A couple of weeks ago, as the trial of Cardinal Becciu for corruption was announced in the Vatican, my parish priest made an announcement about the Peter’s Pence collection at the church door: it was all for the charitable work of the Holy See, he said; it all went on the Pope’s good works, none on administration. We nodded amiably – who doesn’t like Peter’s Pence? - and most people gave more than pence on the way out.
But a few days later it emerged that some of the funds involved the complicated fraud and embezzlement of which ten Vatican employees are being accused comes from donations from the faithful. The defendants are alleged to have cost the Holy See tens of millions of euros in bad investments, to have been involved with crooks and fraudsters and to have benefited themselves and their families and friends. One defendant, Cecilia Marogna, a security consultant, is accused of embezzling around €500,000 given her by Cardinal Becciu which was meant to be used in ransoming kidnapped nuns and spending some of it on designer handbags.
