Vatican Cardinal Gets Five Years For Embezzlement

December 16, 2023 Crime, Religion

The Washington Post reports:

Inside the high walls of the Holy See, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu — former head of the office of “miracles” that minted saints — was considered papabile, a possible next pope. Then his career collided with church prosecutors, who charged the 75-year-old Italian and nine other officials with corruption, setting up the Vatican’s trial of the century.

On Saturday, Becciu — the first cardinal tried by the Vatican’s little-known criminal court — was found guilty of several counts of embezzlement after a trial of marred by allegations of witness tampering and papal interference. Becciu was sentenced to five years and six months in a verdict read out in the museum that houses the Sistine Chapel.

The Catholic site Crux Now reports:

Becciu, 75, was already the first cardinal ever to stand trial on criminal charges before a Vatican civil court, and he now becomes the first ever to be convicted and sentenced.

From 2011 to 2018 Becciu held the all-important position of sostituto, or “substitute,” in the Secretariat of State, making him effectively the pope’s chief of staff, the only figure in the Vatican system with the right to see the pope on a routine basis without an appointment.

The case pivots on a controversial $400 million land deal in London, which began in 2014 when the Vatican’s Secretariat of State first acquired an interest in a former Harrod’s warehouse in the posh neighborhood of Chelsea. After various twists and turns, the Vatican eventually sold the property for $224 million, resulting in a net loss of around $150 million.

CNN reports:



Becciu was in charge when the initial investment in the London property deal using church funds was approved. He was also charged with embezzling more than €125,000 ($136,000) of church funds in a Sardinian charity run by his brother, and authorizing €575,000 ($618,000) in payments from the Secretariat of State to Cecilia Marogna, a “security consultant” purportedly to help free a nun kidnapped in Africa.

Vatican prosecutors argued this money was used for personal purposes by Marogna including over $54,000 spent on clothing, footwear and fashion accessories from high-end brands such as Prada, Gucci and Hermes. Marogna, who is in her 40s, has been dubbed the “cardinal’s lady” given her association with Becciu. During the trial court was shown images taken by Marogna inside the cardinal’s apartment and posted on social media with captions reading “feeling at home” and “my paradise.”

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