In the fiftieth hearing of the trial on the management of the Holy See's funds, the promoter of Justice Diddi filed correspondence between Francis and the cardinal, in which Becciu asked the Pope to exonerate him from the accusations, retracting his negative pronouncement on the purchase of the property in London and on the payment of sums to the Sardinian manager for the release of a kidnapped nun and confirming that he had authorized the two operations
In a Vatican News report by Salvatore Cernuzio, it was revealed that two letters from the Pope and one from Cardinal Angelo Becciu, in which the cardinal asked Francis to exonerate him from the accusation of having "cheated" him, declaring that he himself had authorized the then substitute for the London and Marogna events, and asked the Pope to retract his previous statements in which he reiterated "the negative pronouncement" for both operations. This is the material that was submitted by the promoter of Justice, Alessandro Diddi, in the Hall of the Vatican Museums during the fiftieth hearing of the trial for the management of the funds of the Holy See. The correspondence took place in the same period of the well-known phone call from the cardinal to the Pope that Becciu recorded on 24 July, with the help of his friend Maria Luisa Zambrano and without the knowledge of the Pope (during the period, among other things, of convalescence of Pope Francis after his colon operation).
The documentation emerged from the cell phone seized from Zambrano as part of the investigation by the Guardia di Finanza of Sassari. In the same investigation, sent by letter rogatory, "allusion was made to this correspondence but without finding it," said Diddi. “I asked Becciu's defense if they intended to produce it, but they always rightly reserved the right to deposit it. I took action with the Sovereign Authority”, added the promoter, announcing that at the beginning of the month he had received a copy of the letters from the Pope and the authorization to make them available. Despite the opposition of some defences, the correspondence was admitted to the file by the Vatican Tribunal, presided over by Giuseppe Pignatone.
The first letter signed by the Pope
The content was read in its entirety and projected onto the classroom wall. The first letter is signed by the Pope and bears the date 21 July 2021. It is a response to a letter dated 20 July by Becciu, in which the cardinal, in view of the process that would begin a few days later, on the 27th, asked the Pope to confirm that he himself had endorsed the sale of the property on Sloane Avenue, on the proposal of the honorable Giancarlo Innocenti Botti. At the same time, Becciu asked the Pope for confirmation of the pontifical secret on the 'Marogna affair', the Sardinian manager who had proposed herself as an intermediary for the release of a Colombian nun kidnapped by jihadists in Mali. An operation for which the woman allegedly received sums from the Holy See, which she then spent on luxury goods.
"His letter surprised me", writes the Pope, stating that he does not want to enter "the purposes underlying his statements and his consequent procedural 'strategies'". “In the spirit of truth” the Pontiff first of all clarified that ever since Becciu presented him with the hypothesis of purchasing the property in London “this proposal immediately seemed strange to me due to the contents, forms and timing chosen; to the point that, not having other elements of evaluation, I suggested that a prior consultation be carried out with the Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and with Father Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, prefect of the SPE, for the insights of their respective competences. In fact, it was necessary to clarify the contents and prospects of this operation". The "original perplexity", writes Francis, was further strengthened "when I understood that the initiative in question was, among other things, aimed at interfering, with impeding effects, with the investigations of the Office of the Promoter of Justice". Hence the pronouncement “in the negative sense”.
Confirmation of the secret about Marogna
On the confirmation of papal secrecy in relation to the "Malian and Slovenian affair", where the international cooperation company of Marogna was registered, the Pope notes two "differences in the case in point": "The first concerns institutional activities carried out by competent persons and of undoubted professionalism in the context of their respective roles; the second, as you well know, characterized by extemporaneous and incautious assignments of financial resources distracted from the typical purposes and intended, according to the accusatory theses, to satisfy personal voluptuous inclinations". "You will understand well how it is not possible to affix any pontifical secret", wrote the Pope to Becciu. "I leave it to you to evaluate which perspective objectively benefits the Holy See".
The cardinal responded on July 24, thanking the Pope "for tonight's phone call", the one recorded: "I heard it as a real Father willing to listen to the pain of a son". Summarizing the accusations against her, the cardinal writes: "I should summon you as a witness in the trial, but I would not allow myself to do so". However he says he needs two statements from the Pope "to confirm how the events took place".
These are two attachments in which the cardinal seeks confirmation from the Pope that it was he who gave the consent to "proceed for the release of Sister Gloria Narvàez Argoti" and that he authorized the then substitute "to go to London to contact a brokerage agency. Becciu also asked that the Pope confirm "that he had approved the sum necessary to pay the intermediaries and that fixed for the ransom". As for London, Becciu appealed to the Pope to affirm that he had considered "the proposal interesting".
In essence, Becciu asks the Pope to cancel what was stated in the letter of July 21, adding a note to the text: "Please do not take into account this letter which I consider null", with signature and date, so as to be able to exhibit it in court. Regarding the nun's release, Becciu affirms that he feels "tied to the Secret of State for reasons of international security" and writes to the Pope: "However, tell me if I should consider it as such or if you release me from it and leave me free to answer any question that will be asked of me in Court". As is known, Francis then dispensed the cardinal from secrecy so as to allow him to testify on April 7 last year.
The Pope's second letter
But it doesn't end there. The third letter deposited by Diddi is still signed by the Pope and dated 26 July 2021. The Pope hints that he would not have wanted to write it, thinking that he had already clarified his "negative position" on the declarations that Becciu "intends to get me to sign": "Evidently and surprisingly, I was misunderstood by you,” he says. The Pontiff reiterates that on the opposition of the secrecy bond, "the entrustment of money to an intermediary, due to the opaque aspects that emerged according to the accusatory thesis, cannot be covered by a State Secret for security reasons, nor susceptible to the affixing of the papal secret". "I regret to inform you - he adds - he adds - that I cannot comply with your request to formally declare 'nothing' and therefore to 'disregard' the letter I had written to you".
At the conclusion of the hearing, the financial manager Antonio Mauceri, the commander of the Vatican Gendarmerie Gianluca Gauzzi Broccoletti and the commissioner Stefano De Santis were heard as witnesses, who completed the cross-examination. Gauzzi, in particular, confirmed the "visit" by him and De Santis to the home of Cardinal Becciu, on October 3, 2020, when the media campaign against the cardinal was becoming "intense". They spoke with Becciu for about "an hour and a half" in particular about the accusation of having financed witnesses in Australia of the trial for child abuse against the deceased Cardinal George Pell. But while Becciu showed himself to be "detached" about this and other events", the commander affirmed, when instead they spoke to him of some "papers from Slovenia" which demonstrated the different use of the money by Marogna, "the cardinal bent on his knees and putting his hands on his face, he said: 'If this thing comes out, it will be a serious damage for me and for my family members'. In two other circumstances, still on the Marogna case, Becciu "said that if this thing were published 'they would kill me'", said Gauzzi, underlining that the cardinal had however "expressed the will to repay the sum used by Cecilia Marogna with his voluntary contribution to an IOR current account”. The commander also assured that he never told Becciu to keep the meeting secret.
Spontaneous statement by Becciu
In a spontaneous declaration, the cardinal, saying that he was "embittered" by Gauzzi's words, affirmed that the head of the Gendarmerie himself repeated to him to keep the meeting confidential: "He also told me that it was me who had been cheated and it was not right that I responsible for paying personal expenses made by Marogna. It's not true that I only warmed up to the Marogna question. I certainly showed concern because it was a secret we had to keep." These new statements, concluded the cardinal, are "a new wound that is added".
Edited from Vatican News Italian
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