Cardinal Pell skeptical of Archbishop Becciu’s defense
May 06, 2022
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CWN Editor's Note: Cardinal George Pell has indicated that he has doubts about the “spirited defense” that Archbishop Angelo Becciu presented to a Vatican tribunal, saying that the archbishop’s account of his financial dealing is “somewhat incomplete.”
Cardinal Pell—who had clashed repeatedly with Archbishop Becciu while serving as the Vatican’s top economic official—said that some aspects of Becciu’s testimony were “bizarre,” citing his use of funds from the Peter’s Pence collection as collateral for a loan to purchase London property.
The Australian cardinal was especially critical of Becciu’s accounting for the large sums transferred to Australia by the Secretariat of State. While Becciu had told the tribunal that the money was used to secure a high-level domain name for the Vatican, Pell pointed out that the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, not the Secretariat of State, had undertaken that expense. In fact Cardinal Pell had approved payments from the former Vatican office. Archbishop Becciu had suggested that Pell’s approval was for transfers by the Secretariat of State.
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