The Italian Cecilia Marogna, accused in a trial in the Vatican for financial irregularities, mediated between the Holy See and an intelligence agency to free Colombian nun Gloria Cecilia Narvaez after four years captive in Mali, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, another of the accused, confessed this Thursday.
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The cardinal, to whom the pope withdrew his cardinal rights in September 2020 when the irregularities were uncovered, spoke this Thursday in court for the first time about the role of this woman, after the pontiff exempted him from abiding by the pontifical secret, which watch over the most sensitive issues.
Becciu responded to all the accusations in a statement before the Vatican State Court and revealed the relationship with Marogna, who is accused of spending the Vatican money she received for alleged geopolitical advisory work on luxuries.
The “Cardinal’s Lady”, as she is known, served as an intermediary between the Holy See and the British intelligence company Inkerman in the procedures to release the nun in Mali, with the aim of not linking the Vatican with that company, Becciu explained.
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Sister Gloria Cecilia had been kidnapped in Mali on February 7, 2017 and Becciu proposed to the pope to go to this intelligence company, proposed by Marogna, to free her, and the pontiff accepted. The nun was finally released on October 10, 2021.
The operation, as agreed by Becciu, then number two of the Vatican Secretariat of State (2011-2018), with Inkerman, would be around one million euros and Marogna would only be “compensated” if it was successful (as it happened), terms also approved by Francisco.
The cardinal lamented in his statement the information and rumors that have spread about his relationship with Marogna, “damaging” also to his “priestly dignity.”
This trial seeks to clarify some irregularities in the management of the funds of the Secretary of State, especially the sale by the Vatican of an exclusive building in central London that ended up generating losses of 227 million.
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Becciu denied that the money from the Pence of Saint Peter, which collects the offerings of the faithful for charitable works, was used for the sale of the building, since the 45 or 50 million it receives each year was already destined for other items.
Reserved funds from the Secretary of State were spent and because its Administrative Office believed that the operation would be successful.
In this sense, the cardinal confessed that he prevented the suicide of the person in charge of that Office until 2019, Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, initially investigated but later exempted.
Becciu, as he did before, denied any negligence in sending 125,000 euros to the Cooperativa Spes in Sardinia, managed by his brother Tonino, despite the fact that this alleged embezzlement earned him the cardinalate and the position of prefect for the Cause of the Saints.
The pope, in an audience on September 24, 2020, told him, in his “hesitant” opinion: “There is a problem, you are accused of embezzlement (embezzlement)”, to which Becciu replied that he found it “absurd”.
The cardinal assured his total loyalty to the pontiff and defended that he always sought to benefit the Holy See above personal interests, to the point of rejecting an investment in a mineral deposit in Angola, which had been recommended to him by an acquaintance from when he was nuncio in that African country (2001-2009).
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The president of the Vatican Court, Giuseppe Pignatone, set the next hearings for May 18, 19 and 20 and another nine will follow until July 8, which shows the interest in closing this case as soon as possible.
There are ten defendants: in addition to Becciu and Marogna, the broker Gianluigi Torzi; Enrico Crasso, reference financier of the Secretary of State, as well as the former president and former director of the Financial Information Authority (AIF), René Brülhart and Tommaso Di Ruzza, respectively.
Also Monsignor Mauro Carlino, former secretary of the cardinal; the banker Raffaele Mincione, the lawyer Nicola Squillace and the official of the Holy See Fabrizio Tirabassi.
EFE
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