Cardinal Angelo Becciu on Tuesday
told a Vatican trial that corruption charges against him are
absurd and that Pope Francis believes he is innocent.
Becciu, the highest-ranking Catholic cleric to be charged with
financial crimes, is among 10 people on trial in the Vatican for
fraud, including in relation to the loss-making acquisition of a
London property on Sloane Avenue when he was the Substitute for
General Affairs in the Secretariat of State.
The cardinal, who resigned as head of the Congregation for the
Causes of Saints in 2020 when the scandal broke, is also accused
of directing Church funds and contracts towards bodies linked to
his relatives in Sardinia.
"I want the truth to be proclaimed as soon as possible," said
Becciu.
"I owe it to my conscience. I owe it to my former assistants, to
all the men of the Curia, to the ecclesiastical community who
knew me as a delegate of the pope for the beatification of many
servants of God and knew me in many countries during my service
as a diplomat.
"I owe it to my relatives. I owe it to the whole Church.
"I owe it, above all, to the Holy Father, who recently said he
believes I am innocent".
He said he was at the centre of an "unprecedented media
massacre" and had been presented as "the worst of cardinals".
"I have been described as a corrupt man, avid for money,
disloyal to the pope, concerned only about the well-being of my
relatives," he said.
"They insinuated infamy about the integrity of my life as a
priest, that I paid witnesses in a trial against a brother, that
I own oil wells or tax havens. Absurd accusations, incredible
ones, grotesque, monstrous".
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