There is time until Tuesday for Cardinal Angelo Becciu (sentenced to five years and six months in prison) and the others punished with prison sentences and fines, to present the appeals, as promised by the lawyers of the first cardinal of the Church to be tried and condemned by laymen, such as the judges of the Vatican Tribunal who presented the accusations in a process that lasted two and a half years on embezzlement of funds of the Church.
At the Vatican tribunal, which will hear appeals and decide which sentences (this time final) to apply to the cardinal and the other convicts, the four judges are also lay, civil. Never seen before.
The judges of the Vatican tribunal. Photo: EFE
The climate in the Vatican and Rome is heating up after the sentences announced on Saturday that punished Becciu and the nine others accused of having committed serious crimes in maneuvers with Vatican funds, which has lost almost 200 million dollars in the dilapidated purchase and sale of a large building in central London (Sloane Square); a "palazzo" that had been one of the headquarters of the world-famous Harrods stores.
There are also other cases of minor pecuniary importance that resulted in punishments for Cardinal Becciu.
An unexpected event and a harsh criticism of the Pope
An unexpected sign was experienced on Monday when the website "Il Sismografo", which for years has published Vatican and Church information in many countries, with many readers from the Catholic world, announced its closure.
Although economic reasons and the advanced age of the editors themselves – in particular their inspirer Luis Badilla, a Chilean Catholic who arrived as a refugee in Rome during Pinochet's coup and later joined Vatican radio --,– are cited for economic reasons and the advanced age of the editors themselves, the coincidence with Saturday's ruling by the Vatican Tribunal gives rise to all kinds of speculation.
This impression is stimulated by the farewell of Badilla and his colleagues to "Il Sismografo". They sign, at the moment of farewell, an article that accompanies the announcement with an article that is pure dynamite.
Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu. Photo: Andreas Solaro/ AFP
"The primacy of the Successor of Peter, his mission and that of his ministry is not in question. What must be reformed is the exercise of the power of the Pontiff, which can no longer be an absolute power for life," they write.
There is much more, an abundant firewood against Francesco. "The manner, style and methods, together with the narrative discourse, with which Pope Bergoglio has exercised his supreme ministry as universal Pastor, as Bishop of Rome and Successor of the Apostle Peter, have shown that a single man at the command of the Church of Christ, in addition to being an absolute sovereign, is a form of government that is currently gravely inadequate. lacking and risky," he continues.
"With Pope Francis, this crisis has seriously worsened and excesses and arbitrariness have reached intolerable limits that damage the credibility and authority of the Holy See." Never seen, even in "Il Sismografo", such an attack.
It should be borne in mind that the site announcing its own end was, it is, until this Monday at least, widely read by correspondents in the Vatican and in the Catholic world itself.
The Philippic stresses that "now it is necessary to ask ourselves how to govern and for how long?
Authoritarian opacity
The attack continues. He concludes that "in these almost eleven years of pontificate, Pope Francis has made many mistakes like all popes, but a specific way of being his own has bogged him down, such as lack of transparency, authoritarian opacity and an undeveloped relationship with the truth."
In some circles they wonder if behind the categorical tone against Bergoglio there is not a contrast that was resolved with a self-closure of a media outlet that attracted vast journalistic attention, because in "Il Sismografo" one could read all the alternatives of the contrasts in the German Church and the movements of the American conservatives against the Pope.
"In these almost eleven years of pontificate, Pope Francis has made many mistakes, says the Seismograph. Photo: AP
Then there is the increasingly inevitable question of when the pope's succession will open. Because although now it seems that we will have to wait for at least the second phase of the Synod of Synods, whose initial phase was completed last October, to arrive in October 2024.
This will be a very important moment. It will be seen if Jorge Bergoglio manages to contain the demands for fundamental changes in the German Church on the left and the traditionalist conservative wave on the right, with center and guidance in the North American Church.
A year with health problems
This 2023 saw an increase in the health problems of the Argentine Pope, who managed to overcome bronchial and pulmonary problems, plus an operation in June, the second that required surgery on the stomach and intestines, and which Jorge Bergoglio overcame brilliantly. And then there's still his knee problems.
The faithful and the world at large have become accustomed to seeing the pope in a wheelchair. Photo: AP
The faithful and the world at large have become accustomed to seeing the pope in a wheelchair. He uses it less and less, he walks, he stands upright. New health problems would have a negative impact on an already delicate situation due to their growing repercussions on the physical government of the Church.
The Argentinian pope has, as the doctors say, a precarious iron health, which the longer it lasts, the more time he will have to address the problem of his succession. Bergoglio has put everything in the hands of the Most High. "I will leave whenever he wants."
With the natural death or a resignation that will open a Conclave where great deaf tugs of war are already taking place today between progressives and traditionalist conservatives. And Tuesday is the last day for Cardinal Angelo Becciu and the others convicted in the "trial of the century" to appeal Saturday's convictions in the first instance. Tensions seem destined to rise.