decrees impacted the suspects' rights, arguing that they provided an "authentic interpretation" of Vatican norms by the Pope.

He maintained that the decrees merely "disciplined some particular aspects of the investigation" and did not compromise the guarantees offered to the suspects.

However Geraldina Boni, a canon lawyer for Cardinal Becciu's defence, argued that the decrees violated the right to a fair trial since the suspects were unaware - until the trial - of the broad powers granted to prosecutors. One defendant was jailed for ten days during questioning.

Critics have questioned the tribunal's independence. Judges swear obedience to the Pope who has the absolute power to hire and fire them at will.

Diddi asserted the full independence of the tribunal and its judges. He confirmed that the defence had all opportunities to present its case.

"Even though the Holy See isn't a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, it doesn't place itself outside the international community and doesn't renege on the principles that inspire it" Diddi wrote.

Sources

AP News

Crux Now

CathNews New Zealand

In all, the Vatican's head prosecutor, Alessandro Diddi, asked that the trial's 10 defendants serve a cumulative 73 years and one month in prison.

None of the defendants has been found guilty by the Vatican tribunal, which will continue to hear closing arguments this week. The judges have until December to make a ruling on innocence or guilt and issue a sentence.

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The revelation came during his testimony at the landmark financial misconduct case.

"I did it, and if necessary, I would do it again," the archbishop told a Vatican tribunal in revealing testimony in the landmark financial misconduct case.

The archbishop, who is not a defendant, said he ordered the surveillance to gain information about the "anomalous attitude" of directors of the Institute for Religious Works (IOR) who refused to grant a loan application from the Secretariat of State for a controversial London real estate deal.

Peña Parra also admitted that he "maybe" asked a subordinate to arrange for a wiretap on Mammì's phone, who was then the director of IOR.

Legal repercussions

The surveillance, which occurred inside Vatican City and on Italian territory.

The action could lead to legal repercussions for Archbishop Peña Parra in both jurisdictions.

The Secretariat of State requested the loan from IOR in 2019 to refinance the high-interest mortgage on the London building they had acquired. However, IOR leadership rejected the loan application, leading to pressure from the Secretariat's leadership.

Mammì and the bank's president, Jean Baptiste de Franssu, then took their concerns to Pope Francis, who authorised a criminal investigation into the London deal and the Secretariat of State's finances.

The archbishop's testimony has prompted questions about his future in office.

Peña Parra's predecessor, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, is the star defendant in the current trial.

Becciu stands accused of several financial crimes relating to his tenure in office as sostituto (deputy). However it is Peña Parra who oversaw several controversial aspects of the London property deal that led to the criminal investigation and trial.

Sources

The Pillar

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

But it does not necessarily mean Becciu's rights as a cardinal, stripped by the pope two years ago, are being restored.

Over the weekend, Becciu made headlines for telling attendees of a small private Mass which he celebrated on Sunday, that he is being "reinstated" by Pope Francis.

According to Italian media outlets, Becciu told congregants at Italy's Golfo Aranci that, "On Saturday, the pope phoned me to tell me that I will be reinstated in my cardinal duties and to ask me to participate in a meeting with all the cardinals that will be held in the coming days in Rome".

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It will be the first time in the Vatican's 2,000 year history it has had to appear before UK judges. Some are calling it the trial of the century.

The issue involves a complex land deal in London involving a former Harrods warehouse.

The English Courts have been told there are irregularities and abuses in the real estate's purchase in 2014. It will hear whether the Vatican knowingly inflated the price of the building in the British capital.

The Vatican has also been examining the case since last July. It is trying 11 defendants including Cardinal Angelo Becciu on charges of fraud, abuse, providing false information, corruption, money laundering and disclosure of secret documents.

British-Swiss financier Raffaele Mincione (pictured) was among those against whom charges were brought. He's the one bringing charges against the Vatican via the English Courts.

On one side, Vatican prosecutors claim Mincione committed fraud by inflating the price when his companies sold the property in 2018.

On the other, Mincione denies the allegations and stands by the property valuation which he says was provided by independent experts.

Furthermore, the Vatican has provided no evidence of his alleged wrongdoings or of the monetary loss, he says.

Mincione's civil action in England aims to counter publicity and protect his reputation.

The Vatican tried to counter his claim, arguing that English courts had no jurisdiction to rule on its investment.

