Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, previously the head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the group in the Curia that oversees the process of the canonization of saints, renounced the rights of the Cardinalate on September 24 at the request of Pope Francis. He is still referred to as “His Eminence,” implying that he has retained his title of cardinal while being stripped of all privileges, including the right to participate in any papal conclaves. He was replaced in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints by Bishop Marcello Semeraro.
Cardinal Becciu had acted as the Substitute for General Affairs in the Secretariat of State, effectively the pope’s chief of staff, until 2018, becoming the head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints shortly afterwards. The offices of the Secretariat of State were raided by Vatican police on October 1, 2019 due to “irregular financial transactions in the millions” regarding Vatican-owned real estate. It was revealed by the Catholic News Agency that Cardinal Becciu attempted to hide loans on Vatican balance sheets by covering them with real estate value from a property in London, which was a practice that was outlawed by financial accounting policies implemented by Pope Francis.
Pope Francis’ request that Cardinal Becciu tender his resignation was allegedly due to nepotism and embezzlement of Vatican funds, although there are reports of other forms of monetary mismanagement that Cardinal Becciu oversaw before 2018, specifically with regard to his quarrels with Cardinal George Pell. Cecilia Marogna, who worked with Cardinal Becciu in an unknown capacity prior to 2018, received €500,000 from Cardinal Becciu to run a “parallel diplomacy” for aiding missionaries in conflict areas. She was arrested October 13 under charges of embezzlement and aggravated misappropriation. Both Cardinal Becciu and Marogna maintain that they have committed no wrongdoing.
Cardinal Pell had recognized these dubious financial practices at the time. When Pell, as the overseer of economic activities in the Vatican, searched for the details behind these loans, then-Archbishop Becciu called Cardinal Pell into the Secretariat of State to “reprimand” him. Later in 2016, Cardinal Pell initiated a new wave of Vatican financial reforms meant to continue the ones passed by Pope Francis in 2014. Cardinal Becciu brought them to a halt by cancelling an audit that Cardinal Pell had placed on all Vatican departments by the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Becciu declared in a letter to all Vatican departments that, without the pope’s permission, the audit was cancelled. Cardinal Pell continued to challenge Becciu’s authority to cancel the audit, but Cardinal Becciu convinced Pope Francis to leave the cancellation of the audit in place.
Becciu continued to defend the investment in London that he used to balance Vatican loans as an “accepted practice” even as the Vatican police raids were underway, resulting in the arrest of one of the businessmen involved. Becciu was also involved in a series of financial transactions surrounding the purchase of the Istituto Dermopatico Dell’Immacolata, an Italian hospital that was closed down over €800 million in debt was accrued through theft and fraud. Cardinal Becciu will continue to reside in his Vatican City apartment for the foreseeable future.
Featured image courtesy of Claude Truong-Ngoc via Wikimedia Commons
Grant is a senior studying Information Systems at the Carroll School of Management. He keeps busy by studying and writing for The Torch.
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