Pope’s role in Vatican financial probe takes center stage once again
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis’ own role in the investigation into financial wrongdoing at the Holy See took center stage Friday in the Vatican tribunal, with witnesses saying he encouraged a key suspect to cooperate with prosecutors and a key defendant accusing him of interfering in the trial.
Friday’s hearing was one of the most eagerly anticipated in the Vatican’s “trial of the century,” given it featured testimony from one of the more colorful figures in recent Vatican history, Francesca Chaouqui. The public relations expert was summoned after it emerged late last year that she had played a behind-the-scenes role in persuading a key suspect-turned-star-witness to change his story and implicate his former boss, Cardinal Angelo Becciu.
But the daylong hearing ended with an unexpected bombshell, as Becciu responded to Chaouqui’s testimony by reading aloud an exchange of letters with the pope that suggested Francis himself continued to cast a shadow over the trial, even if inadvertently.
The trial in the city-state’s criminal tribunal originated in the Holy See’s 350 million-euro investment in a London residential property. Prosecutors have charged 10 people, alleging Vatican monsignors and brokers fleeced the Holy See of tens of millions of euros in fees and commissions, and then extorted the Holy See of 15 million euros to get full control of the property.
Monsignor Alberto Perlasca initially was among the prime suspects, but he changed his story in August 2020 and started cooperating with prosecutors, blaming Becciu, then the No. 2 in the secretariat of state, for the London investment and other questionable expenditures.
When he was interrogated in November, Perlasca revealed that he changed his story after receiving advice via a family friend from someone he believed to be a retired magistrate who was working closely with Vatican investigators, prosecutors and the pope himself. It soon emerged the retired magistrate was none other than Chaouqui, who is known in Vatican circles for her role in the “Vatileaks” scandal of 2015-2016 in which she was convicted of conspiring to pass confidential documents on to journalists.
Chaouqui has long harbored a grudge against Becciu, blaming him for being behind her “Vatileaks” arrest and prosecution. Her interference in the new trial, and interest in getting Perlasca to change his story, was widely seen as an attempt to settle scores with Becciu.