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POWERFUL VATICAN CARDINAL RESIGNS AMID FINANCIAL SCANDAL.

BECCIU

Head of the Vatican’s saint-making office renounces his rights and will not be able to vote for a new pope

Reuters Thu 24 Sep 2020

A powerful Vatican cardinal caught up in a real estate scandal resigned suddenly on Thursday and gave up his right to take part in an eventual conclave to elect a pope, in one of the most mysterious episodes to hit the Holy See in years.

A brief statement, issued unusually in the evening, said that Pope Francis had accepted the resignation of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, head of the department that decides who will be the saints of the Roman Catholic Church.

But perhaps more significantly, the statement said the Becciu, 72, had “given up the rights associated with being a cardinal”.

The one-line statement gave no details and no reason for the move, but the most important right of Roman Catholic cardinals under 80 is to take part in a conclave to elect a new pope after the current pope dies or resigns.

The relinquishing of that right indicated that the reason for Becciu’s resignation was particularly serious. The last cardinal to give up that right was Cardinal Keith O’Brien of Scotland, who resigned over a sex scandal in 2013.

O’brien


Becciu was until 2018 deputy secretary of state, one of the most powerful positions in the Vatican. During his tenure in that office the Vatican became embroiled in a controversial deal in which the Secretariat of State used Church money to purchase a luxury building in London as an investment.

That investigation led to the suspension last year of five Vatican employees, the resignation of the Vatican’s police chief and the departure of the former head of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority (AIF). Becciu has denied all wrongdoing in the London property deal and defended the purchase, saying the property has increased in value

In June, Vatican police arrested Italian middleman Gianluigi Torzi who was part of a controversial deal, and charged him with extortion, embezzlement, aggravated fraud and money laundering, the Vatican press office said in a statement.

Torzi

He was later released but the investigation is continuing. Vatican sources said they expected Vatican magistrates to hand down indictments soon.

PAT SAYS

This Becciu boyo must have done something really BIG to get sacked from his job and deprived of a cardinal’s rights.

We will probably never know the full story.

And you will find that he is guilty of far more than financial misconduct.

These guys are capable of murder plus.

And the Vatican is the only secret “state” in Europe.

Becciu should have a public trial, a public sentencing and imprisonment.

Instead he can still be called cardinal, be provided with a pish home for life and a good salary / pension.

How is that justice?

How is that truth and transparency?

Becciu is another big reason to starve the RCC of all the funding we can.

We can see what the College of Cardinals really is: Brady O’Brien, McCarrick Pell and so on……..

89 replies on “POWERFUL VATICAN CARDINAL RESIGNS AMID FINANCIAL SCANDAL.”

My take is, Becciu was “persuaded” that buying into this scheme was the “done thing” so that they would have a handle on him. It looks “nice” to blame someone high profile and no longer in a useful job, and entrench removal from practical influence, as a distraction from ills God knows of.

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+Pat: Irrespective of anything else in your “Pat says”, can I quote you, and at same time ask if you consider yourself prosecution, judge AND jury in relation to whatever this cleric may, or may not have done when you say “Becciu should have a public trial, a public sentencing, and imprisonment.”
I make no comment on this clerics’ behaviour, guilty or otherwise. But I do comment on YOUR intemperate pre-trial wish/pronunciation.
I acknowledge your assessment may well be correct, for I believe most of the higher echelons of clergy are indeed a contemptible bunch of charlatans. But please ,….just be more considerate in how you express your own wishes.
MMM

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It was the Vatican not Pat that found him guilty and imposed the punishment. Pat,in the interests of fairness and transparency, would have preferred the man to have a trial in open court.

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If anyone remembers The Godfather Part III, you could almost say Becciu is rather like the fictional villainous character of Archbishop Gilday 🤔

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this is terrible the HOLY PRIESTS being accused of taking the money when they are priests the HOLY GOD has made these men without sinning and HE is ANGRY at the ones saying these bad things about the HOLY PRIESTS there will be PUNISHMENT for this

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Would you please do one? You are really annoying with the infantile nonsense you post.
You sound just like that other priest-worshipping poster, Bella.

