Pope Francis has approved spending of up to €1 million (R$5.3 million at current rates) to free a nun from Colombia who has been held captive for more than four years by an al Qaeda-linked group in Mali, the report said. Cardinal Angelo Becciu to a Vatican court this Thursday (5).
Missionary Gloria Cecilia Narvaez was kidnapped by the Malian jihadist movement Front for the Liberation of Macina in February 2017 and released in 2021. Becciu, who now finds herself in the midst of a church investigation, was part of the Vatican’s efforts to free her.
The cardinal said that after speaking with a London, UK-based risk and intelligence firm in 2018, he informed Francis of the cost of the operation, which would include establishing a contact network and the eventual ransom payment. . “He approved; I must say that all phases of the operation were approved by the Pope,” he said.
Becciu is at the center of a financial crimes trial that began last year. He is charged with embezzlement, abuse of power and inducing a witness to perjury. The cardinal, who was the Holy See’s deputy secretary of state from 2011 to 2018, denies the allegations.
He said a special account for the operation had been opened at the Secretary of State and that the intelligence company had made contact with the kidnappers, but did not confirm whether the ransom had been paid. The deal was reportedly kept secret even from the Vatican’s head of security, to avoid any possibility of the information being leaked and putting the nun’s life at risk.
The case also involves Cecilia Marogna, 40, who worked for Becciu and was also accused of embezzlement. The indictment claims that she received around €575,000 from the Secretariat of State between 2018 and 2019 and that a good portion would have been used for personal benefit.
Pope Francis fired Becciu in 2020, accusing him of nepotism on behalf of his brothers — which the cardinal also denies. The pontiff also lifted the oath of “pontifical secrecy”, a mechanism that enforces secrecy on matters of particular gravity, so that he could answer questions related to Marogna and the kidnapping.
The charges revolve around the purchase, by the Secretary of State, of a building in a prime area of London valued at around €350 million. The deal went wrong, and the Vatican lost €217 million. During this Thursday’s hearing, prosecutor Alessandro Diddi questioned Becciu about aspects of the agreement, the cardinal’s institutional relationships with other authorities and the banks that would have been used.
Becciu also denied reports that he was in a relationship with Marogna, dubbed “the cardinal’s lady” by the Italian press. He said their relationship had been “twisted, with offensive insinuations, of an infamous nature, detrimental to priestly dignity”.
He would have asked Marogna for help after the kidnapping of his sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez. While being held captive, the nun was repeatedly shown in videos asking the Vatican for help. When she was finally released, he had a meeting with Pope Francis.
