Historical judgment
High-ranking Vatican cardinal sentenced to more than five years in prison
Italian Cardinal Aneglo Becciu was found guilty in the financial trial
© Alberto Pizzoli / AFP
He once wanted to be pope. As a confidant of Pope Francis, Angelo Becciu handled questionable million-dollar deals in the Vatican. That’s why he ended up in court.
A Vatican court has sentenced a once-influential Italian cardinal to five and a half years in prison for financial crimes. 75-year-old Angelo Becciu, former close advisor to Pope Francis was convicted of embezzlement, abuse of office and influencing witnesses, as court president Giuseppe Pignatone explained on Saturday. The case primarily concerned the Vatican’s purchase of a luxury property in London for 350 million euros.
Never before had a Curia cardinal been sentenced to prison by a Vatican court. Becciu’s lawyers announced that they would appeal the verdict.
Becciu, who was once considered a possible candidate for the papacy, was removed from office in September 2020 due to the financial scandal and had to give up his cardinal privileges. In addition to the purchase of the property in London, there was also the embezzlement of funds in the case of a clergyman kidnapped in Mali.
Becciu always denied all allegations. In November 2022, during the trial, it became public that Becciu secretly recorded a telephone conversation with Francis, probably to exonerate himself.
Nine more people charged with corruption in the Vatican
The criminal trial is one of the largest in the Vatican to date. For the first time, a high-ranking cardinal appeared before the court as a defendant. The process, which has been going on for more than two years, was essentially about the loss-making purchase of a luxury property in the London district of Chelsea by the Vatican Secretariat of State, where Becciu was an important department head for several years. The deal went wrong because the Vatican invested more money than planned. In the end there was a loss in the three-digit million range.
Meanwhile, the investigations into the questionable million-dollar deal in London uncovered further crooked dealings and machinations within the Vatican. Vatican law enforcement accused the Italian churchman and nine other defendants of, among other things, extortion, money laundering, fraud, corruption, embezzlement and abuse of office. Prosecutor Alessandro Diddi had demanded seven years and three months in prison for Becciu and between almost four and 13 years for the other defendants.
One accused person was acquitted, two others were sentenced to fines and a woman was given a suspended prison sentence of one and a half years. The most severe punishment of seven and a half years in prison and a fine of 10,000 euros was given to Fabrizio Tirabassi, a former employee of the Secretariat of State in the Vatican, who is said to have received commissions in the matter. In addition to his prison sentence, Becciu was fined 8,000 euros.
Pope Francis draws conclusions
The process caused massive damage to the image of the smallest country in the world. As a result of the allegations, the Sardinian native lost his rights as a cardinal and would therefore not have been allowed to take part in a papal election (conclave). However, Becciu was allowed to continue calling himself a cardinal. At that time, Pope Francis also removed him from the position of head of the authority for saints and beatification processes.
Pope Francis and the Vatican administration drew conclusions from the real estate scandal. The pontiff then reorganized the responsibilities in the Curia. He took away the power to dispose of assets from the Holy See’s powerful Secretariat of State and other authorities. This is now the responsibility of the Vatican Property Administration (Apsa) and the Vatican Bank IOR.