Appeal hearing of Cardinal Becciu begins in the Vatican

The Appeal Hearing of Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the former substitute for the Secretary of State of the Vatican who was sentenced in December 2023 for embezzlement, aggravated fraud and abuse of power, was scheduled to begin on Monday.

Listened to by an appeal court of the Vatican composed of six judges, the appeal is expected to reexamine both factual and procedural objections of the first trial, including evidence, judicial transcripts and all the presentations of the defense of Cardinal Becciu and the Vatican Prosecutor’s Office.

After the so -called “Century trial”, which lasted two and a half years, Cardinal Becciu, 77, was declared guilty of poor financial management and sentenced to five years and six months in prison. A fine of 8,000 euros was also imposed and was permanently disabled to exercise public office.

The cardinal appeal will be heard together with that of eight other defendants who were also judged, found guilty and received a variety of sentences. Five of those defendants – Fafae Menciona, Enrico Crasso, Gianluigi Torzi, Fabrizio Tirabassi and Cecilia Marogna – also received prison sentences of diverse duration.

Becciu was the first cardinal to be tried by a Vatican court and has been released waiting for the result of his appeal. Despite initially stating that it was eligible to vote in the May conclave, he decided to retire “for the good of the Church” and for “obedience” to Pope Francis.

The Vatican court said that Cardinal’s conviction was based on “Full and irrefutable tests” that he was investing money from the Vatican in a highly speculative real estate operation in Sloane Avenue, London, with “total contempt” for the policies of the Vatican. Given the way in which the operation was structured and restructured, it ended up causing the Vatican losses of more than 200 million dollars. The Italian cardinal was then a substitute for the State Secretariat when it began to negotiate the real estate operation in 2014, using funds from the Secretariat.

The cardinal was also convicted of making at least 125,000 euros in unauthorized payments to his brother’s beneficial organization in Sardinia, as well as diverting more than 500,000 euros of Vatican funds to the geopolitical expert Cecilia Marogna, who, instead of using them for intelligence and a humanitarian mission to free a religious kidnapped in Mali luxury and trips.

Cardinal Becciu has constantly defended his innocenceholding that he acted with the approval or papal authority. He has insisted that donations were allocated to humanitarian or ecclesiastical purposes, and that there were procedural irregularities during investigation and trial.

The purple has stressed that his position as a substitute (number two in the Secretary of State) demanded to act with papal confidence and that this role granted him broad discretion for diplomatic and humanitarian missions, such as rescue efforts to free the kidnapped religious.

The cardinal has insisted that the money sent to the beneficial organization SARDA was requested by the local bishop for social projects, remained in the diocesan coffers and did not go to personal or family benefit. Regarding Marogna, Becciu has affirmed that all payments were allocated to legitimate diplomatic and security services, not to inappropriate or private purposes.

In defense of the cardinal, his lawyers have argued that The Prosecutor’s Office benefited from unleashed papal decrees that allowed secret listening and arrests without court order, and that the witnesses were prepared by the Vatican Police, which undermined the guarantees of a fair trial.

Cardinal Becciu has also claimed new tests of external manipulation and collusion With Vatican prosecutors, reiterating their claim to have been “victim of a conspiracy” built on falsehoods and media pressure, statements that have been strongly denied.

Has also said that He was unjustly guilty From the beginning and what key extinguctional evidence were ignored or passed over the trial, accusations that the Vatican court dismissed. His defense plans to challenge both the factual conclusions and the legal procedures in his appeal.

Last October, the Vatican published his reasons to condemn Cardinal Angelo Becciu, indicating that he was involved in the illicit use of funds of the Holy See despite not having a “lucrative purpose” and stressing that the trial was fair.

Commenting on the sentence of 800 pages in a editorial In L’Osservatore Romano, Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of Vatican Media, reaffirmed the assessment of the trial as fair. He added that the result showed the need for prelates and those who manage Vatican finances yield for their actions.

Although Tornielli did not appoint Cardinal Becciu, he criticized the editorial for his “vaguely moralist tone” and again defended his innocence. He acknowledged that the sums related to the real estate operation of London were “huge”, but insisted that they did not lack precedents and that they had “the approval of the superior of that moment”, that is, the head of the Vatican Administrative Office, Mons. Alberto Pelasca, who, as the main witness of the trial, avoided the accusation.

As in the trial, Cardinal Becciu was accused of trying The degree of involvement of the Pope It has never been entirely clarified.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in the National Catholic Register.