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I totally agree with A@ 11.36. Anon@ 10:34’s continually repetitive monotonous comments are definitely “eye rolling” stuff. It’s actually quite hard to understand how an individual like him, or her, can be so, …..blind, indoctrinated, naive, …..or just plain stupid.

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It’s a person who wants you to believe a mad Cathbot writes that shit. It’s a lib doing it, possibly even Pat for a laugh.

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Anonymous at 11:36am
No you do wan, ya wagon you’re just another priest hater. I don’t worship any priest but I respect the many good priests we do have, which of course we never hear about on this blog.

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Mad Lagan Len at 12:13pm

Its very hard for me to understand how an individual like you actually believes everything you read on here. Patsy denies writing it so it’s just some other mad buckbot thats responsible.

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3.06, it’s someone of your vintage, an absolute and unthinking cheerleader for Catholic clergy and clericalism.
Away back to the1950s, where you belong. You’re a joke in the 21st century.

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There is no public interest in this any more, there was a long article in the guardian yesterday about this guy, he was basically taking bribes and got caught, the only amazing thing is that he lost his job as a result. But you can be sure that, unlike Bishop Pat, he will be given an income and somewhere nice to see out his retirement and spend his ill gotten gains.
The monks are lying low. There are only four or five in Mellary, the land is leased to a dairy farmer and an old retainer runs the nursery, lovely man in his seventies, has worked there since he was 11 years old.
They’ll keep Purcell unless he wants to go, he is very able and this story will die a death through lack of interest. Silverstream will wither and die without Kirby.

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So, included also in Purcell’s skill set is barebacking in a gay sauna ? As well as being a man of prayer, a spiritual leader, a good administrator, a teacher……. Something doesn’t add up there, surely ? If I could be sure that the likes of Purcell would be honest and straightforward in his ‘conversion’ back to the fullness of monastic life, I’d happily give him another chance. But, my observation is that these guys take the ‘cure’, go quiet for a while, but really don’t change, and carry on, just being more careful. There’s not really any conversion. So, the dishonesty, the dysfunction, lack of integrity, and us being taken for fools, carries on.

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6.53: Just a reminder: Pat gets a salary from his followers at the Oratory: stipends from his lucrative wedding business, funerals and baptisms: plus he gets mass offerings. Don’t be fooled. He has no mortgage, unlike myself with 4 children: he has no pastoral responsibilities: he has a working partner: he also get a pension at his age. So, Pat is in a very comfortable lifestyle. Absolutely. And good luck to him.

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Adam, bareback is a hipper way to say you’ll take your coffee and/or tea “black,” ie. without milk/cream or sweetener/sugar.
Q: “Would you like some sugar in your iced tea?”
A: “No thanks bro, I’ll take it bareback.”
Q: “Any cream in your coffee, sir?”
A: “Nah, I’m going to bareback it this morning.”

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Bareback – anal sex where the active / inserting / top partner does not wear a condom. Dangerous from the point of view of transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, in particular HIV, gonorrhoea, syphilis, and a whole host of other infections for both partners.

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It’s not just a VATICAN scandal.

The London property scandal didn’t just concern Vatican-owned property in Chelsea; it also involved property owned by a UK charity — the Archdiocese of Westminster — in North Kensington.

Hopefully the UK Civil Authorities are looking into that.

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4.45, Lollard, this is very interesting. It is quite curious to note, who is more senior than archbishops (in addition to cardinals or popes).

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Only four or five? What happened to the other ten or so?? Maybe +Delia told them to sling their hook after looking at the books.

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Millions are, allegedly, involved in the Silverstream scandal too, Bp Pat. I wonder if the purported financial misdeeds will eventually implicate others in the church.

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Bp Pat, Britons who are not in an “established relationship” will be unable to have casual sex under new coronavirus restrictions, health secretary Matt Hancock has as said. Grindr and latrine hook-ups are also off-limits. The rules will apply to priests and seminarians too; however, they can still sleep with one another as usual if they are in the same presbytery or seminary.

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Clerical exceptionalism will apply. I see it already at my local gay cruising ground. The Fathers are out and proud.

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And probably shouting “we’re here, we’re queer and we’d like to say hello”?

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Where is your local gay cruising ground or is that just a fantasy you made up like so many other fantasies on here.

