Senior Cardinal Accused Of Bribing Witnesses To Testify Against Rival In Child Sexual Abuse Case

[Valin]

The Daily Wire

Tim Pearce

Oct 5, 2020

A Catholic cardinal allegedly paid out hundreds of thousands of euros in church money to bribe witnesses during the trial of a rival cardinal charged with child sexual abuse.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu is suspected of sending €700,000—equivalent to roughly $825,000—to a number of recipients in Australia as bribe money to testify against Cardinal George Pell, who was on trial for allegedly molesting choir boys in Australia in the 1990s, the British newspaper The Times reported, citing two Italian newspapers.

Cardinal Becciu is the former head of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Vatican department in charge of canonizing saints. He resigned the office on Sept. 24 at the request of Pope Francis as Vatican officials investigate Becciu’s handling of church finances while he served as sostituto, or chief of staff, in the Secretariat of State from 2012 to 2018.

Throughout his time in the Vatican, rumors and conspiracies have swirled around Becciu that he has shut down attempted reforms of the Catholic Church’s finances. In 2016, Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Becciu, then Parolin’s deputy, shut down an audit of Vatican finances by the international accounting firm Pricewaterhouse Cooper. The audit was arranged by Pell, who at the time headed the Secretariat for the Economy.

(Snip)