Becciu’s defense (he resigned from the Pope in 20 minutes): “From the CEI money to my brother’s cooperative? It employs 60 families”

“It’s surreal to be accused of embezzlement. I would give my life for the pope“Following Francesco’s tough decision to fire him from the role of prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and deprive him of the rights of the cardinal, a decision communicated in a twenty-minute audience, Angelo Becciu calls a press conference to explain his reasons, as he had been talking to ilfattoquotidiano.it. “I feel a bit stunned, everything seems surreal to me, but I try to be realistic,” the cardinal begins with journalists. And he adds: “Yesterday until 6:02 p.m. I felt friend of the pope, faithful executor of the Pope. And then the Pope, speaking, told me that there was no more trust in me because the magistrates reported that he had committed acts of embezzlement. I admit that the Holy Father was going through great difficulties and it hurt us to tell me, but I encouraged him. He explained to me that based on the papers and investigations of the Financial police Italian, I imagine requests from the Vatican magistrates, it would seem that I have committed crimes and the crime of embezzlement. Why? When I was a substitute for Secretary of state and had sent it to Ozieri faces, my diocese, 100,000 euros and these would then go to the account of the Cooperative spes, operational arm of caritas, of which the president is my brother. He would have twisted the money for his purposes and favored a brother of mine. And also because of the fact that the He had paid two grants of € 300,000 each, years before, to help this cooperative establish and organize. A reality that employs sixty families and we know the rate well unemployment in Sardinia”.

Becciu is absent and responds to the accusations point by point. “I tried to explain it to the Holy Father – affirms the cardinal – and I also explain it to you because everything seems strange to me. Because those 100 thousand euros it is true that I have allocated them to Ozieri’s faces, but it is at the discretion of the alternate to use sums from a private fund of the Secretary of State destined to charity to support various works. I remember that I was only allocating money to some organizations and I told myself that in 7-8 years I had never done support work for Sardinia. I know that in my diocese there is a situation of emergency for unemployment and wanted to allocate 100,000 euros to caritas. When the Pope spoke to me, it seemed strange to me that this money had been absorbed by the cooperative. As soon as I got home, I called my brother and the bishop of the diocese and they told me that the money was still there, in the smiley background. They have not been used because they are thinking of an important project for the poor. The bishop made a statement about it that I will send to the Pope. So I wonder: why am I being accused of embezzlement and help and incite of my family? The cooperative uses the eight per thousand money administered by the bishop. Everything is regular. I will have them recommended to the CEI, but this it’s not a crime”.

The cardinal also says that he is ready to answer questions from the magistrates if called upon. He reiterates that he is not being investigated, that he has not received any communication from the magistrates, but that he has learned of the accusation of embezzlement directly from the Pope. With Francisco, in the face to face in which the Pontiff resigned him, the purchase was not mentioned. from the palace of London for him Secretary of state and the investigation that followed. The cardinal confesses that he is not afraid of being arrested and that he asked Bergoglio if he should also leave his apartment in Vatican, but the Pope answered no “because of all the work he did for me.” He says he is willing to sue the newspapers that write things that are not true in order, he says, to “show that Becciu has enriched his family. I didn’t make my family rich. As they were before, they are now. You can come to Pattada and see: same house and same car. If I gave money, it was only for the institution that had to report everything ”. And then a message to Francisco: “I will let the Holy Father know that there may be a misunderstanding. I renew my trust in the Holy Father. I promised him fidelity to the end, in fact, by becoming a cardinal I promised to give him my life. I will never betray him, on the contrary, I am willing to give my life ”.

The cardinal also vigorously rejects the accusations of having given money to two of his other brothers: one a carpenter and one who brews beer. “When I was nuncio in Angola – Becciu explains – I was renovating the nunciature and I told my carpenter brother to make me two doors and send them to me. When he was nuncio of Cuba I started to restructure the nunciature and everyone felt sorry for me because the material had to be sent from Italy. I told my carpenter brother to come. Call it a conflict of interest, but I asked the Secretary of State for permission and they gave me permission. Even my successor in Cuba was happy with the work and the Pope was also happy when he was invited there. In the Vatican I had many opportunities for him to work, but I never did. Not even when they suggested that I let him do the housework where he was going to live. Benedict XVI after resignation. I said, ‘No, you don’t have to come here.’ So I don’t feel guilty about it. What do I have to do with the brother who produces beer? I never gave him a penny. Whoever wrote these things was determined to prove that I am corrupt and that I support my brothers. I have nothing to do with it. Tell me which institute I promoted this beer to. Just because you have a cardinal brother, can’t you brew beer? It is all your responsibility ”.

The cardinal’s words were followed by those of his family who, in a joint note signed by his lawyer, states that the news reported by some media “is unfounded and maliciously false, in particular due to the imaginative and unprovable references to alleged donations from the Obolo di San Pietro and directed to members of the cardinal’s family, or to private entities attributable to some of them. In fact, no sum has ever been paid by the San Pedro Pennies, nor has any unjustified intervention for works that do not reach the diocese of Ozieri, the diocesan caritas and, through it, the Spes cooperative reach be it works of charity or solidarity. , the bishop’s non-profit fiduciary organization for solidarity and labor activities and social reintegration ”. And furthermore: “As for Mr. Tonino becciu, legal representative of the Spes social cooperative, no sum has ever been paid directly to the non-profit organization directed by him which, conversely, has received funding only for solidarity projects deemed worthy of realization by Bishop Corrado Melis as president of the diocesan caritas. CEI contributions are fully approved and disbursed. transparency as interventions to support solidarity activities aimed at rewarding the human person with work, in the different sectors of agriculture, crafts and baking, guaranteed to sixty families thanks to the operational collaboration of the non-profit organization Spes. The contribution of 100 thousand euros, which dates back to 2017 and comes from Secretary of state of Vatican City, does not seem to have been directed or perceived by the Spes cooperative, but exclusively by the diocesan caritas, which continues to be its custodian in a specific current account, with a view to financing and carrying out a large and articulated project of solidarity called ‘the citadel of solidarity’ ”.

The note also states that “with reference to prof. Mario Becciu, also misquoted in the aforementioned publications, the implication in supposed donations seems even paradoxical, since there has not been, even indirectly, without disbursement of sums, in no way, for the benefit of Angel’s, which instead received a loan with full transparency of the transaction from a foreign investor whose identity cannot be revealed for reasons of contractual confidentiality. Equally mendacious are the statements that tend to generate in readers the subtle conviction of alleged commercial activities with religious entities favored by the cardinal: on the contrary, no institute of worship, or other entities attributable to the Holy See or the Catholic Church, have never hosted, not even indirectly, commercial transactions with Angel’s or with prof. Mario Becciu. On the other hand, it should be clarified, finally, that no act of favor, much less improper or illegitimate, is or has been found as beneficiary of the members of the Becciu family, including Mr. thanks to his expertise and professional experience, to perform some interventions carpentry in the name of the ecclesial organs neither imputable to the cardinal “.