Vatican cardinal defiant on $300m London property splash

The cardinal at the centre of the church’s financial scandal has defended a $300m property deal in Chelsea as business as usual.

Pope Francis at a mass for the deceased in the Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome on Saturday. Picture: AFP

The Vatican cardinal at the ­centre of the Catholic Church’s latest financial scandal has ­defended a $300m property deal in London’s upmarket Chelsea as business as usual.

Angelo Becciu, who heads the church’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, hit back last week at reports that funds from Peter’s Pence had been diverted into the development.

Cardinal Becciu, who was second in charge of the Vatican’s Secretariat of State when the deal was done in 2014, told ­Italian news agency ANSA: “Mud is being thrown at me in the form of accusations that I ­reject firmly and scornfully. My conscience is clear. I’ve always acted for the interests of the Holy See, and never my own.”

Cardinal Becciu said that while one purpose of Peter’s Pence was to support papal charities, it was not the only one.

“It’s also for the sustenance of his pastoral ministry,” he said.

“It’s standard practice that the Holy See invests in bricks and mortar, and it’s always done so, in Rome, in Paris, and also in London.’’

According to its official website, the Peter’s Pence collection “is a gesture of solidarity … It is an activity that supports the most needy and ecclesial communities in difficulty who approach the Apostolic See for help”.

The investment in the Chelsea property, earmarked for an apartment development, is starkly at odds with Pope Francis’s “poor church for the poor mantra’’. It was made at a time when Vatican finances were under increasing pressure.

Cardinal Becciu’s former boss, Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, called the London transaction “an opaque operation about which now everything will be clarified”. The scandal prompted the resignation last month of ­Domenica Giani, the long-time head of the Vatican police.

Cardinal Becciu was an ­opponent of the financial ­reforms spearheaded by Australia’s Cardinal George Pell from 2014-17, which saw the closure of 4000 Vatican bank accounts.

His campaign came to an ­abrupt end when he was tried and jailed for child sex abuse. Cardinal Pell has appealed to the High Court.