A former Vatican official has told a court that the financial watchdog’s limited involvement in the controversial Sloane Avenue property deal was at the direct request of the Pope.
Tommaso Di Ruzza, former head of the Holy See’s financial watchdog, is one of nine defendants facing financial malfeasance charges in the Vatican trial, which began on 27 July last year. In the trial, Di Ruzza, Cardinal Angelo Becciu and eight other defendants are accused of colliding with brokers in a web of financial misdemeanours surrounding the property deal.
It has been speculated that the Vatican made a loss of around £100 million from their investments in the building, a former Harrods showroom, now home to luxury shops, restaurants and offices. Between 2014 and 2018 the Holy See’s Secretariat of State invested around £300 million in the property, but according to a Financial Times report in November 2021, the property was only worth around £200 million at point of sale.
Di Ruzza, charged with abuse of office for allegedly failing to stop a deal that “should have been considered suspicious”, said that the Pope had personally requested the agreement in question be pursued “under any circumstances.” During a March 2019 meeting, the pope, he said, told him that he had invited senior Vatican officials to speak to him and the former president of AIF René Brülhart regarding the deal as "trustworthy persons of the Holy See". The trial will continue on 5 May, with the testimony of Cardinal Becciu.
In 2022, the Vatican will face a deficit of nearly 30 million pounds after a substantial drop in direct donations to the city state - attributable, some commentators say, to the reputational damage caused by the scandal. Pope Francis has made reform of the Vatican’s banking, investment and a priority of his pontificate, and in 2020 appointed a financial oversight board composed of laity.