Pope Francis will not be called on to
testify in an ongoing trial into alleged graft and negligence in
managing the Vatican's property portfolio including a luxury
apartment on London's Sloane Avenue, Vatican court chair
Giuseppe Pignatone said Thursday.
Francis was not listed among the witnesses for the defence of
Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the highest ranking Vatican official to
be tried for financial crimes, and other defendants, all of
whose lawyers had requested the pontiff's testimony.
But Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin may be
called to testify, Pignatone said.
Among the witnesses for the defence announced Thursday is the
Substitute for General Affairs, mons. Edgar Pena Parra, the
president of Vatican bank IOR, Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, and
Cardinal Becciu's brother, Antonino.
Sardinian-born Becciu, 74, had an audience with France at the
end of November after which he said he pope had encouraged him
in the case, in which the Sardinian cardinal was last year heard
on a wiretap saying Francis "wants me dead".
Pignatone also blocked further testimony by former Vatileaks
defendant Francesca Immacolata Chaouqui, one of Becciu's chief
accusers.
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