Vatican, Becciu case: investigations by the Gdf on CEI and Obolo San Pietro funds

• Vatican, Becciu resigns from Holy Cause and cardinalate

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25 September 2020There are also some funds and assignments obtained from the brothers of Msgr. Angelo Becciu behind the sensational resignation of the

from the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints and his renunciation of the rights connected to the cardinalate, welcomed last night by Francis after a shocking audience that saw a dramatic confrontation between the former number two of the Vatican Secretariat of State and the Pope.

The affair would concern loans for several

ended up in a cooperative managed by Antonino Becciu and the companies of Mario and Francesco Becciu and is also the subject of an investigation by Espresso which will be on newsstands on Sunday.

According to what is learned, in particular, CEI contributions and, in part

(the 'money for the poor' donated by the faithful), would have gone in various operations to the Spes Cooperative in Ozieri (Sassari), a structure of which Antonino Becciu is the legal representative and which works closely with the local Caritas .

An event on which the

has moved for investigations

and on which, at the moment, there would be no specific criminal charges, but which was certainly considered at least inappropriate by Pope Francis, who would have challenged it to Becciu during the hearing last night. All the more so because it is not isolated.

Another operation that ended under the Vatican lens, in fact, concerns Angel's srl, of which Mario Becciu is managing director, and of which, according to Adnkronos, the other brother of the cardinal, Francesco, would also be a partner. The company has entered into a partnership agreement with the Caritas Roma Foundation: with the agreement, the Foundation allows the new company that deals with the production and marketing of craft beers to use the Caritas Roma brand to mark the

in exchange the "donation" of 5% of the sales turnover. Among the hypotheses of both Vatican and Italian investigators, the one, still to be verified, that the operation was favored by Msgr. Angelo Becciu and that he may have generated indirect income at Angel's.

Finally, the relations between Francesco Becciu, owner of a

shop in Pattada, with various Nunciatures - including the one in Angola where the former prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints was for a long time -

would have been brought to the attention of the Pope.

the realization of works on wood, in some cases paid for with funds from the Pence of St. Peter.

According to the weekly "there was a real method that distinguished the secretariat of state under the direction of Cardinal Angelo Becciu". The then Monsignor Becciu had entrusted "the entire Vatican treasury to the financier Enrico Crasso, former Credit Suisse" who "directed Vatican investments towards speculative funds based in tax havens". Furthermore, as a substitute for the secretariat of state, Becciu "would have requested and obtained twice from the Italian Bishops' Conference and once from the Obolo di San Pietro, a non-repayable loan in favor of the Spes cooperative, the operational arm of Caritas in Ozieri , in the province of Sassari, whose owner and legal representative is his brother Tonino ".

myself

"I gave the money to my brother only because I bought from his company fixtures for the nunciatures in Egypt and Cuba, I don't see any crime". Thus Cardinal Angelo Becciu, in the newspaper Domani, after the Pope's decision to have him dismissed as prefect of the Congregation of Saints, at the same time depriving him of the rights connected to the cardinalate. "I am shocked," the Sardinian cardinal said to the Messenger. "Troubled. A blow to me, my family, the people of my country. For the spirit of obedience and for the love that I bring to the Church and to the Pope I accepted his request to step aside. But I am innocent and I will prove it. to the Holy Father to have the right to defend myself ".

the Cardinal Becciu was over - when he was deputy to the Secretary of State - to the investigation center on the sale of the luxury building on Sloane Avenue in the center of London (worth over 200 million euro) and cash flows of the accounts on which the Pence of St. Peter passes. "We have never used the money from the Pence of St. Peter for the poor, to make speculations", Becciu specified, underlining that he had "taken out a mortgage" and that the purchase of the building of London "was a propitious opportunity" to make better use of the capital available to the Secretariat of State. "It is the practice that the Holy See - he explained - invests in buildings and then it was a good and opportune opportunity because with Brexit the value of this house has tripled".

The investigation launched in 2019 by two complaints presented by the IOR and the Auditor General, led to the suspension of five officials (two executives of the Secretariat of State, Vincenzo Mauriello and Fabrizio Tirabassi, an administration officer, Caterina Sansone and two senior Vatican officials, Monsignor Maurizio Carlino, head of the Information and Documentation Office, and the former director of AIF Tommaso Di Ruzza). Last June, the broker from Termoli, Gianluigi Torzi, was arrested - and then released - by the Vatican Gendarmerie.