Cardinal Becciu: The Plot Thickens

I was only mildly interested in the announcement of Cardinal Becciu's sudden firing by Pope Francis on September 26:

Over a career spanning decades in the Roman Catholic Church, Cardinal Becciu had become a heavyweight in the Vatican hierarchy, described by one Vatican observer as the “finest, most informed and attentive diplomat working inside the Holy See.” His most recent position was head of the Vatican department that creates saints.

But he also emerged in recent years as a major character in conspiracies about alleged attempts to undercut financial reforms promoted by Cardinal George Pell, who headed the Vatican’s economic arm until he had to return to Australia to face accusations of sexual abuse.

Reports suggest that Becciu's record of corruption and embezzlement is long, but more recently they focus on Cardinal Pell:

The year is 2015. Pell, working as Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, finds “vast sums of undeclared money … hidden in various bank accounts by organizations and groups within the Holy See in Rome.”

The same year, Libero Milone is hired as Auditor General by Pope Francis to try to sort out what’s going on behind the financial scenes in Rome. He then suddenly resigns, without explanation. He later discloses that he was charged with espionage and embezzlement, and that his resignation was forced under threat of imprisonment by the Vatican police.

In 2017, Pell is suddenly confronted with allegations of sexual abuse in his homeland of Australia — allegations that are decades old. He winds up on trial, and is convicted with zero evidence or corroborating witness testimony, and spends the next 13 months in prison for a crime nobody could hope to prove he committed – and for which, he was later acquitted on appeal.

The Catholic News Agency has been cautious in reporting on these developments.

In reporting over several years, CNA has uncovered a set of Vatican financial scandals with connections to Becciu, and endeavored to do so with painstaking attention to available documentary proof. Within that coverage has been reporting about conflict between Becciu and Pell. And there have long been rumors and speculation among supporters of Pell that the cardinal was set up in Australia because of his involvement in Vatican affairs.

The reports emerging this weekend have attracted interest in part because they seem to confirm that speculation, and because Becciu’s role in financial scandals is now sufficiently enough established that he has been severely censured by Pope Francis. But the apparent confirmation of rumors and speculation does not by itself lend credibility to the allegations.

Abp Viganò comments:

Much has been written in recent days about yet another Vatican scandal this time involving Cardinal Becciu, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Faced with accusations that still have to be proven, Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s response seemed to be dictated more by anger than by love of truth, more by a delusion of omnipotence than by the will for justice – in any case by a serious despotic abuse of authority.

From this point of view, we can now believe that the deprivation of the Sacred Purple and the reduction to the lay state have become summary executions, with a very strong media impact in favor of the image of those who inflict them, beyond the real moral and criminal responsibilities of the condemned. Mr. McCarrick, accused of very serious crimes, was directly condemned by the Pope, without the trial documents and testimonies concerning him being made public. With this ploy Bergoglio wanted to give an image of himself that however contrasts with the reality of the facts, since his stated desire to “clean up” the Vatican does not correspond to the fact of his having surrounded himself with widely compromised characters – to begin precisely by McCarrick – giving them official assignments, then kicking them out as soon as their scandals were exposed. And on all of them, as those who work in the Curia know well, already weighed serious suspicions, if not even any detailed evidence of guilt.

Well, I suppose this is Rome. Back in the day, cardinals were strangled. As Bp Barron says, we've been here before. As CNA suggests, we may hear more, or we may not.