An English hearing would also interfere with the Vatican's criminal investigation, with "legitimate acts of a foreign state" and would serve "no useful purpose" the Vatican argued.

However, the British judges decided the Vatican's argument of sovereign immunity doesn't exist in this case, because the property deal involved a commercial transaction.

The British court has the right to examine the documents on the sale of real estate, the judges ruled. It also has the right to decide whether all parties to the transaction acted in good faith.

At this point, it is unclear who exactly will be the witnesses in this case or when the case might be heard.

Source

• News.am

Neustar, a technology and security company, has been named in pretrial motions filed by John Durham, the special counsel investigating the handling of a 2016 inquiry into alleged Russian interference in the US general election.

The company has also featured in the ongoing Vatican financial scandal and trial, with Cardinal Becciu facing questions over millions of dollars of "classified" payments he authorised to the company.

The cardinal has declined to elaborate on the Secretariat of State's need for classified services from a telecommunications security and intelligence firm.

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From the start of the trial in July, attorneys for the 10 defendants in the case have lamented that evidence, including 53 DVDs of interrogations and wiretaps, gathered by investigators had not been turned over to the defence. In an earlier proceeding, the Vatican judges ordered that the entirety of the material be handed over by Nov 3 while disallowing other parts of the prosecutors' case.

On Wednesday, the defence said the Vatican prosecutors had not released a transcript of investigators' interview with Francis, who in Dec 2018 had a brief meeting at the Vatican with Gianluigi Torzi, the Italian broker who helped the Vatican complete the purchase of a luxury London apartment house. The deal eventually lost the Vatican some $200 million after Torzi allegedly charged the church exorbitantly for his interest in the company that owned the property.

A month earlier, Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, a former official at the Vatican Secretariat of State, had met with Torzi in London to sign two contracts with him. According to prosecutors, the documents were signed "before the issue was brought to the attention of the Secretary of State and the Holy Father."

The contracts gave Torzi 1,000 voting shares in the fund that owned the property. He later asked the Vatican to pay him roughly $17 million to relinquish the shares, an act that Vatican prosecutors now label as extortion.

Initially a suspect of the investigation, Perlasca later offered himself as a witness but prosecutors have not made his role in the trial clear.

While interrogating Perlasca on the contracts he signed and the pope's meeting with Torzi prosecutors referred to their interview with Francis, according to the defence. In a recording of Perlasca's interrogation that the defence played in court, the Vatican prosecutor can be heard saying that they "went to the Holy Father and asked him what happened."

"Monsignor Perlasca was confronted with the declarations made by the Holy Father," said Luigi Pannella, a lawyer for Enrico Crasso, a defendant who managed a significant portion of the Vatican's financial portfolio and is accused of money laundering, extortion and corruption.

According to Pannella, mention of the pope's statement led Perlasca, who "is a priest and tied to the Holy Father by a sacred relationship of obedience and subordination," to change his testimony. Lifting his laptop showing the recording above his head, the lawyer told the judges that Perlasca's face showed "supreme disconcertment" and "shock" upon hearing that his testimony differed from that of the pope.

Vatican prosecutor Alessandro Diddi denied that the pope's words had an effect on the case or Perlasca. "This office never heard the Holy Father on the record," Diddi said, charging that the monsignor was not shocked at the prospect of what the pope said, but "instead he paled when this office was able to refute his statement through documentation."

The prosecutor added that some of the material requested by the defence is still missing because it's part of ongoing investigations unconnected to the trial.

But since Francis was mentioned in Perlasca's interrogation, the defence teams insisted that the transcript of the pope's comments be added to the evidence. "The fact that these declarations by the Holy Father are missing in the data undermines the rights of defence," Panella said.

Throughout the trial, defence lawyers have tried to capitalize on the prosecution's withholding of evidence and what they say is a lack of due process, with some likening the trial to a kangaroo court.

The trial is a key turning point in Francis' attempts to clean up the Vatican's finances and introduce corporate standards of transparency. It is also the first time in memory that a cardinal of the church has been put on trial. Cardinal Angelo Becciu, once the third-highest-ranking prelate in the Vatican, is accused of corruption, money laundering and mishandling the institution's funds, including those collected for the pope's charitable works.

