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Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and one of the highest figures of the Vatican hierarchy, was removed from office and freed from all rights as a cardinal, the Holy See announced on Thursday without giving more details. about the reasons for leaving.
“Today, Thursday, September 24, the Holy Father has accepted the resignation of the position of Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and of the rights associated with the cardinal presented by Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu”, reads the written statement issued this afternoon by the press office of the Holy See.
According to the cardinal’s own agenda, it seems unlikely that Pope Francis’ decision was made in advance: Angelo Becciu would preside, on October 10, the beatification of the young Italian Carlo Acutis, in the city of Assisi. According to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the decision was communicated by the Pope himself to Angelo Becciu shortly before the publication of the communiqué.
The removal of a cardinal from the rights associated with the cardinal is a very rare decision made by the Pope in absolutely exceptional situations. The last cardinal who had been freed of his rights, although he retained the title, was the British Keith O’Brien, following accusations of sexual harassment, in 2015. More recently, the American Cardinal Theodore McCarrick was removed not only from the cardinal, but of the priesthood, for having been convicted of sexual abuse of minors.
Although the Holy See has not officially revealed the reasons for the cardinal’s departure, the truth is that Angelo Becciu had his name involved in one of the most recent financial scandals in the Vatican: the controversial investment of 200 million dollars (more than 175 million euros) from the Catholic Church in the purchase of a millionaire building in London through a fund led by Italian businessman Raffaele Mincione, in 2014.
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Angelo Becciu was appointed cardinal in 2018, the year in which Pope Francis promoted him to prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the organ at the top of the Holy See responsible for canonization processes. Before, the Italian had worked for seven years, between 2011 and 2018, as Replace of the Secretariat of State (that is, the second figure in the hierarchy of the Vatican Secretariat of State, after the Secretary of State himself).
During his time at the Secretary of State, Becciu was directly involved in several financial scandals, including the controversial London investment, says the Catholic News Agency. The 175 million euros were invested in the fund led by Mincione with the aim of allocating part of the money raised by the Vatican through the Obb de San Pedro, a fundraising system in which the faithful offer money directly to the Pope for their livelihood. Church and to support the poorest and neediest.
The investment was made through companies offshore and gave the Vatican 45% of a luxury real estate project that was being built in a privileged neighborhood of the British capital. The project promised profits to the Vatican (supposedly to increase money available for charities), but the real estate shakeup triggered by the Brexit decision in 2016 left the Holy See on the brink of losing some of the investment. Faced with this concern, the Vatican Secretariat of State, of which Becciu was number two, gave the order that the building be bought in its entirety on behalf of the Vatican itself.
In front of a luxury building and not knowing what to do with it, the Vatican was involved, at the end of 2018, in a scheme with the Italian investor Gianluigi Torzi, who presented a solution to the dome of the Catholic Church: move the building to a company offshore in his name, through which Torzi would conduct real estate business on behalf of the Vatican. Torzi’s true motivations were a mystery that raised suspicions about the performance of the high command of the Holy See, namely, Father Alberto Perlasca, head of the department of the Secretary of State that manages investments, but also about the cardinal himself Secretary of state. Pietro Parolin, and his deputy, Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, who authorized the bank transfers.
According to CNA, Replace Angelo Becciu would have personally tried to hide financial documentation from the Vatican that the investments made in 2014 for the purchase of the building had originated in credits from the Swiss bank BSI, but the maneuver – which had been prohibited by Pope Francis through the regulations approved in 2014 to promote the financial transparency of the Church, was detected by Cardinal George Pell, then responsible for the financial scrutiny of the Vatican. The same body adds that when Pell demanded documents from the Secretary of State, Becciu called him to scold him for the lawsuit.
The investment was one of the largest, but not the only, financial scandal in which Angelo Becciu was involved. According to the CNA, it was Becciu who, in 2016, unilaterally decided, without the Pope’s authorization, to cancel an external audit of the Vatican accounts that had been requested by the Ministry of Economy led by Pell. Becciu was also involved in the bankruptcy of the Italian hospital Istituto Dermopatico dell’Immacolata, in 2013.
