In an unexpected move, Pope Francis met this Thursday (9) with Cardinal Angelo Becciu, investigated in a corruption case for which he was removed from office and stripped of his canonical privileges in September 2020.
Although this is not the first meeting between the pontiff and the cardinal since the removal, before this Thursday none of the commitments had been disclosed in the official schedule of private meetings of the pope with authorities.
The official seal of the meeting raises speculation in the local press that a rapprochement between the two and the eventual rehabilitation of the cardinal are underway.
Before Francis’ punishment, Becciu was the pontiff’s adviser and a powerful cardinal at the Vatican, where he was deputy secretary of state from 2011 to 2018 and head of the department that evaluates potential candidates for sanctification from 2018 until his resignation.
When he was removed, Becciu lost, among other privileges, the right to participate in the conclave that will choose the next pope when Francis dies or resigns.
At the time of the discovery of the scandal, in 2020, the pontiff issued a decree to increase the transparency of charitable funds, in a move that tightened control over Vatican finances, mainly the responsibility of the Secretariat of State, where Becciu worked.
In the investigation, the cardinal and nine other people are accused of corruption in the case of the purchase of a luxury property in London. He and all those investigated, including Vatican officials, deny the allegations.
In one of the hearings in the case, in November last year, the Vatican Court revealed audio of a telephone conversation in which Becciu recorded Francis without the pontiff’s consent and tried to induce him to confirm the approval of financial transactions.
Although the recording has not been made public, lawyers present said the cardinal had asked Francis for confirmation that he had authorized a payment of €500,000 (R$2.78 million) for the release of a nun kidnapped in Mali. The pontiff would have replied that he vaguely remembered and asked that the question be sent in writing.
In May of last year, at an earlier stage of the process, Becciu told the court that Francis approved spending of up to €1 million (R$5.56 million) to free missionary Gloria Cecilia Narvaez —kidnapped by the Malian jihadist movement Frente de Libertação de Macina in 2017 and released in 2021.
The case dates back to 2018, when Becciu hired Cecilia Marogna, a self-described security analyst, to operate the rescue.
Marogna received €575,000 (R$3.23 million) from the Secretariat of State, the Vatican’s most important department, between 2018 and 2019 — the time when Becciu was in office. The money was sent to a company she founded in Slovenia and, later, part of the proceeds were used by her for luxury purchases, according to the police. Marogna is co-defendant in the process, accused of embezzling money.
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