It is called in the Vatican the “trial of the century”, even the “megatrial of the century”. For two years, the former Sardinian cardinal Angelo Becciu has been on trial for embezzlement, in particular because of an investment of Vatican funds in a building in the chic Chelsea district of London.
Reporter to Paris MatchFrançois de Labarre tells this sulphurous story in Vatican offshore – The black money of the Church. Its flowery style sometimes makes it impossible to follow the thread of the investigation, and gives the impression that there is always an eel under the rock: in other words, that the Vatican continues to shamelessly waste the money of the faithful through venality or by geopolitical corruption.
The story is worth telling: with Sardinian relatives, Becciu, stripped of his functions and his title by Pope Francis, embezzled tens, even hundreds of millions of euros. We notably meet Nunzio Scarano, a prelate named “Monsignor Cinquecento” because he walked around with his pockets full of 500 euro notes.
The author does not deprive himself of the pleasure of “retrology”, or dietrology, a common Italian journalistic practice that would be considered conspiracy here: the real explanations are always hidden. In particular, he reports extensively on a thesis by the cardinal who investigated Becciu, the late George Pell. The latter claimed that a complaint for sexual abuse which earned him a conviction in Australia, overturned on appeal, had been fabricated from scratch by his Sardinian enemies. Truly, the Vatican is a gold mine of incredible stories.
Vatican offshore – The black money of the Church
Albin Michael
180 pages