Cardinal Becciu thanks pope for restoring his rank

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 22 - Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the highest-ranking Catholic cleric to be charged with financial crimes, on Monday thanked Pope Francis for restoring his cardinal's rank even though he is still 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.
    In March Becciu told the Vatican trial that corruption charges against him are absurd and that Pope Francis believes he is innocent.
    Francis has now invited Becciu to an upcoming meeting of cardinals.
    "I'm very moved by this gesture on the part of the pope," Becciu told ANSA Monday.
    "I thank him my with all my heart and I reconfirm my full communion with him.
    Becciu told a Mass at the Sardinian resort where he is vacationing Sunday: "On Saturday the Pope telephoned me to say that I will be restored to my cardinal functions and to ask me to take part in a meeting with all the cardinals which will take place in the coming says in Rome.
    "So I won't be able to attend Mass (here in Sardinia) next Sunday because I'll be busy with the meeting in Rome".
    Speaking on March 17, Becciu told reporters: "I want the truth to be proclaimed as soon as possible.
    "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". (ANSA).