Pope Francis has made his first public comments about Vatican financial scandals following the sudden dismissal of a powerful Rome-based cardinal over claims of embezzlement.
On Sunday 4 October, as he prepared to release a new encyclical to the world, Francis told a crowd in St Peter’s Square: “It is awful to see when people who have authority in the Church seek their own interests.”
Ten days earlier, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, a former papal chief of staff, had his cardinal rights removed and was sacked from his position as prefect of the Roman Curia’s department for saints.
No official reason for the decision was given, but it was reportedly taken following an investigation by Italian investigators who informed Vatican magistrates of their findings.
Cardinal Becciu later told journalists it was connected to funds of €100,000 he had transferred to a Caritas owned co-operative run by his brother in his home diocese in Sardinia.
Speaking during the Sunday Angelus, the Pope made an implicit reference to the mismanagement of money when he reflected on the Gospel parable of the tenants. The tenants are placed in charge of a vineyard by a landowner but kill the landowner’s servants and son when they come to collect the fruit. Francis says Jesus told this parable to “admonish the chief priests and elders of the people who are about to take the wrong path”, but added also that it “applies to all times, including our own”.
Francis explained: “In any age, those who have authority, any authority, also in the Church, in God’s people, may be tempted to work in their own interests instead of those of God. And Jesus says that true authority is … in serving, not exploiting, others. The vineyard is the Lord’s, not ours.”
Cardinal Becciu’s sacking also comes after he faced scrutiny for his involvement in a London property deal carried out by the Secretariat of State which has seen the Holy See suffer millions in losses and is now subject to an ongoing Vatican police investigation. It is reported the cardinal, who was the responsible official at the time, could be among those tried in this case although so far he has not been questioned or identified as a suspect.
This week another layer of intrigue was added to the Vatican’s financial dramas when unsubstantiated reports circulated in two Italian newspapers that Cardinal Becciu had sent money to Australia to influence the trial of Cardinal George Pell for child sexual abuse. Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica have speculated that Vatican magistrates are examining a €700,000 transfer by Becciu to a bank account in Australia, and that this was used to bribe a witness.
The man who accused Pell of abuse, Witness J, “denies any knowledge or receipt of any payments” while Becciu said: “I categorically deny any interference in the trial of Cardinal Pell.”
None of the reports has produced any sourcing or details to back up the claims.
The reports came days after Cardinal Pell, the former Vatican treasurer, returned to Rome after his convictions for abusing two choirboys at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne in the 1990s were overturned by the High Court of Australia. When he worked at the Vatican, Becciu had clashed with the Australian prelate over his strategy to reform the Holy See’s finances and the two became arch-foes.
After his release from prison, the cardinal said he thought Witness J had been “used” by his enemies and suggested the prosecution was linked to his fight against corruption in the Vatican. But Pell said he had no evidence of a link.
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