It was Becciu's lawyer, Fabio Viglione, who initially led the charge in Wednesday's proceedings, saying evidence handed over by the prosecutors is incomplete and, in some points, redacted. Viglione called the omissions "a mutilation of the evidence."

"The issue here remains the same," Viglione said. "We want to defend ourselves, and we want all the data and what we need to establish an effective defence." According to the lawyer, the persistent reluctance by prosecutors to relinquish the entirety of the evidence implies the "irreparable nullity" of the trial.

The Vatican judges decided to take time to reflect on the demands made by the defence lawyers and adjourned the trial to Dec 1.

First published By Claire Giangravé , Religion News Service

Republished with permission

Sources

Religion News Service

Reuters

The Vatican prosecutor offered to remedy the mistakes by essentially starting over, throwing the trial into question before it really got off the ground.

Deputy prosecutor Alessandro Diddi made the surprise announcement at the first hearing since the trial started in July, saying: "I feel the duty to meet (the defence requests) halfway."

Diddi said his office has always acted to ensure that the rights of the accused were respected. He suggested his proposal was a "common sense" way to address the defence objections.

Defence lawyers told the court Diddi's request was unacceptable and accused Diddi's office of withholding key pieces of evidence from them.

They cited a raft of what they claimed were procedural errors and asked court president Giuseppe Pignatone to annul the 500-page indictment. This action would effectively end the current trial.

The defence maintains the errors by the Vatican prosecution badly harmed their right to a fair trial and ability to mount a defence.

In particular, they want to view videos of five interrogations of Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, a former Vatican official who was first a suspect and then a star witness for the prosecution.

Perlasca is the primary witness against the most prominent defendant, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, a once-powerful Vatican official.

The prosecution has accused Becciu, other former Vatican officials or employees and outside middlemen involved in the deal of embezzlement, abuse of office, and fraud. They all have denied wrongdoing.

The trial revolves mainly around the purchase by the Vatican's Secretariat of State of a 350 million-euro investment in a London property.

The venture lost the Vatican tens of millions of euros. Much of the funds were donations from the faithful that were spent on fees to Italian brokers.

Pignatone adjourned the trial after about two hours and said he would announce his decisions on Wednesday morning.

If Pignatone agrees to Diddi's request, he and others on the prosecution team will return to their work with thousands of pages of evidence and documents. In addition, they will question some of the defendants again and other witnesses for the first time.

Sources

AP News

Reuters

"I hope with all my heart that he is innocent. Besides, he was a collaborator of mine and helped me a lot. He is a person whom I have a certain esteem as a person, that is to say that my wish is that he turns out well … In any case, justice will decide," the pope told Carlos Herrera, a journalist at Spain's COPE radio station.

Becciu is one of 10 defendants in the Vatican's largest trial for financial crimes in the modern era, after the pope changed the norms to allow cardinals to be tried by lay judges.

Becciu is accused of embezzlement and abuse of office, but vehemently denies any wrongdoing.

Read More

The Vatican's trial against Cardinal Angelo Becciu and nine other individuals, along with three corporate entities, alleges extortion, fraud and embezzlement, money laundering and abuse of office.

This is the first time a cardinal has been brought to trial by a civil court on penal charges in the Vatican.

Earlier in the year, Pope Francis issued a decree enabling cardinals and bishops to stand trial before a Vatican civil tribunal. Until then, they had immunity.

Most of this trial's charges stem from a Vatican investigation into how the Vatican Secretariat of State used $200 million to finance a property development project in London's expensive Chelsea district, incurring millions in debt.

The Secretariat's allegedly criminal asset management included using donations from the "Peter's Pence" annual collection.

However, for much of the day's proceedings, it was not Becciu or any of his co-defendants who seemed to be on trial.

Rather, in turn, defence attorneys did their best to portray the Vatican's judicial authority as antiquated and authoritarian.

Lawyers for the lay defendants who chose not to attend the day's session presented a wide array of objections to the trial, mainly lamenting the lack of documentation given to the defence before it began.

Italian broker, Raffaele Mincione was not present at the Vatican civil court trial as he has taken a case against the Vatican in London High Court.

His lawyers said Mincione does not recognize the Vatican as the proper place for his trial.

It was through Mincione that the Secretariat invested in his Athena Capital Fund to purchase his Chelsea property.

