Cardinal Angelo Becciu proclaims his innocence: «Being condemned is not nice, I was dismayed and I felt the weight of myself, of my family and also of the Church on me, a cardinal being condemned».
On "Five minutes", Bruno Vespa's program on Rai 1, the prelate spoke publicly for the first time after the sentence received by the Vatican Tribunal to five years and six months of imprisonment, in addition to the perpetual ban from public offices and 8,000 euro fine, at the end of the trial on the management of the Secretariat of State's funds and on the sale of the London building.
Whether or not the Pope believes in his innocence, Becciu replied: «I believe so and I hope so. And in any case I will work hard, of course, to prove my innocence. In legal instances and in all ways I want to shout to the world that I am innocent, that I absolutely did not commit these crimes of which I am accused ." Buying buildings is "a tradition of the Holy See" and no one had warned him of possible risks in the operation of the London building : the head of the administration office was responsible for the dossiers, not him.
«It wasn't me who chose. As a substitute, do you know how many offices I had to follow? Seventeen offices. I didn't have time to follow the economic-financial issues step by step. There is an office, the administrative office, which took care of administrative matters and also investments" and "the head of the office, who is really responsible for the administration, at that time was Monsignor Perlasca, he presented the various dossiers to me . Among these is the dossier on the opportunity to invest in a building."
"It was my technicians who told me that it was possible to do it, that it was a great advantage for the Holy See, they didn't present me with any major risks, furthermore the person was guaranteed by the same bank." The cardinal also responds to those 570 thousand euros given to Cecilia Marogna and ended up in personal luxury goods. «I absolutely didn't know this and if I had known I wouldn't have allowed it. This money was intended only for the nun's liberation operation."
«We agreed with the Pope to finance this operation. So that money was supposed to be used just for this. If something went wrong, whoever has to find out must find out ", added Becciu. On the money given to Caritas of Ozieri for a cooperative whose owner is the brother of the cardinal himself, Becciu said that «it is the bishop», therefore not him, «who decides where to use it. So far those 100 thousand have not yet been used."
(Unioneonline/D)
