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Police arrest 'Cardinal Becciu's lady'

2020-10-14T01:03:53.232Z


Cecilia Marogna, 39, a trusted person of Cardinal Angelo Becciu, spent Vatican funds dedicated to a supposed parallel diplomacy in clothing and luxury goods


Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu during a press conference on September 25 in Rome.GUGLIELMO MANGIAPANE / Reuters

The Vatican is going through enormous turmoil on account of the open investigation against Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who was one of the most powerful cardinals in the curia and who fell from grace two weeks ago when the Pope withdrew his trust and all his cardinal rights.

The Italian Guardia di Finanza, in the latest episode of this spectacular soap opera, arrested Cecilia Marogna, a 39-year-old woman in Becciu's trust, on Tuesday night in Milan who received huge sums of money from Vatican funds to to weave a network of diplomacy and parallel charity that should favor people and countries in difficulties.

Instead, according to investigations by the Holy See courts, Marogna spent the money on luxury clothing and furniture.

An extreme that has never denied.

The arrest warrant comes from the Vatican through Interpol.

Marogna - also of Sardinian origin, like the cardinal - was able to access an account in Slovenia where at least 600,000 euros were deposited from funds reserved from the Vatican Secretariat of State and destined for secret missions in Asia and Africa.

But a large part of that sum ended up being used to purchase luxury products, according to the

Le Iene

program

: 12,000 euros for an armchair from the Frau brand;

2,200 euros for Prada products, 1,400 for Tod's or 8,000 for Chanel.

"Perhaps the bag was for the wife of a Nigerian friend who could speak to the president of Burkina Faso," she defended.

In the

Domani

newspaper

, Marogna also assured that part of that money was part of her fees and that she spent it as she wanted: "I am not a missionary, I do not work for free."

Marogna was a supposed expert in diplomatic relations and offered her services to the cardinal, according to

Il Corriere della Sera

, in 2016 to mediate in different international crises.

The idea, according to her, was to create a parallel intelligence service to protect different strata of the Church abroad from dangers such as terrorism.

A mission that, at the moment, has not transpired if it really carried out.

A cardinal with several open foreheads

The cardinal himself said he felt cheated and has indicated through his lawyer that contacts with the woman were limited to institutional matters.

However, she assures that she managed to weave a network of relationships in Africa and the Middle East to guard nunciatures and other Church organizations.

The now known as "lady of the cardinal" assures that she took part of that money to repay advances she had made of up to 220,000 pounds.

The problem is that the Marogna case adds to a stream of accusations that weigh on Cardinal Becciu.

The prelate is in the middle of a Vatican investigation into the ruinous acquisition of a building on Sloan Square, in the London borough of Chelsea, for which reserved funds from the Secretary of State were used.

In addition, he was accused of embezzlement and nepotism for favoring different companies of his brothers with funds from the Holy See.

For this last reason he was deprived of his rights as a cardinal -mainly that of participating in the conclave that will elect the next pope-, a punishment that occurred only three other times in more than 120 years.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2020-10-14

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