Cardinal’s corruption trial: Pope’s legacy as a reformer in the dock

Tucked up against the walls of the Vatican, Pope Francis’s legacy was close to being decided on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) in a modern, brightly lit courtroom.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu has faced a two-year trial. Picture: AFP

Tucked up against the walls of the Vatican, far from its frescoed halls and opulent chapels, Pope Francis’s legacy was close to being decided on Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) in a modern, brightly lit courtroom.

Lawyers wrapped up their arguments on the final day of the Vatican’s two-year “trial of the century”, in which 10 people – one a cardinal – are accused of involvement in a “rotten, predatory and lucrative” web of embezzlement, fraud and corruption.

With a verdict expected this week, the trial will be regarded by many as an indication of whether the Pope, 86, has lived up to his promise to clean up Vatican sleaze or overseen a legal mess while abusing his own authority.

It has taken three judges 85 hearings to sift through the details of the Holy See’s disastrous €350m investment in a former Harrods warehouse in Chelsea, west London, destined to become luxury flats. When the building was sold in 2018 at a loss of about €200m, there were allegations of rip-off consultancy fees, mismanagement and vanishing cash.

The chief suspect is the Italian cardinal Angelo Becciu, 75, the Pope’s chief of staff at the time, who could be jailed for seven years after the Pope changed the law to allow cardinals to be tried by the Vatican’s lay judges.

The alleged offences came to light during an investigation led by Australian cardinal George Pell, with subsequent claims that Cardinal Becciu was linked to the transfer of €700,000 to Australia to help secure evidence against Pell in his sexual abuse trial.

Prosecutors also accuse Cardinal Becciu of impropriety over his transfer of cash to a charity run by his brother and large payouts to Cecilia Marogna, a self-styled intelligence expert who was meant to use the money to free nuns taken hostage in Africa but spent huge amounts on furniture.

The former Harrods warehouse in Chelsea, west London, at the centre of the Vatican corruption allegations. Picture: AFP

“He’s accused of breaking the law to benefit people he didn’t know. There’s no sense in the allegation,” Fabio Viglione, Cardinal Becciu’s lawyer, told the court.

Raffaele Mincione, the London-based financier who handled the Chelsea deal, has told the court the Vatican pulled out of the investment in a hurry as property values slowed, and it would have made a profit had it held on.

Mr Mincione has sued the Vatican for damage to his reputation, which he says prompted his children’s private school in London, Godolphin and Latymer, to refuse his donations.

The stout defence mounted by the accused has combined with doubts over the star witness: Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, the Vatican official who escaped charges by giving evidence against Cardinal Becciu.

The prosecution has also stumbled in its pursuit of Gianluigi Torzi, an Italian broker brought in by the Vatican to organise its takeover of the Chelsea property from Mr Mincione. They claim Mr Torzi used skulduggery to take control of the property himself before extorting €15m from the Vatican in return for handing back control.

When the Vatican tried to freeze Mr Torzi’s UK assets, a British judge refused permission, claiming the Vatican had made a “clear misrepresentation of what might otherwise be a perfectly legitimate transaction”.

The allegation also raised a thorny issue for the Vatican. If, as witnesses have suggested, the Pope agreed to the €15m payment to Mr Torzi, how could he subsequently put Mr Torzi on trial for extortion?

Throughout the trial, lawyers have questioned the Pope’s dual role as victim of the alleged fraud and ultimate authority over the court trying the defendants. It was his decision to relax the rules so that prosecutors could more easily wiretap suspects, seize their computers and arrest them.

“They didn’t have to get the permission of a judge and it was only allowed for this trial,” said Luigi Panella, the lawyer who represents Enrico Crasso, a financial consultant facing trial.

Ed Condon, a Vatican expert, said the Pope could face criticism whatever the judges decide. “If there are 10 acquittals, Vatican justice will be called incompetent. If there are 10 convictions, it will be called a kangaroo court,” said Mr Condon, a canon lawyer and editor of the Catholic news site The Pillar. “And if no trial had been held, Francis would have been accused of not reforming the Vatican.”

THE TIMES