What Cardinal Becciu Was Convicted For
He insisted that he was only involved in the early stages of the purchase of the London property in 2018. Already in June 2018, his successor, Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra took over the matter. This is correct but Becciu has been convicted for other things, as PillarCatholic.com summarises.
In 2014, he approved the Secretariat of State's investment of 200 million euros in a highly speculative hedge fund. Becciu accepted a high capital risk without the necessary authorisation. He said during the trial that he "could not remember" why his signatures were on the relevant documents and why he had authorised the financial transactions.
Becciu was the main opponent in the Secretariat of State of the audit of the Vatican's finances carried out by Cardinal Pell in 2015-16. Pell confirmed that Becciu had used forbidden accounting practices to hide the relevant balance sheets for the 200 million investment, including bank loans.
During the trial, Becciu made contradictory claims. He said that he had never refused to cooperate with Pell. Then he said that Pell had no authority to audit the Secretariat of State. Finally, Becciu admitted that he had hidden the balance sheets, but that the reason was a secret papal discretionary fund that was not subject to the Vatican's financial laws.
Pell insisted that these claims were false as Francis had given him full access to all Vatican departments.
In a second charge, Becciu was convicted of giving €575,000 to his friend Cecilia Marogna. She had acted as a private spy for Becciu, seemingly compiling dossiers on the moral failings of senior church officials.
Becciu and Marogna later concocted the story that she had received the money to pay the ransom for a nun kidnapped in Mali. Italian intelligence services denied that Marogna had anything to do with their efforts to secure the nun's release in 2021. Financial records show that the money was used for private purposes such as travel and luxury items.
The third charge relates to family matters. Cardinal Becciu transferred funds to the accounts of a charitable company controlled by his brother. This violated canonical prohibitions against transferring church property to relatives. The police also found forged delivery notes at the brother's charity for 20 tonnes (!) of bread to be distributed to "the poor".
The average bread consumption in Italy per person per year is 33 kg. 20 tonnes is enough to feed over 600 people for a whole year.
There were two Vatican payments into the personal bank account of Becciu's brother totalling €130,000. Cardinal Becciu claimed it was "common practice" for Vatican funds to be deposited with individuals, including family members, for charitable purposes.
Picture: © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk, CC BY-NC-ND, #newsZbwmejfali
