Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who was convicted in an unprecedented Vatican court process and forced to resign his position, insisted he can still vote in the upcoming papal conclave.
Becciu told Italian media on Tuesday that he would be participating in the conclave, and that his cardinal privileges remained intact, according to the National Catholic Register.
In 2020, Becciu forfeited his position as prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, after an investigation alleged he committed financial crimes.
Pope Francis also required Becciu to forfeit his rights as a cardinal, including the right to vote at conclaves. Becciu agreed, though he was allowed to keep his cardinal title.
Becciu was allegedly at the center of a 2014 London real estate fiasco, in which the Vatican ultimately spent hundreds of millions of dollars on a disastrous property investment, according to BBC.
He was also accused of funneling money to his home diocese in Sardinia, Italy, much of which allegedly benefited his own family.
He also reportedly sent €600,000 (about $684,000) to Cecilia Marogna, a woman who claimed she needed it to rescue a nun in Mali, an African country. Instead, she reportedly spent much of the money on luxury items and vacations.
But Becciu said he is innocent.
“Until 6:02 p.m. on Thursday I felt like a friend of the Pope, a faithful executor of his will,” Becciu said after Francis fired him in 2020. “Then the Pope says he no longer has faith in me.”
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In 2023 he was convicted of embezzlement, aggravated fraud, and abuse of office, becoming the first cardinal to ever be convicted in a Vatican court.
He was sentenced to five and a half years in prison.
Vatican court sentences Italian cardinal Angelo Becciu, a former adviser to Pope Francis, to five-and-a-half years in jail for financial crimeshttps://t.co/PUM1EzjBdw
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) December 16, 2023
He is currently appealing the conviction through the Vatican’s Court of Appeal, which has not yet made a ruling.
Despite losing his rights and privileges, Becciu was never removed from the College of Cardinals, meaning he can still participate in the pre-conclave discussions, CNN reported.
But the Vatican website currently lists Becciu as a non-elector in the upcoming conclave.
Becciu’s claim that he is eligible to vote is “ridiculous,” a source close to Becciu’s case said, according to the National Catholic Register. He “cannot reclaim this privilege when the legal ruling remains in force.”
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