VATICAN AND THE FRAUD TRIAL

On the 30th of April, Pope Francis amended a law that reigned in the Vatican, as long as one can remember. Pope Francis ruled that bishops and cardinals who work in the Vatican will be judged by the same law tribunals that hear other criminal cases and no longer by an elite panel of prelates. He made sure to highlight that the Vatican was a sovereign city-state, should “be without privileges that go back in time and are no longer consonant”

This change of law, wouldn’t have known then, the impact it would eventually go on to have on the church scene of the Vatican, a change that would impact some of the most important people that held high power of the people of the Vatican. Angelo Becciu, a long-time Vatican diplomat was made the cardinal in 2018 by the Pope but however after a series of scandals, Becciu was stripped from his rights as Cardinal by the Pope and his influence through the state reduced dramatically. One would think, with a strip of powers, we would rethink our choices but that was not the case with Becciu, it was found recently that he was involved in the misdeed of embezzlement and he was found guilty, being charged with pressing a monsignor to recant information he supplied to prosecutors about the handling of a disastrous Vatican real estate investment in London. The city-state of the Vatican is a simple one- free of any major implications that required a big courtroom system. The city-state of the Vatican has a tiny courtroom to accommodate all the defendants, lawyers, and journalists. This case could even potentially go down as the largest trial in the Vatican’s modern history. Becciu attended the trial, adorned with a plain black clergyman’s suit and a large, pectoral cross. As being stripped of his rights as one of “the princes of the church”, he could not clothe himself with the prestigious red garbs that were reserved only for them. He was accompanied by his top aide, Monsignor Mauro Carlino, who was also in court, facing the same charges that were imposed on Becciu. Both the men denied all wrongdoings. A look into their case shows that the defendants had a hand in costing the Holy See- tens of millions of dollars in donations collected at Mass from rank-and-file Catholics. These losses resulted from poor investments, dealings with shady money managers, and purported favors to friends and families. The next case they were charged with, involved a sum of 200 million euros being deposited into a fund operated by an Italian businessman. Half of that money went into a real estate venture in the Chelsea neighborhood of London. The original investment ended up losing money. The trial is expected to last for months and any trials on technical matters are likely to be adjourned until October and the defendants if found guilty can be subjected to face jail time or imposition of fines, or even both. “This trial has a strong moral connotation,” said Paola Severino, a former Italian Justice Minister who represents the interest of the Holy See and the Vatican bank at the trial.

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