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The Australian police confirmed that they are investigating a possible transfer of funds from the Vatican to Australia and that part of the case is being analyzed by the unit responsible for the fight against corruption in the police, following reports, in the media Italians, that there could have been bribes to the accusers of Cardinal George Pell by the Holy See, or rather, a rival of Pell in the institution.
Cardinal Pell, then number three in the Vatican hierarchy, was charged with several crimes related to child sexual abuse by the police in the state of Victoria, which would have occurred in the 1990s, but only one case went to trial in 2018: Pell was convicted of the abuse of two 13-year-old boys from the Melbourne Cathedral choir. But in April, after serving 13 months in prison, he was released by the Supreme Court and released.
In Italy, he has since been informed by media that Angelo Becciu, Pell’s rival in the Holy See, had sent 700,000 euros to Australia to help the cardinal’s “enemies”. Becciu’s attorney denied the charges.
Becciu, who was ousted by Pope Francis in September on charges of fraud and nepotism, had trouble with Pell when the Pope put him in charge of the Vatican’s finances, with a mission to reform a system that has long been the target of suspicions of corruption and questionable business.
Reacting to the news, Pell’s lawyer in Australia stressed the importance of “carrying out all the money tracking exercises.” Only one of the men who charged Pell is alive and, through his lawyer, he has denied knowledge of “any payments allegedly made by the Vatican to Australia.”
In addition to the court case, Cardinal Pell, who became the head of the Catholic Church in Australia, was aware of sexual abuse by priests in the country and did nothing to stop them, according to a report by a commission of inquiry. created in 2012. and whose part about Pell’s conduct was released in May of this year. At the time of the disclosure, the police did not rule out opening an investigation.
Pell returned to the Vatican at the end of September and had an audience with the Pope on October 12.
After Becciu’s departure, Pell declared that “the Holy Father was chosen to clean up the finances of the Vatican” and that “we must thank him for the recent events.”
