Breaking: Top Vatican cardinal resigns, relinquishes rights as cardinal

LifeSite News ^ | September 24, 2020 | Dorothy Cummings McLean

[ebb tide]

Breaking: Top Vatican cardinal resigns, relinquishes rights as cardinal

The Vatican released a terse statement that gave no indication why Becciu resigned.

The Vatican released a terse statement that gave no indication why Becciu resigned.

VATICAN CITY, September 24, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) ― A cardinal closely associated with the Theodore McCarrick scandal has resigned from his post and given up his rights as a cardinal. 

According to a tersely worded note from the Vatican released minutes ago, “the Holy Father has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu from his role as the Prefect of the Congregation of the Cause of the Saints and from the rights connected with the Cardinalate.” 

In August 2018, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò stated that Becciu “knew in every detail the situation regarding Cardinal McCarrick” and his reputation for homosexual misconduct.

In 2019, London's Financial Times reported that investments made by Becciu were at the heart of a Vatican investigation which ultimately led to an October 1, 2019 raid by Vatican police on the Vatican’s own Secretariat of State, after which five Vatican employees were suspended. An internal memo about these individuals was leaked to the press, leading to the resignation of its signatory, the Vatican Gendarmerie Corps’ chief, Inspector General Domenico Giani.

“$200m held in Swiss bank accounts controlled by the Secretariat of State was transferred to a Luxembourg investment fund called Athena Capital, ” the Financial Times reported at the time.

“Athena is owned by the Italian London-based financier Raffaele Mincione through his company WRM,” it continued.  

“Athena had bought the Chelsea building for £129m in 2012 and then sold a minority stake in the project in 2014 to a fund it managed on behalf of the Vatican as a sole client. In 2018, the Vatican bought out the remaining equity in 60 Sloane Avenue from Athena. Mr Mincione’s vehicle earned around £130m from the project overall.”

The London financial newspaper said that the Vatican had “declined to comment” about its ownership of the apartment building or the reasons for the raid upon the Secretary of State. However, Financial Times asserted that Becciu, the Substitute (deputy) of the Secretariat of State between 2011 and 2018, had “personally authorized” the investment. 

Becciu has also recently fallen afoul of the powerful German contingent of the Knights of Malta, to which order the cardinal was a Special Delegate of the Vatican.

Developing… 

[ebb tide]

Becciu, of course, is a franciscardinal, having been elevated to the College in 2018.

[ebb tide]

Ping

[ClearCase_guy]

Did they find out he wasn’t gay?

[grey_whiskers]

I don’t know anything about him.
Is this a bad guy being removed, or a good guy getting Cardinal Pelled?

[Rockingham]

A bad one who was aligned with Pope Francis. He was caught stealing, it seems.

[SaxxonWoods]

The evil ones aren’t in complete control at least.

[VeniVidiVici]

Does this mean he becomes a Sparrow?

[Ouchthatonehurt]

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“ The powerful head of the Vatican’s saint-making office, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, resigned suddenly Thursday from the post and renounced his rights as a cardinal amid a financial scandal that has reportedly implicated him indirectly.”

Saint-making - true expression of what happens.

Totally unbiblical.

[Retrofitted]

Isn’t he the one that paid for McCarrick’s beach house? The one used by the pedophiles? Seems I ran across that somewhere but can’t find it now.

[robowombat]

This is from the leftwing Nat Catholic Reporter:

Vatican’s Cardinal Becciu renounces the cardinalate in shocking move
Sep 24, 2020
by Joshua J. McElwee Vatican
VATICAN CITY — One of the highest-ranking cardinals in the Catholic Church resigned his Vatican post unexpectedly Sept. 24, with the city-state giving no explanation for the dismissal.

In a surprise bulletin late in Rome, the Vatican said Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu had both left his position as head of office responsible for overseeing Catholic sainthood causes and renounced “the rights connected to the cardinalate.”

20180521T1223-CARDINALS-THUMBNAILS-560610.JPG
Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu is pictured during a Mass marking the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican June 29, 2015. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
The bulletin gave no further details, but it is extremely rare for a cardinal to make such a move. The last cardinal to so renounce the rights of the cardinalate was Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who had been accused of inappropriate sexual relationships with other men.

Becciu had been serving as the head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints since August 2018. He had previously served in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, in a role often described as akin to the pope’s chief of staff.

