A new Vatican scandal vindicates Cardinal Pell but frustrates Pope Francis
(Photo by ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP via Getty Images)
The unholiest of scandals has erupted inside the Holy See — yet again. Vatican finances have always been unsavoury, but in recent years Europe’s smallest state has acquired a reputation as the most corrupt on the Continent. Now the cardinal who until he was sacked last month was in charge of canonisations has been accused of using Vatican funds to bribe witnesses to secure the conviction of another cardinal for sex abuse, thereby preventing his rival from exposing his own corruption.
The disgraced Cardinal from Sardinia, Giovanni Angelo Becciu (pictured above), is reported in the Italian media to have diverted €700,000 to recipients in Australia, ensuring that Cardinal George Pell, then in charge of the Vatican’s finances, would be found guilty at his trial in 2017. The Cardinal Archbishop of Melbourne was accused of molesting altar boys two decades ago. He spent 13 months in prison before the verdict was quashed on appeal last April.
Italy’s two leading newspapers, the Corriere Della Sierra and La Repubblica, both quote documents leaked by Vatican investigators on the trail of corruption in support of their allegations. Becciu, 72, has issued a statement: “I categorically deny interfering in any way in the trial of Cardinal Pell.”
If the allegations against Becciu are accurate, they would explain why Pell, charged by Pope Francis with reforming Vatican finances, was brought down just as he was cleaning the Augean stables. Now 79, Pell has recently returned to Rome and has yet to denounce Becciu, the “saint-maker”, in public. But the Australian Cardinal did have this to say when Becciu was fired by the Pope and deprived of his prerogatives as a cardinal: “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.”
Since Pell returned, events have moved swiftly. After his sacking just ten days ago, Becciu told the media that the Pope had lost confidence in him after Italian magistrates had accused him of embezzlement. In his previous job as deputy to the Vatican’s Secretary of State, in effect prime minister, Becciu was investigated for his role in another scandal: a notorious investment in luxury flats in Chelsea which cost the Holy See lost millions but enriched its “consultants”. He is also accused of funnelling church funds to a charitable co-operative and other businesses run by his brothers in their native Sardinia. Becciu denies all the allegations, but there is no doubt about the enmity between him and Pell, whose reforms he obstructed at every turn. In 2016, Becciu blocked an external audit; a year later he engineered the sacking of Pell’s ally, the Vatican’s Auditor-General Libero Milone.
George Pell is himself no stranger to controversy, especially in Australia. There he has been for many years the target of ferocious criticism from inside and outside the Church, both as a staunchly conservative supporter of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI, and as a plain-speaking champion of the beleaguered Catholic Church. When he was charged with historic sex abuse, Pell had serious health problems and could have remained in Rome. Instead, he went home to face trial. The initial verdict was greeted with glee by his opponents, but incredulity by those who knew him well and by legal experts who doubted the safety of the conviction. When it was duly overturned on appeal, many Catholics were relieved. They will now feel vindicated by the revelations from Rome.
The present writer has met George Pell on several occasions. He likes to watch and talk about cricket; he spoke eloquently about the plight of refugees; but he was discreet about his role as the Vatican’s finance minister. Pell walks tall in every sense: though nearly eighty, he dominates any room, not only by his height but also by his jovial temperament and direct manner. Though blunt when the occasion warrants it, his personal integrity, even sanctity, are transparent. It is no wonder that he was loathed in the Vatican, where he was determined to bring to light the sinister machinations that had siphoned off so many millions from the collection plates of the faithful.
If the Pell trial was influenced by Becciu, using Vatican money, then the Australian authorities have a duty to investigate whether witnesses were bribed or otherwise tampered with. If they were, then the trial should never have taken place and Cardinal Pell deserves a full pardon from Australia’s governor-general.
As the investigation continues in Rome, the Pope’s decision to allow Becciu to continue living in the Vatican will come under scrutiny. It cannot be right for a man against whom such serious allegations are made to escape justice. The Vatican has never put a cardinal on trial and, even if it did, there would be serious doubts about whether due process would be possible. The best course of action for Francis would surely be to remove Becciu of his immunity from prosecution by the Italian state and let the law take its course.
As things stand, the never-ending scandals that keep on emerging from the bowels of the Vatican threaten to undermine everything the Pope says or does. On Sunday Francis issued his third encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, which castigates the world’s fractured response to the Covid-19 pandemic and is, he says, addressed not only to Catholics but to “all people of good will”. The Pope’s strictures about the dangers of populist politics, cultural conflicts or the digital subversion of democracy will fall on deaf ears until he can clean up his own back yard.
Seven years after Benedict resigned and Francis became the first non-European in modern times to occupy the chair of St Peter, he cannot rely on the prestige of his office to gain an audience for his message. That Petrine office, the “rock” on which Christ founded the Church, is still occluded by clouds of corruption. Putting a cardinal and his accomplices on trial would be sensation al, but it might also clear the air. If Cardinal Pell had to face trial in a secular court, why should not Cardinal Becciu too?
