Daniela Arcanjo
SAO PAULO, SP (FOLHAPRESS)-Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu, former Pope Francis advisor convicted of fraud in 2023, once again attracted international attention after stating that he will participate in the conclave to elect a new pontiff despite the Holy See Listing it as a non-voter.
“The Pope recognized my cardinal prerogatives as intact, since there was no explicit will to exclude me from the conclave, nor an explicit request from my written resignation. The list published by the press room has no legal value and should be considered as such,” he told the Italian newspaper L’entone Sarda, according to a text published on Tuesday (22).
The Cardinian College panel maintained by the Vatican website indicates that Becciu is not a voter, although he is 76 years old -the cardinals under 80 are entitled to vote and will meet in the Sistine Chapel in the coming days for the conclave, name given to the assembly that will elect the next Catholic leader.
Exclusion is due to Becciu’s resignation in 2020, when the cardinal, then one of the most powerful church members, was already facing suspicions related to a scheme involving a real estate business in London.
“Today, Thursday, September 24, the Holy Father accepted the resignation to the position of mayor of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints and the rights linked to Cardinalato, presented by his cardinal eminence Giovanni Angelo Becciu,” said the Holy See on the night of that day.
The episode was a hard blow to the religious. As a chief of staff at the Vatican Secretariat of State under Pope Benedict 16 and Pope Francis, Becciu supervised the Vatican ambassadors and played an important role in the administration of the Curia, having unrestricted access to the pontiff.
In October 2019, however, Vatican promoters ordered an operation that would splash in it. The measure occurred in the context of an investigation into the purchase of a property of € 350 million in London, acquired in part with money donated by the faithful to the Fund of St. Peter, intended for the poor.
Francisco himself had ordered the investigation, although he had said the previous month that it was more responsible for investing donations than “putting them in a drawer.” “You can also buy a property, rent it and then sell it, but in something safe, with all security measures for the sake of people and St. Peter,” he said at the time.
Finally, the investigation led to the resignation of the Vatican head of security, the removal of several Vatican financial officials and the prison in June 2020 from an Italian banker who acted as an intermediary of the Holy See in the real estate transaction.
In 2023, the Vatican Criminal Court sentenced Becciu in the first instance to five and a half years in prison, which made the religious the highest authority of the Catholic Church to be tried by a criminal court in the country. The cardinal always claimed innocence.
The magistrates considered Becciu guilty of having ordered payments that totaled US $ 200.5 million between 2013 and 2014, from the Secretariat of State’s funds, to a “highly speculative” investment fund, led by Raffaele Mini -Mincine, who was also sentenced to five and a half years of arrest and a fine of € 8,000.
In addition, the cardinal was considered guilty for paying € 125,000 to a cooperative administered by his brother, in addition to € 570,000 to an intermediary for the release of a hostage in Africa. The money would never have been used for this goal.
The case became emblematic by showing the extent of the internal reforms promoted by Francisco along his papacy. After being elected in 2013, the Argentine pontiff killed last Monday (21) changed the judicial system so that bishops and cardinals could be tried in secular courts, not just in religious instances.