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And how on Earth is that to be controlled? Back to the nineteen fifties with the Met’s finest on top of ladders peering into urinals? Or volunteers ensuring social distance on Hampstead Heath?

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They don’t need to normal people don’t have sex in public toilets or in bushes only weirdos who then have to face the consequences of infection

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I heard Giants ring is busy more than usual particularly on Sunday mornings. The Hillsborough layby is now a no go because the Police visit regularly after complaints by the local DUP.

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The Becciu affair will have a series of layers to it. At first glance it looks like a financial scandal – bad investment with some dodgy people, a bit of nepotism etc – but I’m absolutely sure that there will be an internal power struggle about other issues going on beneath the surface. What really does surprise me is the ruthless and sudden defenestration of this Cardinal in such a public way. I sense that Pope Francis is not the most subtle or nuanced of men when it comes to judgement and how to proceed. He’s a bit like a bull in the china shop. I some ways it plays to a narrative about rooting out scandal and misbehaviour, and sends a message that such behaviour will not be tolerated. So good, so far. However, in a byzantine system like the Vatican, while it may put the wind up people, it will also breed resentment, and that will be dangerous for Francis. This could come back to bite him. I’d say the public nature of Becciiu’s exit probably stings more than anything. People do not like their dirty washing put out in public. In addition, Becciu will not go quietly, and I am sure that he has the capacity to cause considerable pain for Francis, in spite of his formulaic protestations of loyalty to the Holy Father. Watch that space.

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This Becciu business does highlight another hypocrisy at the heart of the Catholic Church. We are lectured endlessly about justice by the Church – and some of the Church’s teaching on social justice is absolutely wonderful. However, when it comes to its own internal affairs, justice is often set aside and the exercise of monarchical absolute power takes over, with the whim of the morning becoming the decree of the afternoon, where actions are taken that have not gone through a lawful process and where there is no right of appeal, and where instant and arbitrary decisions are made and executed. Yes, I know the Church has its Canon Law, but in reality it is still a feudal monarchical absolutist creation. The Pope is able to do this to Becciu – requiring his resignation – probably without due process of law or investigation. Any bishop in his diocese rules mostly by patronage and whim. We see it all over the place. In Westminster, + Vin is able to rule the roost and wield the knife as he sees fit, much to the resentment of his clergy. If your face fits, then you are in. If not, then you are cast out. The latest appointment of the Administrator of the Cathedral will not have gone through a transparent and clear process. It will have been made by Vin and one or two others in some closeted room. No parish ever gets a say about what it might want as its parish priest. One is just foisted upon it. Priests are dealt with arbitrarily depending on their personal relationship and standing with the bishop or VG. There are very few other establishments where such personalised, absolute, arbitrary processes are allowed to take place these days. And yet, we put up with it. However, as commentators said yesterday, increasingly people are turning away from these sorts of things and seeing them as irrelevant to them. They know the situation is not sustainable, and they don’t want to be part of it anymore. Clergy as well.

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10.39

Excellent post; excellent description of the Vatican and diocesan machinery.

And an irrefutable cause for chucking out this clerical changeling with its fetid bathwater.

Just saying, like.

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Westminster Cathedral is about to go through some big changes. It’s seen as an embarrassment to the hierarchy that the principal church in England has every altar ad orientum and a boys choir singing in Latin it is not a shop window for Vatican Two it needs to become a little more folksy a touch of the neo-cat and the ethnic might just do the trick for the year ahead before regrettable closure because of the costs of maintenance, maybe they could rent out the crypt as an exam hall or for a beer festival like Liverpool?

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It is only because it doesn’t have a lot of “Spirit of Vatican II” crap that WC is successful.

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You Vatican II Cult folk forget that the Council did not condemn the use of Latin nor the use of ad orientem worship. The wonderful missal of 1964 retained both. I’m still amazed that the collect was still in Latin as well as the true Canon Missae.
So sad about the devastation at Westminster, but, not to worry, Some Anglican cathedral will take up the slack. Alas, poor Cardinal Vaughn!

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11.41 Don’t think the new Administrator is going to be a wrecking ball and get it all folksy. That’s not his style. He likes good worship and even caused a stir in Enfield when he wore black Roman vestments on All Souls Day. If you look back far enough on their Twitter account you can see it.

