A day after Pope Francis fired one of the Vatican’s most powerful officials over a financial scandal, Cardinal Angelo Becciu denied any wrongdoing in a news conference on Friday, September 25.

As per reports, the Pope had sacked Cardinal Becciu after mounting evidence showed him directing hundreds of thousands of euros of the Vatican as well as Italian church funds to a charity controlled by his brother. Even though the Pope fired him scrapping his rights and privileges as a cardinal, Becciu said that his downfall was “surreal” but had a clean conscience. 

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During his media appearance, Becciu said that the Pope had asked him to resign as prefect of the Vatican’s saint-making office in a “troubled” meeting on Thursday, September 24 citing lack of confidence. Becciu, who had gone to the Pope’s residence for a pre-scheduled meeting to discuss the possible sainthood candidates, was told by the Holy Father that documents from the Italian financial police have alleged he had misappropriated 100,000 euros of Holy See funds. 

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Becciu defends transactions 

Even though the cardinal’s name is reported to have emerged in a financial scandal around the investment of the Holy See in a real estate venture based in London, Becciu said that the main issue that triggered his removal was the allegation of embezzlement that was first reported by a news magazine L’Espresso.

The former senior official at the Vatican’s secretariat of state confessed about sending office funds in 2017 to his diocese in Ozieri, Sardinia, for its charitable work with the legal representative of the diocese’s charitable arm being his brother Tonino Becciu. 

“I don’t think I’ve committed any crime,” Becciu said during the news conference in a religious institute just off St. Peter’s Square.

The former cardinal also said that he had recommended the donation of 300,000 euros by the Italian bishops’ conference to the same charitable funds several years ago to help its set up. Therefore, he insisted that it was legitimate because it was all the conference’s call to do the same. According to Becciu, all such donations were adhering to the directives included in the secretariat of state’s off-the-books fund be destined toward charity.

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Inputs/Image: AP