Corruption: Angelo Becciu, cardinal very close to Pope Francis resigns

Giovanni Angelo Becciu, June 28, 2018. REUTERS / Tony Gentile / File Photo

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It is a new earthquake in the Vatican: one of the main cardinals collaborating with Pope Francis, Cardinal Angelo Becciu has been forced to resign.

It would have allowed opaque financial operations which weighed heavily on the finances of the small state.

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From our correspondent in the Vatican

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The announcement surprised the Vatican: in a two-line press release from the Holy See's press office published on Thursday, September 24, we can read that Pope Francis has accepted the resignation of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu from his post of prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

The 72-year-old Sardinian cardinal knows all the workings of the Curia.

Before the cause of the saints, he was for seven years the substitute of the Secretariat of State, that is to say the “Minister of the Interior of the Vatican”.

Scandal

If for the moment no details are given on this setting aside, all eyes are on a scandal revealed last year by the weekly

, where the cardinal would have played a central role: that the acquisition by the Vatican of a luxury building in London for 160 million euros.

The Vatican justice suspects an opaque financial operation, which would have had the effect of tapping the " 

 " a sum which is used to finance the charities of the Pope throughout the world.

Other relatives arrested

Relatives of Cardinal Becciu, starting with his former personal secretary, have already been arrested.

If Giovanni Angelo Becciu remains cardinal for the moment, he loses all his rights linked to his function, that is to say that he will not be able to participate in the election of a pope in the event of a conclave.

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• Vatican

• Pope Francis

• Corruption

• Finance