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The former director of the Vatican’s anti-money laundering entity said Francis had voiced ‘the interest of the Holy See in turning a new page.’ VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Testifying at the massive trial resulting from the Vatican’s latest financial scandal Wednesday (April 27), the former director of the Catholic Church’s anti-money-laundering watchdog agency said Pope Francis and other high-ranking prelates backed efforts to gain sole ownership of the prime London real estate at the center of the scandal. Tommaso Di Ruzza, who ran the entity now called the Supervisory and Financial Information Authority, known as ASIF, is charged with abuse...

Vatican spy story takes center stage as fraud trial resumesVATICAN CITY — The Vatican's big fraud and extortion trial resumes Friday after exposing some unseemly realities of how the Holy See operates, with a new spy story taking center stage that is more befitting of a 007 thriller than the inner workings of a papacy.According to written testimony obtained Thursday, one of Pope Francis' top advisers brought in members of the Italian secret service to sweep his office for bugs and commissioned intelligence reports from them, completely bypassing the Vatican's own police force in the process.The reported actions of Archbishop...

The former prefect of the Vatican’s Secretariat for the Economy sat down for an interview on his three-volume 'Prison Journal' touching on his incarceration, Cardinal Becciu and Vatican finances. When Cardinal George Pell took a leave of absence in 2018 from his post as the inaugural prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy and returned to Australia to stand trial for his “historic sexual abuse” case, he was the highest ranking Church official to be swept up in a decades-long global scandal that has shattered victims and wreaked havoc on the Church’s moral credibility. Convicted in 2018, he would spend...

The trial, which began in July and will resume on Dec. 14, has yet to get off the ground after procedural disputes over missing transcripts related to the prosecution’s investigations. Four of the original 10 defendants have had their charges at least temporarily dropped, leaving just six defendants currently on trial.VATICAN CITY — A key element in the ongoing Vatican trial over a London property deal that led to massive financial losses for the Holy See is how Vatican officials came to sign off on agreements in 2018 that caused the Vatican the most damage. A 487-page indictment published ahead...

Pell was reportedly reprimanded for “interfering in sovereign business” by looking into the Vatican Secretariat of State’s dealings with a Swiss bank with a long track record of violating fraud safeguards.The Holy See’s relationship with a disreputable Swiss bank triggered an internal dispute between the Secretariat of State and Vatican financial authorities. At the center of the conflict was a multimillion-dollar line of credit used to fund a controversial investment in London property speculation. Sources inside the Vatican’s Prefecture for the Economy confirmed to CNA that a substantial part of the $200 million used to finance the Secretariat of State’s...

Vatican City, Jan 7, 2021 / 12:00 pm MT (CNA).- Australia’s financial crime watchdog said Thursday that it is conducting a “detailed review” of Vatican-linked transfers worth $1.8 billion. The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC), a government agency, said Jan. 7 that it was seeking to shed light on the mystery transfers in cooperation with the Vatican. “AUSTRAC is currently undertaking a detailed review of the figures and is working with the Holy See and Vatican City State Financial Intelligence Unit on this matter,” the agency said in a statement to the Associated Press. Reports of a money...

Cardinal Becciu Is Francis’ “Scapegoat”The article of the Italian magazine L’Espresso which announced Cardinal Becciu's dismissal was created on September 24 at 10:12 am - 7 hours and 48 minutes before Francis actually fired Becciu.Moreover, Francis had an issue of L’Espresso in his hands while talking to Becciu. Vik van Brantegem asks on Korazym.org (November 19), "How did L'Espresso know that Becciu would be ‘expelled’, almost 8 hours before the actual ‘expulsion’?"His answer: Francis himself informed the magazine beforehand. Brantegem asks a second question: Why does Francis defend Bishop Zanchetta who was condemned in Argentina but not Cardinal Becciu who...

Is Pope Francis’s Vatican turning into Richard Nixon’s White House? There was a point in the Watergate scandal when revelations came so thick and fast that journalists struggled to keep up with them. And we seem to have reached an equivalent point in respect to the scandals engulfing Pope Francis's Vatican. Last week I interviewed Vatican expert Ed Condon about the sacking of Cardinal Angelo Becciu, accused by the Pope of stealing or misusing unimaginable sums of Church money, something he denies. Since Ed and I spoke, there have been two developments, both in their own way hard to believe.  First,...

Vatican cardinal spent $800,000 to discredit Cardinal Pell during sex abuse trial: report An Italian newspaper reported that Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu moved money into 'an Australian account' while Cardinal Pell faced false charges in Sydney. ROME, October 3, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – A report published by an Italian newspaper alleged that Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, the former Substitute for General Affairs in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, spent more than $800,000 to discredit Cardinal George Pell during a sexual abuse trial. Pell was later unanimously cleared of the charges by the seven justices of the High Court of Australia. On...

[Catholic Caucus] Did George Cardinal Pell force Bergoglio's hand on the removal of Becciu? Has Bergoglio indeed raged causing the closing of the Casa Marta? Further to our post below and the removal of the corrupt Angelo Becciu, close confidant and friend of Bishop of Rome Jorge Bergoglio, our anonymous sources in Rome have indicated that George Cardinal Pell is behind these events.Becciu and Pell clashed often over Pell's desire to clean up the sewer of Vatican finances. It is reported that it was the malfeasant Becciu that arranged the false accusations of Cardinal Pell in Australia for which he...

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...

[Catholic Caucus] Financial Times: Top cardinal implicated in Vatican financial corruption scandal VATICAN CITY, October 15, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) ― Investments made by Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu are at the heart of a Vatican investigation, says a leading financial newspaper.   According to London’s Financial Times, the Vatican is investigating “how $200 [million] in Swiss bank accounts controlled by its central administrator ended up financing a luxury property development in London’s Chelsea district that generated large profits for a company that managed the investment for the Holy See.”  The investigation led to the October 1 raid by Vatican police on the...

<p>VATICAN CITY (AP) — Conservative criticism of Pope Francis intensified Saturday after his intervention in the Knights of Malta order, with posters appearing around Rome citing his actions against conservative Catholics and asking: "Where's your mercy?"</p> <p>The posters appeared on the same day that Francis cemented his authority over the Knights by naming a top Vatican archbishop, Angelo Becciu, to be his special delegate to the ancient aristocratic order.</p>

The Vatican on Wednesday voiced “concern” over US President Donald Trump’s executive orders to build a wall on the US-Mexican border and impose a travel ban on nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries. “Naturally, there is concern,” the Holy See’s number three, Monsignor Angelo Becciu, said on the Catholic TV channel TV2000, in response to a question. ”We are builders of bridges, far less of walls, and all Christians should emphatically reaffirm this message.” Becciu noted that Pope Francis had repeatedly stressed the need “to integrate those who arrive, who come into our society, into our culture.” …