In Catholic Rome there is anticipation for Christmas, the city is richly decorated and prayers for grace and mercy are prayed for in church services, but for this church leader the measure was full: The Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, 75, was convicted by a court of the Papal States late on Saturday afternoon He was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for fraud and embezzlement, as the Holy See immediately officially announced. Becciu is the first cardinal in recent church history to be convicted by the Vatican judiciary. The public prosecutor had demanded a prison sentence of seven years and three months as well as a high fine. Becciu’s lawyers announced that they would appeal the verdict.
In addition to the cardinal, nine other people – church representatives and private individuals – were charged with crimes such as extortion, money laundering, fraud, corruption, embezzlement and abuse of office. Judge Guiseppe Pignatone sentenced some of them to prison terms and fines, while others were acquitted. Those convicted also include several financial advisors who were involved in dubious Vatican transactions.
After two and a half years and 86 days of litigation, this ended a financial process that went beyond all previous dimensions. This is primarily due to the personality of the main defendant. For many years, from 2011 to 2018, Cardinal Becciu was a substitute in the State Secretariat and was therefore the second most important man in the central church leadership authority in the Vatican. According to the court, he bears primary responsibility for a loss-making real estate deal that the Vatican conducted in London starting in 2014.
Through a financial service provider, the State Secretariat invested a three-digit million sum in a former warehouse of the Harrods department store group in a prime location in the London district of Chelsea, which was to be expanded into a luxury business property. The deal turned out to be a flop, and in the end the Vatican had to sell at a high discount. The nature of the business relationship raised many questions. Overall, the damage to the Vatican is said to be around 150 million euros.
570,000 euros did not help a kidnapped nun in Mali, but was spent on fashion and luxury
But that’s not enough. The court also investigated the suspicion that the cardinal had benefited social organizations in his homeland of Sardinia, which were run by relatives, with a total of 125,000 euros from the Vatican treasury. And he is said to be partly to blame for the fact that a businesswoman and alleged geopolitical expert – called the “Cardinal’s Lady” in the media – allegedly defrauded the Vatican of 570,000 euros. She was supposed to use the money to organize the rescue of a kidnapped nun in Mali, but instead she spent it on fashion and other luxury goods. She received a prison sentence of three years and nine months.
Becciu in particular fought against his conviction with all means possible. Employees were incriminated, the facility was criticized as biased, evidence was disputed, information was leaked to the press. During the course of the trial, it hardly emerged that Becciu had even secretly recorded a telephone conversation with his former sponsor, Pope Francis, in which he wanted to hear from the Pope that he had been informed about all the relevant activities and agreed with them – which he did but couldn’t really remember.
Francis had long hesitated about dropping Becciu. Although he replaced him in the State Secretariat in 2018, he then made him prefect – i.e. head – of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints – which some interpreted as an early acquittal, others as a relegation of the disgraced man to a less important post. In 2020, the Pope took away this office from him and also his essential rights as a cardinal, even if he can continue to use the title.
The former Vatican financial supervisor René Brülhart was only mildly sentenced. The Swiss was brought in as an expert in 2019 when the London business had already gotten out of control. Pope Benedict had already resorted to his services. Brülhart became president of the papal financial supervision, but without operational tasks; he gave up the office at the end of 2019. Nevertheless, he was co-accused for failing to intervene and stop suspicious payments; the prosecution demanded a prison sentence of several years. However, the court acquitted him of the charge of involvement in embezzlement and fraudulent activities and only blamed him for not reporting the suspicious events to the Vatican judiciary. There was a fine of 1,750 euros for this.
Daring financial transactions have long been common in the Vatican, and deals with the mafia are also widely reported. All of this was facilitated by the secrecy structure in the Vatican, the esprit de corps that prevailed there – and the constant financial difficulties of the Holy See, which, although it has large real estate assets, especially in Rome, is still notoriously cash-strapped. For many years and despite all efforts to save money, expenses have always been higher than income. Personnel and administrative costs alone are estimated at around 300 million euros annually, and the annual deficit is up to 60 million euros.
Finances have worried Francis since he took office ten years ago, as did his predecessor, the German Pope Benedict XVI. Francis has repeatedly made clear his disgust at the pomp and luxury in which some of the highest dignitaries live and has castigated the vice of greed. The Pope withdrew control over assets from the Secretariat of State and handed them over to the Vatican Assets Administration (APSA) and the Vatican Bank IOR. Since then, business has apparently been more orderly, we hear.
However, this did not help the Holy See’s financial difficulties. On Thursday, the Pope consulted with two of his most important financial executives. So he first received the coordinator of the Vatican Economic Council, Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx, later APSA boss Father Giordano Piccinotti. Two days earlier, the Vatican released a letter from the pope to staff at his economic council in which he expressed concern about the Holy See’s persistent deficit and called on staff to resolve the problem.