Becciu will not attend conclave ‘out of obedience to Francis’

After Pope Francis’ death on Easter Monday, Becciu claimed he was entitled to participate in the conclave because Francis had expressed ‘no explicit will to exclude me’.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu said he would not participate in the conclave beginning next Wednesday, out of obedience to Pope Francis.

In a statement published on Tuesday, Becciu said: “Having at heart the good of the Church, which I have served and will continue to serve with faithfulness and love, and in order to contribute to the communion and serenity of the conclave, I have decided to obey – as I have always done – the will of Pope Francis not to enter the conclave, while remaining convinced of my innocence.”

Becciu, the former sostituto of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, was forced to resign his rights and privileges as cardinal – though he retained his title and Vatican apartment – during an investigation of financial crime in the curia. In December 2023 he was convicted of embezzlement during the Vatican’s “trial of the century” and sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison. He was permitted to appeal his conviction.

After Pope Francis’ death on Easter Monday, Becciu claimed he was entitled to participate in the conclave because Francis had expressed “no explicit will to exclude me from the conclave nor a request for my explicit renunciation in writing”.

There were unconfirmed reports last week that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, who was the secretary of state when Becciu was sostituto, had told him Pope Francis had signed letters confirming that he should be excluded. Becciu reportedly announced he would withdraw his claim at the Congregation of Cardinals on Monday.

The participation of Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne in the congregations also caused concern. The 81-year-old former Archbishop of Lima was among a group of cardinals who visited Pope Francis’ tomb in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore on Sunday and said Vespers, despite restrictions on his public actions following abuse allegations.

According to reports in the Spanish daily El País in January, a man accused Cipriani of touching him inappropriately during confession at an Opus Dei centre in 1983, when he was a teenager. Cipriani went on to become Archbishop of Lima in 1999 and was the first member of Opus Dei to be made a cardinal.

In 2018, the alleged victim made contact with Pope Francis, who accepted Cipriani’s resignation as archbishop when he turned 75 in January 2019 and imposed disciplinary measures on him. He was ordered to leave Peru and never to wear the insignia of a cardinal, and barred from issuing public statements.

After reporters saw Cipriani, in cardinal’s attire, among the group at Santa Maria Maggiore and joining other cardinals for congregations in the Vatican’s Synod Hall, they challenged the head of the Holy See Press Office Matteo Bruni when he announced the date for the start of the conclave on Monday.

“We do not give out specific information about the cardinals,” Bruni said, adding that he “did not have any instructions” on the matter. Following the El País report in January, Bruni confirmed that at Pope Francis had placed sanctions on Cipriani.

Bruni referred to the document governing the conclave, Universi Dominici Gregis, under which all cardinals may participate in general congregations if they “are not legitimately impeded”.

A statement from the survivors’ advocacy group Bishop Accountability said Cipriani’s participation in Monday’s congregation – which included discussion of “the issue of abuse” – “exposes the disconnect between the Church’s words and actions on abuse”.

Survivors’ groups also criticised the participation of Cardinal Roger Mahony, who was Archbishop of Los Angeles from 1985 to 2011, in the rites over Pope Francis’ coffin. He attended the sealing of the coffin in St Peter’s on Friday and the interment in Santa Maria Maggiore on Sunday.

Mahony’s successor in Los Angeles, Archbishop José Horacio Gómez, relieved him of all official responsibilities in the diocese in 2013 after church records revealed serious mishandling of clerical sexual abuse cases during his tenure, for which Mahony repeatedly apologised while objecting to the sanction. He remained “a priest in good standing”, though he faced a petition not to participate in that year’s conclave.

The Vatican said the 89-year-old Mahony was the most senior cardinal-priest – the middle rank in the College of Cardinals – available to participate in the rites before and after the funeral, as regulations require. Bishop Accountability said his role brought “shame” on the College of Cardinals.

Vatican confirms conclave to begin on 7 May

Cipriani has ‘every right’ to assert innocence, say Peruvian bishops

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