Cardinal Becciu Defends Himself in an Interview
- "In my capacity as substitute [of the Secretary of State], I was responsible for 17 offices, one of which managed the funds of the Secretariat of State."
- "The office's task was to propose investments and I always approved what was presented to me."
- "I had no qualifications or experience in the field, and we sometimes joked about it."
- "The head of the Administrative Office of the Secretariat of State [Monsignor Alberto Perlasca], who was accused by the Vatican's Promoter of Justice, suddenly implicated me by making accusations against me in a memoir that was instrumental in dragging me into this trial."
- "I was not condemned for the investment [in London], but only for having authorised it", although "the written authorisation for the investment came from the then Cardinal Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone, my superior".
- "I was never the one ultimately responsible for the Vatican's finances."
- "Bertone's decision was based on an expertise from our special office for investments, i.e. Perlasca's experts."
- The [London] transaction went through four phases: first, the actual investment with the acquisition of 45% of the fund that owned the property; second, the exit from the fund before the deadline; third, the purchase of the property and the transfer of its management to the broker Torzi; fourth, the sale [at a heavy loss]: "I was only responsible for the first phase, the investment."
- "My office manager [Perlasca] always assured me that everything was going well" and "I only found out about the problems in October 2019, a year after I left the post of substitute."
- "Not a single cent from the London deal went into my pocket" and "I have no property, except for an old Mazda from 2001".
- On the accusation that Becciu favoured Mincione, the financier who managed the London fund: "Why should I have favoured someone who had caused losses to the Secretariat of State? And why, when I had not earned a penny from all this, did I receive almost the same punishment as those who had pocketed millions?".
- On the accusation that Becciu, together with Cecilia Marogna, had embezzled the money for the liberation of the kidnapped Sister Gloria: "The accusation was so absurd that Professor Giovanni Maria Flick, the lawyer who represented the Vatican's property management company, Apsa, demanded my acquittal".
- On the accusation that Marogna received €575,000 from the Vatican for Sister Gloria's release, but spent it on herself: "I assume that she correctly collaborated with a British agency that organised the liberation."
- Becciu was found guilty of colluding with his brother, although a transfer of 125,000 euros was legal: "The transfers went to the diocesan Caritas account. There was never any secret deal with my brother! I acted at the request of the bishops of my home diocese in Sardinia, who asked me for help for their charitable works in 2015 and 2018. It was absolutely my responsibility to make these donations. Even the court came to the conclusion that the money did not end up in my brother's pockets".
- "In the trial, it became clear through very clear testimony that a plot had been hatched against me."
- The media activists interviewing Becciu ask if Francesca Chaouqui, who was sentenced to prison by the Vatican court in 2016, was behind it. Becciu's reply: "I'd rather not talk about that person."
- But then he says: "In the trial, it was not I who mentioned her, but two witnesses who told of her role at the time when the head of the Secretariat [Perlasca] began to accuse me."
Picture: © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk, CC BY-NC-ND, #newsFqtwxdvphb
