A new opportunity for Cardinal Angelo Becciu to definitively clarify some of the issues raised during the hearing on 5 May came in the hearings of yesterday and today in the Vatican. In particular with regard to funding for the diocese of Ozieri and the London building deal.
His Eminence went back to specifying that he "always checked with the utmost rigor the documents analyzed and instructed by Monsignor Perlasca".
Here are the points at the heart of his spontaneous statement:
- The Auditor General could not access the papers of the Secretariat of State. "I strongly doubt that the Auditor General was able to know the accounts of the Office". Becciu therefore questions the possibility of access by the Auditor - whose report is in the proceedings of the prosecution - since "the Secretariat was completely autonomous from a financial point of view. To violate this autonomy, a specific mandate from the Pope was needed, but it never happened. Indeed in 2016 there was a rescript delivered to us by Cardinal Parolin where this autonomy was reaffirmed ". Becciu continues: " The Secretariat was a dicastery, yes, but sui generis . Not like the others, nor could it be, because it was the Pope's Secretariat and represented the government of the Holy See".
- Investments only on the basis of checks and proposals from the administrative office. The high prelate originally from Pattada underlines: " I have never implemented strategic investment decisions . Those made were made on the basis of the proposals of the appropriate office. They gave me their reasons as happened for the London building and not. having had reasons to the contrary, I gave my consent ". The head of the administrative office, entitled to instruct, evaluate and give validity or not to an investment hypothesis, was Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, whose position was later archived. If, therefore, Perlasca instructed the paperwork for Becciu and it was filed, the cardinal's defense wonders how the accusation for Becciu who received and signed the documents sent by Perlasca in a "full confidence" report can remain sustainable, as he said. Becciu at the hearing.
