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In a move apparently related to Vatican financial scandals, Pope Francis accepted Cardinal Angelo Becciu’s resignation as prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes and his renunciation of the rights associated with being a cardinal, the Vatican announced on 24 September.
The sudden resignation of 72-year-old Cardinal Becciu was viewed as a vindication of previous attempts to clean house by Australian Cardinal George Pell, former prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy.
“The Holy Father was elected to clean up Vatican finances. He plays a long game and is to be thanked and congratulated on recent developments,” Cardinal Pell said in a statement released on 25 September.
Cardinal Pell’s statement drew renewed attention to a rift between the prelates after an audit of the Vatican’s financial records ordered by the Australian cardinal in 2016 was suspended by Cardinal Becciu.
Cardinal Becciu was informed by Pope Francis on 24 September of an investigation for allegedly embezzling an estimated 100,000 euros ($116,361) of Vatican funds and redirecting them to Spes, a Caritas organisation run by his brother, Tonino Becciu, in his home Diocese of Ozieri, Sardinia.
Pope Francis “told me that he no longer has trust in me because a report came from the magistrates that I allegedly committed acts of embezzlement”, Cardinal Becciu told reporters on 25 September.
Meeting reporters at a religious institute near the Vatican, Cardinal Becciu denied any wrongdoing.
“I have not made my family rich,” he affirmed.
At the time, then-Archbishop Becciu served as “sostituto”, the third highest position in the Vatican Secretariat of State.
At a press briefing with journalists on 25 September, Cardinal Becciu responded to Cardinal Pell’s statement, saying that between the two there were “professional differences because I saw things one way, and he saw them another way”.
“The fundamental point is that he had wanted to apply laws that hadn’t been promulgated yet” when he was prefect for the economy, Cardinal Becciu said.
The Secretariat of State, he added, had “an obligation to observe the laws that are in force”.
Nevertheless, he continued, his relationship with Cardinal Pell remained cordial until an argument erupted during a meeting of Vatican officials with Pope Francis.
During the meeting, Cardinal Becciu recalled: “we spoke about matters dealing with the Secretariat of State”.
“I tried to explain my ideas and he [Cardinal Pell] silenced me, saying: ‘You are a dishonest person’. And it was there I lost my patience. I couldn’t allow him to say something like that because from the time I was a child, I had always been taught by my parents to be honest, and the worst thing to be accused of is being a dishonest person.”
“At the end of the meeting, the Pope told me: ‘You did well’,” Cardinal Becciu added.
In mid-2017, Cardinal Pell took leave from his position as prefect of the secretariat, which was investigating corruption in Vatican finances, so he could return to Australia to face charges of sexual abuse. His term as head of the secretariat expired in 2019.
Cardinal Becciu told journalists that notwithstanding their differences, he had sent a personal message to Cardinal Pell when he was facing prosecution in Australia.
“These are the exact words: ‘Your Eminence, despite the professional differences we have had, I suffer because of these accusations and as a priest, I hope that your innocence will be completely proven. I greet you and I embrace you’,” Cardinal Becciu recalled.
“If Pell is still convinced that I am dishonest, then there is nothing I can do.”
In April, Cardinal Pell’s conviction was overturned by the High Court of Australia.
Cardinal Becciu said he told the Holy Father: “If you no longer trust in me, I forfeit my mandate, I will resign”.
He also said he had received no formal notification from authorities that he was under investigation or being charged with a crime.
Nevertheless, he said: “I will never betray the Pope and am ready to give my life for him”.
Cardinal Becciu will remain a priest and retired bishop but will no longer exercise the role of a cardinal, including by serving as a papal adviser, a member of Vatican congregations and councils, and as an elector of a new pope. The cardinal told journalists, however, that Pope Francis allowed him to continue living in Vatican City.
Cardinal Becciu took issue with reports that the money allegedly sent came from Peter’s Pence, the global collection for the poor. Similar accusations were levelled against the cardinal in the past regarding the use of funds from the annual collection for the purchase of a majority stake in a property located in London’s posh Chelsea district.
The previous cardinal to renounce the rights and privileges of being a cardinal was Scotland’s Cardinal Keith O’Brien, former archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, who did so in 2015; he had resigned as archbishop two years prior after admitting to sexual misconduct. He did not participate in the 2013 conclave that elected Pope Francis, and he died in 2018.
Theodore E McCarrick, the former archbishop of Washington, resigned from the College of Cardinals in July 2018; he did not just renounce the rights and duties of a cardinal.
Cardinal Becciu was born 2 June 1948 in Sardinia and ordained to the priesthood in 1972 for the Diocese of Ozieri.
After earning a degree in canon law, he entered the Vatican diplomatic service in 1984, serving at Vatican embassies and offices in the Central African Republic, Sudan, New Zealand, Liberia, Great Britain, France and, finally, the United States.
In 2001, Saint John Paul II named him an archbishop and apostolic nuncio to Angola and to Sao Tome and Principe.
In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI named him nuncio to Cuba, a position he held until 2011, when His Holiness asked then-Archbishop Becciu to move to the Vatican Secretariat of State.