The second Italian broker, Gianluigi Torzi, could not attend because he is under house arrest in London.

Torzi faces extradition to Italy and risks arrest if he enters the country.

Also not present was Cecilia Marogna, who at one point, and on behalf of Becciu, carried out intelligence work to help liberate kidnapped missionaries.

Marogna is charged with embezzlement after a large portion of the 500,000 Euros she was paid was spent on luxury goods.

This left Becciu and Monsignor Mauro Carlino, his former personal secretary, as the only two defendants present during Tuesday's hearing.

At the end of the day's proceedings, Becciu reiterated his innocence to journalists.

"I have always been obedient to the pope".

"He has entrusted me with many missions in my life, he wanted me to come to trial and I am coming to trial.

"I am serene, my conscience is clear, I have the confidence that the judges will see the facts correctly and my great hope is certainty that they will recognize my innocence."

As a counter, Becciu says he has ordered his lawyers to file two lawsuits for defamation.

The first is against Msgr Alberto Perlasca, the Secretariat of State's former administrative office chief, who was an initial suspect back in 2020 and the other against and Francesca Chaouqui.

Chaouqui was found guilty in 2016 of leaking confidential documents about Vatican finances. She was given a 10-month suspended sentence.

The Trial was adjourned until October 5.

Source

• America Magazine
• NCR Online
• Crux Now

The indictments are in connection with the Secretariat of State's 350 million-euro investment in a London real estate venture.

The president of the Vatican's criminal tribunal, Giuseppe Pignatone, set July 27 as the trial date, according to a Vatican press statement.

The indictments were handed down following a sprawling, two-year investigation into how the Secretariat of State managed its vast asset portfolio. Much of which is funded by the Peter's Pence donations from the faithful.

The scandal has resulted in a sharp reduction in donations and prompted Pope Francis to strip the office of its ability to manage the money.

Five former Vatican officials, including Cardinal Angelo Becciu and two officials from the Secretariat of State, were indicted, as well as Italian businessmen who handled the London investment.

Read More

"I didn't know that there was so much criminality involved," Pell said. He was speaking to the AP before the Dec. 15 release of the first volume of his jailhouse memoir, 'Prison Journal.'

The book chronicles the first five months of the 404 days Pell spent in solitary confinement in a Melbourne lockup.

The cardinal led the Vatican's Secretariat for the Economy from 2014-2017. He left the job in 2017 to face charges in Australia that he sexually molested two 13-year-old choir boys in 1996.

After a first jury deadlocked, a second unanimously convicted him. He was sentenced to six years in prison. The conviction was upheld on appeal only to be thrown out by Australia's High Court. In April 2020, the court found there was reasonable doubt in the testimony of his lone accuser.

In Prison Journey, Pell makes repeated reference to his three years at the Vatican trying to impose international accounting, budgeting and transparency standards on the Holy See's notoriously siloed bureaucracy, where prefects guard their money, turf and power as fiefdoms.

Pell told AP that the rolling series of financial scandals appeared to show criminal behavior.

A full Vatican trial could eventually establish the whole truth. "It just might be staggering incompetence," he said.

Pell said his efforts had been "sadly vindicated by revelations and developments."

"It would be better for the church if these things hadn't happened, if I wasn't vindicated in this way," said Pell. "But given that they have happened, it's quite clear" that his original reforming agenda was necessary.

Pell's reforming efforts met with institutional resistance from some curial officials and departments, most notably Cardinal Angelo Becciu.

At the time of Pell's tenure at the Secretariat for the Economy, Becciu was sostituto of the Vatican's Secretariat of State. Becciu at one point acted to cancel a contract Pell had made for an external audit of Vatican finances.

CNA has also reported that Pell and Becciu repeatedly clashed over financial affairs. This included the use of Swiss banks to provide financing for different investments allegedly obscured from Vatican balance sheets. Amongst them was the controversial purchase of a London building for €350 million, and the millions of euros in donations from the faithful paid to Italian middlemen to manage the deal.

On Sept. 24, Becciu was asked by Pope Francis to resign from his Vatican job and from the rights of cardinals. Media reports suggested that he used Church funds to benefit family members. Other accounts indicated Becciu had used church funds to influence the outcome of Pell's sex abuse trial in Australia.

Becciu has denied the charges.

Pell said of the allegations against Becciu that "I hope for the sake of the Church, there's nothing in it."

