At the entrance to the courtroom everyone stood up in silence. Under the eyes of around ten gendarmes stationed at the entrance to a specially equipped multi-purpose room at the Vatican Museums, lawyers and prosecutors listened on Saturday, December 16, to a decision that had been expected for two and a half years. That evening, after deliberating for more than four hours, the Vatican tribunal sentenced Cardinal Angelo Becciu, a former very close associate of Francis, to five and a half years in prison and a life ban for fraud and embezzlement.
49 charges, 190 million euros in losses
This verdict by the Italian cardinal, coupled with a fine of 8,000 euros, is in addition to the sentences imposed on eight other defendants out of the ten who appeared in court. In total, 37 years and one month in prison were imposed in what has already been dubbed the “trial of the century” by some in the Vatican. And at the center was an extraordinary defendant: Cardinal Angelo Becciu, deputy (“number 3” of the Vatican) between 2011 and 2018, from whom the Pope had already withdrawn his cardinal privileges in September 2020, before a trial was opened in July 2021.
The Sardinian cardinal maintained his innocence throughout the trial and against whom the judicial officer – synonymous with the public prosecutor – had requested seven years in prison. He repeatedly emphasized that he had never benefited from the Holy See's financial mismanagement.
It must be said that this decision of exceptional symbolic and political importance completes a process that has lasted more than two years. Month after month, the judges tried to untangle the threads of several intertwined cases: first, that of the Vatican's disastrous investment in a building in London – which in this case cost almost 190 million euros – and allegations of Cardinal Becciu accused of embezzlement for the benefit of his family, and finally, the mission entrusted to an intermediary who claimed to be able to rescue a Colombian nun held hostage in Mali.
A total of 49 charges, detailed in a nearly 500-page report in July 2021, as well as dozens of pieces of evidence such as phone records, memoirs, video images and other exchanges via WhatsApp messages. At the heart of the trial was the crucial question: Was the Cardinal's technical incompetence due to ingenuity or a desire to do harm?
A responsible anti-mafia judge
For the first time ever, it was a cardinal who appeared before the civil justice system of the smallest state in the world. A revolution if we know that until then the “princes of the church” could only be judged by the Pope. Until a decree signed by Francis in April 2021 that made the cardinals litigants like the others.
During the 86 hearings, the court, presided over by the former Italian anti-Mafia judge Giuseppe Pignatone, who traveled from Palermo to Rome for each hearing and was always accompanied by his armed bodyguards, questioned the 14 defendants (ten natural persons and four companies ). Calm and determination.
An unprecedented exposure of the Vatican's shortcomings
Since its opening in July 2021, the Vatican has sought to make this trial an exemplary moment by making it widely available to journalists and covering each hearing in its official media, Vatican News. Over the months, the revelation of these dysfunctions has clearly turned this process into a work culture characterized by a form of amateurism and lightness, in addition to leading judges to decide financial cases. Many members of the Curia today believe it is a damaging revelation for the Vatican's image. Who asks, like this source from the Apostolic Palace: “Was all of this really necessary?” »
Beyond these matters, this long process has also exposed the internal deficiencies in the functioning of the papal administration. For example, the use of unscrupulous intermediaries, especially at the financial level. This is the case of Raffaele Mincione and Enrico Crasso, both of whom offered their services to the Vatican to invest or manage investments, all of which were disastrous. In total they collect 2.5 million euros.
As for the head of the office responsible for investigating these investments, Mgr. Alberto Perlasca, who was implicated for a while by the Vatican judiciary before being considered a key witness (and therefore exonerated), he was a lawyer, Experts in canon law without much knowledge of financial workings. So many layers of detail throughout the process, adding to the sense of opacity in how the Roman Curia operates.
Secret services and secret services
At the international level, the figure of Cecilia Marogna is particularly significant, who was also sentenced to three years and nine months in prison for largely embezzling the 575,000 euros entrusted to her to free a Colombian nun held hostage in Mali . Because the choice of person leaves an outside observer speechless. Cecilia Marogna, who presented herself in court as a specialist in international law, was also employed by Cardinal Becciu, to whom she was introduced in 2016 as an expert in geopolitics and secret services. A skill that was largely usurped by this young woman, unknown to the diplomats from the Secretariat of State interviewed by La Croix, who spent a large part of the money entrusted by the Vatican on luxury items.
State secrets uncovered
Some also regret the disclosure of state secrets during the hearings, such as the practice, mentioned by Cardinal Becciu himself, of paying ransom when a priest or religious is taken hostage. A practice that until then had only been half-heartedly admitted in private by diplomats at the Apostolic Palace, but never officially confirmed. Other unsavory practices were also made public, such as the Secretariat of State's order to wiretap a Vatican Bank official.
“As Cardinal Silvestrini said, when money comes along, good priests are often so good that they trust criminals, and delinquent priests always trust criminals because they are like them,” smiles historian Alberto Melloni, remembering the man’s joke , who held very high positions in the Curia between 1979 and 2000.
The responsibility of the Pope named by the defendant
“In this state where everything goes back to the Pope, who is responsible for everything, the Vatican tribunal has done everything not to burden the Holy Father,” explains a good expert on the smallest state in the world. However, throughout the 600-hour hearing, the Holy See officials concerned repeatedly emphasized that all of their court decisions had been approved by Pope Francis.
This logic also follows that Angelo Becciu tried several times to directly involve Pope Francis during the trial. Even without his knowledge, a call was recorded showing the pope barely leaving the hospital in July 2021 after major intestinal surgery. Angelo Becciu then asked him to confirm that he had actually approved the payment of half a million euros to free the Colombian nun.
A deferring appeal
The Italian prelate had also tried to persuade the pope to exonerate him, in an exchange of letters in which the cardinal wrote to the pope: “I should name you as a witness in the trial, but I dare not.” However, two statements from you that confirm the course of events. »
A request that François has just received: “I regret to inform you that I cannot comply with your request.” François would have preferred to let the court do its job until the end. Until a historical sentence is uttered. A few minutes after reading the decision, Cardinal Becciu's lawyer, visibly stunned, announced that he “obviously” wanted to appeal. A deferred appeal under Vatican law against any detention.