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Head of Vatican saint-making office renounces his rights… 😂
Was their ever a greater irony than this one? It is self-belittlement by the Vatican, and the entire priesthood, with bells on.
Saint-maker de-sainted?
At least we’ll die laughing at the entire Romanist charade. 😀

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Why has Francis never gone back to his homeland of Argentina ? There must be a story there. I reckon there are many skeletons in the closet that he does not want to confront.

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He’s as popular as the paedo priest he defended over his deaf young victims…Fr Degrassi.

Paedophile protectors, like Romanist priests, are never popular.

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2.01: You are right. That nuisance, gossipy idiot at 12.44 should indeed mind his own business. Such wasters.

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11.31 am

What happened to that priest now Fr Degrassi? Did jesus intend the priesthood? All he did was the creation of the mass. There was no mass before that, just pagan sacrifices. Just wondering is it an evolution?

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It is an evolution that favoured an elite in the early church, and its fruits are the spiritually toxic succession of scandals historically, culminating in the sexual abuse criminality of modern times, and its concealment.
Jesus never intended a priestly elite, and those who say otherwise are more likely priests themselves afraid of losing their privileged niche in the Church, or their blind apologists; some of these post on this blog almost daily, and their stupidity and ignorance, in terms of jaw-dropping astonishment, is second only to their obsequious clerical deference.
In the early church, Jesus’ followers simply met in one another’s homes, where ALL broke bread and ALL drank from a communal cup, thereby honouring one of Christ’s final instructions to his followers: Do this in memory of me.
Whatever Jesus intended by the words ‘This is my body. This is my blood’ took place when ordinary disciples of his, not just The Twelve, obeyed his instruction.
The early church was much more egalitarian, and sexually inclusive, than many priests today would have us believe, again in defence of their privilged status in the Church. These men are liars and deceivers, and their habit of proclaiming, not the truth but its diametric opposite, spilled into every aspect of their so-called ‘ministry’, including the concealment of the most horrific crimes against children, and the protection, and promotion, of the priest-tormentors of these vulnerable children.
The clergy in the Church are its greatest, and most chronic, destabilising factor, much more than the supposed ‘sexual revolution’ of the 1960s, an excuse preferred by ‘retired’ pope, Benedict. These men will blame anyone or anything rather than themselves for the decline in Mass attendance, etc.
The phrase ‘the smoke of Satan’ was first expressed by Pope Paul VI in 1972, and alluded to what he believed was Evil itself, purposely active and perceptible in the Church; he defined this, principally, as dissension not only from Church teaching, but challenges to the Church’s magisterium to teach authoritatively and pre-eminently. This, of course, was the supreme irony of his homily: he failed to recognise that, while the Magisterium had authority to teach, it was not the sole repository of truth, nor was it excepted by Christ from teaching in error, even in grave error. We recognised this less than three years ago, when Pope Francis ruled inadmissable a teaching by successive magisteria, steadfastly over the centuries, on moral approval of the death penalty.
The ‘smoke of Satan’, in concrete terms , is the positing of the Church’s magisterium as the supreme teacher. This attempts to bind the followers of Jesus not to Christ himself, but to men, effectively morphing the Church into a cult of the episcopate; this is the principal explanation for the historical and moral deviation of the institutional Roman Catholic Church from the teaching of the one it claims, on Earth, to be its founder and dynamic, Jesus Christ.

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Anon@ 3.43: Yours is the kind of intelligent discursive comment which makes the blog worthwhile reading. Thank you.
MMM

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A@9:38: I don’t mind who I thank, for it’s the comment’s informative quality I appreciate regardless of whether I agree with it or not.
MMM

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The disgraceful Fr Degrassi and Fr Inzoli cases should have ended the Bergoglio pontificate but he got away with it because the media give him an easy time of it.

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Fr Fergus Ryan OP made an appearance here some days ago. He might have some interesting insights into the timing of Fr John Walsh’s (OP) ordination.