Sources

AP News

Crux

Catholic News Agency

The Vatican cardinal was sacked by Pope Francis in September, amid a corruption investigation. He is suing Italian news magazine L'Espresso, claiming that by ruining his reputation his chance of becoming pope was destroyed.

Bacciu's complaint raises questions about the conduct of Vatican criminal prosecutors investigating a corruption case. It suggests they leaked information to L'Espresso about financial irregularities in the Holy See.

Becciu resigned as the prefect of the Vatican's head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in September after Pope Francis had presented the cardinal with allegations he had sent €100,000 in Holy See funds to a charity controlled by his brother.

Becciu admitted he sent the funds to the charity, not his brother - and told reporters he had done nothing wrong.

To date, he has not been under investigation in that case or any other, Becciu said in a statement announcing the lawsuit's seeking damages.

In his legal complaint, Becciu claimed that his sacking was a coordinated hit job with L'Espresso.

The magazine broke news of the payment to his brother in a story that went to the printers Sept. 24.

The complaint alleges Francis had a copy of the magazine's article on his desk during the Sept. 24 meeting at which he sacked Becciu. This suggested an internal leak of the story to the Vatican.

The L'Espresso's publisher has said some early editions "disappeared" from the printer that night and ended up on the pope's desk.

The complaint also says that nearly eight hours before Becciu's 6 p.m. meeting with Francis, L'Espresso created a webpage with an article entitled "This is why Cardinal Becciu resigned."

Citing the timestamp of the site's metadata, the complaint argues that the magazine knew about Becciu's sacking before he did, suggesting coordination with the Vatican.

L'Espresso has been leading the charge against Becciu. It has published a series of unsourced and speculative articles outlining prosecutors' case against him. Some of them citing unnamed Vatican investigators but others offering no attribution for the magazine's claims.

Sources

• Religion News
• Catholic News Agency

When Cardinal Pell left Rome in 2017 to return to Australia to face those abuse charges his future seemed bleak, while that of his nemesis, then-Archbishop Angelo Becciu, seemed almost unlimited.

Cardinal Becciu was as the height of his power as the sostituto, the pontiff's Chief of Staff, having wrested control of the Vatican's financial reform away from Cardinal Pell and centralizing it largely in his own hands.

The changes of fortune since that moment have been almost too numerous to track.

A year later, Cardinal Becciu was out as the sostituto, though it was a soft landing since he was made a cardinal and assigned to run the Vatican's department for making saints, one of those positions in which it's possible to make new friends and reward old ones.

Still, the view was that the boss must have lost a degree of faith in Cardinal Becciu to remove him from what is, by common consensus, perhaps the most important post in the Vatican after the papacy itself.

Several months later, Cardinal Pell was convicted in a second abuse trial in Australia in February 2019 after a first resulted in a hung jury, and he began serving what would turn out to be more than 400 days behind bars.

Yet, after a little more than a year, Cardinal Pell was once more a free man. Several months later, Cardinal Becciu wasn't quite in prison but unquestionably in the dog house - fired from his post at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and his rights as a cardinal, and a magnet for accusations and investigations regarding virtually every form of fraud on the books.

So, is Cardinal Pell back? More likely than not, it depends on what you mean by "back."

His Monday tête-à-tête with Pope Francis clearly means that his exoneration on abuse charges is complete, at least as far as Pope Francis and his team are concerned.

If there were any lingering doubt about his guilt, not only would he not have gotten a half-hour with the pontiff, but Vatican News wouldn't have published a lengthy piece that ended with the subhead, "The Holy See welcomes the acquittal."

Moreover, sources around Pope Francis say the pontiff deeply admires the way Cardinal Pell handled his ordeal, trusting in his own innocence and allowing the Australian justice system to do its work without any assertions of special privileges.

The pontiff was photographed smiling during the encounter and was seemingly happy to have the chance to pass some time with Cardinal Pell.

As far as Cardinal Becciu goes, we already know that Cardinal Pell has taken deep satisfaction in his dismissal, issuing a statement congratulating Pope Francis and expressing hope the cleaning of the stables will continue.

Cardinal Becciu's downfall has been read by insiders as an indication that Cardinal Pell was on the right track when he was running the financial reform and had the old guard quarterbacked by Cardinal Becciu in his sights.

