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Cardinal Picchio was a professional diplomat at the Vatican for years
aSenior Vatican official Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Picchio will say unexpectedly before revealing that Pope Francis asked him to.
The Cardinal denied what he said were accusations against him of giving church money to his brothers, and emphasized that he had not committed any crime.
Cardinal Picchio was a close associate of the Pope and previously held a key position in the Vatican Secretariat of State.
He got involved in a controversial deal to invest in a luxury building in London with money from the church.
Since then, this investment has become the subject of a financial investigation.
Resignations at this level from the Vatican are extremely rare, and the Holy See said little in its statement issued Thursday night.
A statement said that “His Holiness accepted the resignation submitted by His Excellency Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Picchio from the office of the President of the Synod related to the canonization of the saints, and renounced the rights granted to the cardinals.”
But the 72-year-old cardinal told the Italian website Doumani that he was forced to leave on suspicion that he had given church money to his brothers.
He was quoted as saying: “I have not stolen a euro. I am not under investigation, but if they send me to trial, I will defend myself.”
Speaking later at a press conference, the Cardinal said his dismissal was “like lightning without warning.” He said the Pope was “suffering” when he broke the news.
“Everything is surreal. Until yesterday … I felt like a friend of the Pope, the faithful executioner of the Pope.”
Then the Pope told me that he no longer trusted me because he had received a notification from the judges that I had committed an illegal act.
Cardinal Picchio insisted that there had been a “misunderstanding” and added: “I am willing to explain everything to the Pope. I have done nothing wrong.”
Cardinal expelled and stripped of his rights
Analysis by Mark Lewin, BBC Rome correspondent
I said to the Pope: Why are you doing this to me, in front of the whole world?
Those sad words were from one of the great cardinals of the church, who has now been expelled and stripped of his right to elect the next pope.
Giovanni Angelo Picchio served as Deputy Minister of State Affairs, a role that allowed him unfettered access to Pope Francis, and more recently he was the head of the body that elects saints in the future.
But on Thursday night he was summoned to a tense meeting with his boss. Cardinal Piccio had arranged a controversial € 200 million purchase of a London property with church money, including alms money. Other reports claim that he supported a stumbling hospital in Rome where his niece worked.
He told the new Italian newspaper, Doumani, “His Holiness made it clear that I provided services to my brothers and their businesses with church money … But I am sure there were no crimes.”
But his denial was not enough. The event has been dubbed the “Vatican earthquake.”
His impeachment determination may sound like police, but it is a reminder once again that the scandal and corruption plaguing governments around the world also reach the highest ranks of the Holy See.
Image posted, fake images
The cardinal insisted that he had not stolen a euro and promised to defend himself.
Who is the cardinal Bichio؟
Cardinal Angelo Picchio was a professional diplomat at the Vatican for years.
From 2011 to 2018, he was in charge of the Public Affairs Department, a position that allowed him to meet the Pope on a daily basis.
It was Pope Francis who was named cardinal in 2018, when he assumed a new role in the direction of the department that watches over holiness and beatification.
“It is a blow for me, for my family and for the people of my country,” the Italian media quoted the cardinal as saying on Friday morning, “I accepted with a spirit of obedience and love for the Church and the Pope.”
What do we know about the London real estate business?
It was during the cardinal’s tenure in the Department of Public Affairs that he was associated with a luxury purchase in a wealthy part of London.
The apartment building on Sloane Avenue was purchased for $ 200 million in church funds through outside funds and companies.
Five employees were suspended from work last year after the offices of the General Secretariat were raided last year. Vatican police confiscated documents and computers.
Then in June, the Vatican police arrested Italian businessman Gianluigi Turzi on suspicion of extortion and embezzlement.
Earlier this year, Cardinal Picchio defended the purchase.
“The investment was made in a building,” he said in February. “It was a good and appropriate opportunity that many people envy us today.” He also denied that the money raised for the poor, called “Peter’s money,” was used in the deal.
Image posted, fake images
Giovanni Angelo Picchio became a cardinal in June 2018
The cardinal’s sudden departure may not be tied solely to the London agreement. In his interview on Friday, the cardinal said the pope confronted him about the church funds he had provided to cooperatives and businesses run by his brothers.
A cooperative in Sardinia, led by his brother Tonino Picchio, provided assistance to the migrants and the cardinal said all the money had been accounted for. Other funding was used to renovate the Holy See building in Cuba.
Italian reports also indicate that the Pope did not like using Petros’ money for other investments.
Last year, the Italian weekly “L’Espresso” published a report by the Vatican’s Anti-Corruption Authority claiming that large-scale speculative investments amount to $ 725 million.
Cardinal Picchio will retain his title despite his resignation from the council. However, he will not be able to vote for the next pope.
Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien was the last cardinal to renounce his right to vote for the new pope, who resigned in 2013 amid a sex scandal. O’Brien died five years later.
