Holy See may have been defrauded in scandals -Guerrero

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 1 - Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, the prefect of the Vatican Secretariat for the Economy, said Thursday that the Holy See was probably the injured party in the recent financial scandals that have hit the headlines.
    Pope Francis last week forced Cardinal Angelo Becciu to step down from the helm of the Vatican department that oversees sainthoods.
    Becciu was the Substitute of its Secretariat of State at the time of a controversial 350-million-euro investment in a building in London in 2014 that is at the centre of a Vatican investigation.
    Becciu, who denies any wrongdoing, said he was not ousted in relation to the London operation but for alleged misappropriation regarding the use of Church money in Sardinia and for allegedly favouring activities run by his brothers.
    "It is possible that, in some cases, in addition to being badly advised, the Holy See was also defrauded," Guerrero Alves told reporters.
    "I think that we are learning from the errors or the imprudence of the past.
    "Now it is a question of accelerating with the pope's decisive, insistent process of awareness, internal and external transparency and control, and collaboration between different departments.
    "The Holy See's economy must be a house of crystal".
    Guerrero Alves also stressed that the losses in the London deal had not been sustained by Peter's Pence. (ANSA).