In that previous role, Becciu had been rumored to be connected to a controversial deal in which the Vatican invested in a development project in London.

Vatican police have been investigating the deal for months. In October 2019 they conducted a highly unusual raid of the Secretariat of State’s offices, collecting documents and electronic devices suspected to be connected to the deal.

The Vatican’s terse Sept. 24 statement said only that Pope Francis had accepted Becciu’s resignation from office and the rights of the cardinalate. It appears to indicate that Becciu remains a cardinal in title only, and would be unable to participate in any future conclaves.

The Vatican press office did not immediately respond to a request for more information on the reasons behind Becciu’s resignations or for clarity on his status as a cardinal.

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Becciu has previously denied any allegations of impropriety in the London property deal, which has been described by Italian media as an opportunity to make a profit on upgrading office spaces into luxury apartments.

“An investment was made on a building,” the cardinal said in February. “It was a good and opportune occasion, which many people envy us for today.”

Becciu had previously been a Vatican diplomat, serving as the city-state’s ambassador to Angola under Pope John Paul II and as its ambassador to Cuba under Pope Benedict XVI. The future cardinal began serving in his role at the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, where he was Substitute for General Affairs, in 2011.

Francis named Becciu to the saints congregation in May 2018, and made him a cardinal in June 2018. In his role at the saints office, Becciu shepherded the canonizations of a number of prominent figures, including martyred Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero.

This is a breaking news story.

[Joshua J. McElwee is NCR Vatican correspondent.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Not a Cardinal anymore???

Maybe the Mets will pick him up...

[DIRTYSECRET]

Is he a pitcher or catcher?

[married21]

Blue Jay? Oriole?

[CdMGuy]

Ha, ha. The National Catholic Reporter, AKA The Fishwrap, which has been asked to remove the work Catholic from its name, is probably having a nervous breakdown as one of their own Cardinals has been shown the door.

Of course Bergoglio will not say any more about this. He will simply kick it under the rug as he continues to delay the McCarrick report.

[SecondAmendment]

I guess the going rate for Indulgences has kept pace with inflation .,,

[gov_bean_ counter]

Ok, I LOL’’d.

[ebb tide]

MALTA. CARD. BECCIU MAKES CLEAR WHO LEADS THE GAME.

But Cardinal Becciu’s letter turns the tables. He writes to the Lieutenant: “On my part there is every commitment not to leave you alone, assuming every responsibility in giving direction. All the more so since His Holiness has conferred on me “all the powers necessary to decide any issues that may arise regarding the implementation of the mandate entrusted to you.” This desire of the Holy Father was confirmed in his letter of May 3, 2018, written immediately after the election of Brother Giacomo as Grand Master and in which he invited me “to continue to carry out the office of Delegate until the conclusion of the process of reform, and in any case as long as I consider it useful for the Order.”

[ebb tide]

SCANDAL - Giovanni Angelo Becciu, 70 years old -- sacked from the Congregation of Causes of Saints and expelled from Cardinalate ("resigned from the rights attached to the Cardinalate “)

 It was January 6, 2014, and in the boiling waters of the "gay lobby crisis" at the beginning of the Francis pontificate, one of his strongmen, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, said, "Basta!" (Enough!) -- as we reported at the time (The Vatican "Gay Lobby" - former Swiss Guard chief confirms existence of secret homosexual network in the Vatican - Vatican stonewalls)

Years later, increasing financial scandals involving the name of Becciu came out.

***

Here we are, almost 7 years later, and an extraordinary edition of the Bollettino of the Holy See comes out with the explosive news: Becciù has "resigned" from his position as prefect, and, more than that, has resigned to "all the rights attached to the Cardinalate."*

It's astonishing, and no explanation has been given so far.

Now, it's our time as faithful to say, "Enough! What's going on???"

***

Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò has been at the forefront of accusations regarding the financial scandals in the Vatican. We await what he has to say.

*Rinunce e nomine (continuazione), 24.09.2020

[B0482]

Oggi, giovedì 24 settembre, il Santo Padre ha accettato la rinuncia dalla carica di Prefetto della Congregazione delle Cause dei Santi e dai diritti connessi al Cardinalato, presentata da Sua Eminenza il Cardinale Giovanni Angelo Becciu.

By New Catholic at 9/24/2020 08:52:00 PM

[Phillyred]

looks like Dukakis.