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Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu said in a press conference that he was sacked by Pope Francis because of reports by Italian magistrates of embezzlement. He said that the Pope had referred to in their 20 minute meeting that Beccui had diverted church money to his three brothers – £700,000 to his brother Tonino and favours and contracts awarded by the Vatican to his brothers Mario and Francesco. He insists he is innocent of these charges (Mandy Rice Davies “He would wouldn’t he) and deserves the presumption of innocence (that’s fair, everyone does). He authorised the Chelsea property deal when working in the Secretariat of State the money for which came from St Peters Pence (wonder how the poor widow feels about her mite being used to purchase a swanky Chelsea apartment block). Cardinal Becciu was Prefect (Perfect) for the Congregation of Saints (Saint Making Factory) when Cardinal John Henry Newman was canonised (wonder how much that cost and what sexual and financial favours were exchanged?). The good news is, Beccui told the press conference that Pope Francis said he can keep his swanky apartment in the Vatican because and I quote, ‘for all the work I have done.’

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I managed to catch a few seconds of the old trout on the Late, Late last night. She must have an overnight apartment attached to the studio, she’s on that crappy programme so often.
I nearly broke my finger pressing the off switch when she said “I’m not one to bow and scrape and kiss rings”. How stunning and brave to say that in modern Ireland. Does she think it is 1985 and she’s saying something outrageous and controversial?

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She loves being bowed and scraped to herself mind you. That blade’s ego would give the Empire State Building a run for its money.

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It’s the idea that she has been discriminated against that gets me, and there she is on her €135k presidential pension, on top of those from TCD and QUB, all posts she got because she was a gobby Catholic woman from Ardoyne.

I just don’t know who’ll buy her new book. It’ll be the same old stuff that’s been aired relentlessly on the Irish media for decades.

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She bowed and kissed rings of Cahal Daky and Des Connell at a dinner. There is a picture somewhere of the old hag doing it. Has no shame, all fur coat and knickers the auld bitch.

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8.28: McAleese is a hypicrite. She bowed before all clerics. She enjoyed their adulation of her and she abused the Hospitality of Catholic Parishes for her own advantage. We see through her now…

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6.26: Mrs. McAleese visited many church garden fetes and attended many parish celebrations during her time as President. In fact she couldn’t be kept away from clerics and religious. Any and every Church celebration she could attend was oppirtunistically used to garner the Catholic vote. She did indeed bow before many a bishop and cleric. She is now very virulent, strident and rough in her condemnation of Church teachings which she once upheld. I have no difficulty with her questioning the need for relevant and necessary changes and I support her views on some issues but It’s the dismissiveness and contempt which she radiates that I find very off putting. I also believe that she is becoming rather tiresome beating the same drum. I cannot recall if she has ever personally partcipated in any of her local parish activities…all of which she probably considers to be beneath her! Not do I recall any moment when she handed out a food parcel go the poor at Br. Kevin’s Day Care Centre. She could put her “talents” to something worthwhile and immediate. Mary McAleese – too much on TV….and always repeat narratives.

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Damian Thompson has tweeted, describing the review as a messy compromise and saying that the timing of 12pm Sung Mass will hugely damage the Cathedral’s liturgy.

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Cardinal Pell issued a statement complimenting Pope Francis on his action in relation to Cardinal Becciu.

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Pell is a deeply wronged man, but Buckley continues to smear him: “We can see what the College of Cardinals really is: Brady O’Brien, McCarrick Pell and so on……..”

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Was he deeply wronged when he was advised not to shop Mulkearns & Little, any time from 1996 to 2004, when it would have been state of the art? And by whom? This will be illuminating.

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I’ve just watched a YouTube conversation between professor Richard Dawkins and professor Krauss at an Australian University. They both referred to televised discussion Dawkins had a few days previously with cardinal Pell. To sum up their comments: they found Pell’s comments unbelievably ignorant of even basic facts of evolution and biological sciences, yet while so oblivious, he made definitive pronunciations on all such matters regardless of contrary evidence. It left them shaking their heads in disbelief.
I wrote down one comment by Dawkins, so can quote it here: “there was a complete lack of intellectual understanding……”
I make this comment tonight to evidence what worldwidely acknowledged distinguished scholars think of the intellectual capacity of the cardinal, at that time a member of the top echelons of the RCC.
MMM

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Paisley’s McNamara still has all of his social media’s down. Hiding away still… where are you Evan?

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I am his social media friend. You’re obviously blocked you stalker. Get a life and leave him alone. You are a failed seminary applicant I hear.

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