SUBSCRIBE NOW

SIGHT

Be informed. Be challenged. Be inspired.

Vatican real estate deal trial gets underway with defence on the attack

Vatican City
RNS

A dull silence filled the room when Cardinal Angelo Becciu, shoulders hunched and eyebrows furrowed, walked in for the first day of a historic Vatican trial, in which he is one of 10 facing a wide range of charges for their part in a real estate deal using Catholic Church funds.

Becciu is the lone cardinal – likely in history – to be brought to trial by the Holy See, in this case charged with bribery and embezzlement. Speaking to reporters at the end of the day’s session, he framed his appearance in the courtroom as a personal obligation.

Pope Francis “wanted me to come to the trial and I’m coming to the trial”, Becciu said.

“I am serene, and my conscience is clear,” Becciu added, placing his hope in the Vatican judges to “recognise my innocence”.

Vatican St Peters Square

In this Sunday, 31st January, 2021 file photo, people are reflected on a puddle as they walk in St Peter’s Square, at the Vatican. PICTURE: AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino/File photo.

Becciu was serving as “sustituto” at the secretariat of state, an office equivalent to papal chief of staff, when reports of financial mismanagement of the Vatican’s 2013 investment in a luxury apartment complex in London began to circulate in Rome. In December, the pope stripped him of his rights and positions in the church, leaving him only with his title, citing other alleged financial improprieties involving a donation to his brother’s charity.

The cardinal also announced that his lawyers plan to press libel charges against Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, who oversaw financial affairs at the Secretariat of State, and against Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, who was found guilty by a Vatican court in 2016 of leaking confidential documents about Vatican finances.

Though not charged in the case, Perlasca was interrogated by Vatican prosecutors on several occasions. Chaouqui has publicly criticised Becciu in interviews with Italian media outlets. According to the cardinal, both individuals were the source of “serious untruths” about him that were included in the trial papers.

Vatican prosecutors said during the trial that during the investigations, Perlasca chose to come forward as a witness and testified on several occasions without the presence of his legal counsel.

For much of the day’s proceedings, however, it wasn’t Becciu or any of his co-defendants who seemed to be on trial. Rather, defence attorneys did their best to portray the Vatican’s judicial authority as antiquated and authoritarian by turns.

Lawyers for the defendants – the lay defendants themselves chose not to attend the day’s session – presented a wide array of objections to the trial, mainly lamenting the lack of documentation given to the defence before it began.

The attorney for Enrico Crasso, who advised the Vatican on its financial investments, gave an impassioned speech attacking what he maintained were failures in due process. Referring to a ruling issued by Pope Francis in July that granted Vatican prosecutors extraordinary powers in their investigation, the lawyer, Luigi Panella, said that the move would be “impossible in any legal system in the world. But it happened here.”

Other lawyers raised issues of jurisdiction, stating that many of the charges related to activities that did not take place in the Vatican.

The defence also criticised the civil case brought by two other Vatican financial entities, the Institute for Religious Works and the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, claiming that the Vatican court had no power to decide on their claims.

{in-article-ad}

The lawyer for those Vatican departments, Paola Severino, shot back that their claims of injustice by the Vatican court were based only on the fact that “it’s different from penal proceedings in Italy.”

Severino also underlined the “strong moral component” of the trial. The Vatican’s chief prosecutor, Gian Piero Milano, invited the defence lawyers to look at the Vatican trial “not though the lens of a lawyer, but through the lens of a canon lawyer”.

The court has been adjourned to the morning of 5th October, when the judges said they would address the defence’s arguments.

 

Donate



sight plus logo

Sight+ is a new benefits program we’ve launched to reward people who have supported us with annual donations of $26 or more. To find out more about Sight+ and how you can support the work of Sight, head to our Sight+ page.

Musings

TAKE PART IN THE SIGHT READER SURVEY!

We’re interested to find out more about you, our readers, as we improve and expand our coverage and so we’re asking all of our readers to take this survey (it’ll only take a couple of minutes).

To take part in the survey, simply follow this link…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.