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".
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