Therefore, it's entirely fair to say that Oct. 12 audience put an exclamation point on the vindication of George Pell.

Some, however, wonder if Cardinal Pell is "back" in another sense, meaning a return to power in the Vatican, finally being able to finish what he started as Pope Francis' "tip of the spear" for financial reform in 2014.

A resurgence in that sense is much less likely, for a variety of reasons. Continue reading

Becciu, a former top Vatican official was fired last month by Pope Francis, who accused him of embezzlement and nepotism. Becciu has denied all wrongdoing.

Cecilia Marogna (39) was arrested in Milan under an international warrant issued by a Vatican magistrates.

A senior Vatican source says Holy See magistrates suspect Marogna of embezzlement and aggravated misappropriation in complicity with others.

Recent Italian newspaper reports say Becciu used his senior position at the Vatican Secretariat of State to pass hundreds of thousands of euros in Holy See funds to Marogna's Slovenian-based consulting firm, purportedly for humanitarian operations in Africa and Asia.

Marogna is not denying she had received 500,000 euros ($587,350) over a four-year period from Becciu.

Exactly what the money was used for is still being investigated.

In one report Marogna says it was used to run a "parallel diplomacy" to help missionaries in conflict zones.

She says the money was used as compensation, travel reimbursements and consultancy fees as well as some luxury expenditures.

Using her purchases of designer handbags as an example, she says they were purchased "maybe for the wife of a Nigerian friend who was in a position to talk to the president of Burkina Faso."

Marogna's work for the Vatican Secretariat of State was not previously known.

It is not yet known what charges Marogna could face if she was merely on the receiving end of consulting fees approved by Becciu.

He had been given broad discretionary authority to manage the Secretariat of State's assets by his senior at the Secretariat, Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Becciu's lawyer says his client knew Marogna but his dealings with her had been "exclusively about institutional matters."

The sacked cardinal has also been caught up in another Vatican financial scandal revolving around the use of Church money to invest in a luxury building in London.

Last year, L'Espresso linked the cardinal to a shady investment in high-end London real estate.

The Vatican allegedly paid over US$200 million into the venture — mostly from donations from Catholic faithful. In the meanwhile, middlemen allegedly pocketed tens of millions in fees. Five Vatican employees were subsequently suspended.

Becciu has denied all wrongdoing in the deal and defended the purchase, saying the property has increased in value.

Source

• Reuters
• Business Insider
• NPR
• Image:Stuff

"My client denies any knowledge or receipt of any payments," attorney Vivian Waller, who represents a man who accused Pell of sexual abuse, said in an Oct. 5 statement.

"He won't be commenting further in response to these allegations." Read more

Pell and Becciu were known rivals in the bid to reform the finances of the Holy See before Pell returned to Australia to face child sex abuse charges.

"There is no connection between the two things," Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin (pictured) says. And no, he doesn't know how Pell plans to spend his time in Rome.

All he will say is Pell's return to Rome is domestic: that Pell asked to return in April after being acquitted on appeal by Australia's High Court for abusing two boys while serving as Archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s.

"There was no summoning of Pell by the pope. It was he who asked to come to Rome to end his stay here, because he still has his apartment, so he came here to close it up."

Pell's arrival last Wednesday, just days after Becciu - the pope's former chief of staff - resigned from his post as head of the Vatican's department for saints and from his rights as a cardinal.

Though no formal reason was given for his departure, Becciu told reporters he had been accused of embezzling 100,000 euros ($116,200) and diverting it to companies with family involved.

Before his conviction, Pell oversaw the Vatican's Secretariat for the Economy.

Pell's primary task was to clean up the Vatican's murky financial situation, but his efforts were met with resistance from Becciu who disagreed over the reform process.

In a lengthy interview with Australian journalist Andrew Bolt after his release, Pell suggested that the allegations against him could be related to his efforts to clean up Vatican financial corruption.

He said although he doesn't have evidence, he thinks the man who accused him of sexual abuse had been "used."

After Becciu's resignation, Pell issued a statement in which he "thanked and congratulated" the pope for firing Becciu.

The move was part of the pope's effort "to clean up Vatican finances," he said.

"I hope the cleaning of the stables continues in both the Vatican and Victoria, [Australia]" he said.

Source

• Crux Now
• Image: Crux Now