VATICAN CITY (AP) — A once-powerful cardinal testified Thursday that he donated 125,000 euros ($140,000) of Vatican money to a Sardinian diocese for purely charitable reasons, dismissing claims by state prosecutors. Vatican that the money would have benefited his brother who ran the charity.
Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the first-ever cardinal to testify in the Vatican criminal court, said he could not deny that his brother Antonino Becciu was the legal representative of the charity Spes, which is the operational arm of the charity operation Caritas of the diocese of Ozieri. .
But Becciu insisted that Spes had a long track record of good works in his home diocese, and that the cash donations from the Holy See, which he was authorized to distribute, met the verifiable needs requested by the Bishop of Ozieri: one initiative was to rebuild a burnt-out bakery that employed disadvantaged young people, while another was to build a multi-purpose social center for the poor.
Prosecutors accused Becciu of embezzling funds from the Holy See and tried him along with nine other people accused of defrauding the Vatican of tens of millions of euros, much of the cash donations from the faithful. The main focus of the lawsuit concerns the Vatican’s 350 million euro investment in a London property venture, but the lawsuit also encompasses unrelated investigations, including Becciu’s Sardinian donations. All 10 defendants have denied any wrongdoing.
Becciu, who was once the powerful No. 2 in the Vatican Secretariat of State, was to be the first suspect to be questioned on the stand on Thursday.
But prosecutor Alessandro Diddi, who led the Vatican investigation for nearly three years, told the court he was not ready for questioning. Diddi cited other work that had taken his time and COVID-19 cases in his office that left him unprepared to interview Becciu.
As a result, Becciu read an introductory statement in court, insisting on his innocence and denouncing the “violent and vulgar” media campaign that erupted against him after Pope Francis forced his resignation in September 2020.
Francis snatched Becciu’s rights and privileges as a cardinal based on preliminary reports he had received about the transfer of funds from the Holy See to the charity Spes. Becciu had yet to be investigated by Vatican prosecutors, but his very public downfall sparked months of salacious reports in Italian media.
Some reports have accused him of conspiring to fund the sexual abuse lawsuits against his nemesis Cardinal George Pell, others have accused him of having an intimate relationship with another defendant, while others still immersed themselves in the affairs of his family.
“I have been described as a corrupt man. Greedy for money. Disloyal to the Pope. Concerned only with the welfare of my family,” Becciu told the court on Thursday. “They insinuated infamy on the integrity of my priestly life, having financed witnesses in a lawsuit against a colleague, even owning oil wells or tax havens.”
“Absurd accusations. Incredible. Grotesque. Monstrous. One wonders who wanted all this and for what purpose, ”he said.
Becciu insisted that his conscience was clear, that he had always acted in the interests of the Holy See, that he had never intended Vatican money to be embezzled and that he hoped the Vatican court would get to the truth.
Responding to a few questions from Judge Giuseppe Pignatone, Becciu insisted that he did not know how Ozieri’s diocesan bank accounts were organized and simply wired the funds to the IBAN account number given by the Bishop.
Becciu is due to return to the stand on April 6 for further questioning, including on his hiring of an alleged Sardinian intelligence analyst as an outside consultant to the Vatican to negotiate the freedom of Catholic hostages in Africa.
Becciu authorized more than half a million euros in payments to the analyst who, according to bank statements, went to buy furniture and high-end luxury items.
Becciu has so far refused to discuss his relationship with Cecilia Marogna, citing papal secrecy. Pignatone ruled on Thursday that the court would ask the Vatican Secretariat of State to determine whether Becciu could be released from papal secrecy to testify about Marogna, who also claimed official secrecy by refusing to be interviewed.
