by on 29 SETTEMBRE 2025 ·
It’s been called “the trial of the century” – a monicker or epithet it shares, not without some irony, with several other trials of the past two decades – but it has a claim to the title inasmuch as it represents the first time in history a cardinal faced charges tried in the ordinary criminal court of the Vatican City State.
In any case, the trial of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu et al. certainly risks becoming one of the thorniest legacies left by Pope Francis. The appeallate phase of the trial opened last week, and has already produced two dramatic twists.
The case against Becciu concerns the management of funds under the purview of the Secretariat of State, where Becciu served for years under Francis as the Sostituto – basically the papal chief-of-staff – and includes a remarkable cast of co-defendants, about which we do not need to say much here.
The first twist of last week was that the Court of Appeal, presided over by Archbishop Alejandro Arellano Cedillo, granted the request for recusal from the Vatican Promoter of Justice (the Vatican City prosecutor). The request for recusal stems from the revelation last summer of a series of chats that showed how Monsignor Alberto Perlasca had been “assisted” (if not manipulated) in his testimony. Perlasca’s status as a key witness had been significantly downgraded in the ruling, even though it was his own reconstructions that formed the basis of the prosecution’s case.
The second twist was the court’s rejection of the the appeal from the Vatican Promoter of Justice, who had asked the court to overturn some verdicts of “not guilty” entered for some defendants on some charges, and to revisit penalties imposed for others. The appellate court ruled that the Promotor’s appeal had been filed with a procedural defect and outside the required timeframe, allowing the defense to argue its inadmissibility. The court accepted the defense’s argument.
The appeal process is continuing, of course, but it’s progressing at a slow pace. The Vatican Supreme Court will be called upon to decide on the recusal of the Promoter of Justice Alessandro Diddi, who has since suspended himself from the trial. The appeal will proceed only if the defense’s requests are accepted, which means the first-instance sentence cannot be worsened.
The two dramatic developments, however, also testify to a substantial shift in the Vatican climate. Pope Francis wanted the trial to be completed, even intervening with four rescripts to “facilitate” the investigation, and had complete confidence in the Vatican’s prosecutor. Three significant reforms of the Vatican judicial system under Pope Francis also strengthened the promoter’s position, even at the expense of a normal balance of power, considering that the promoter of justice is the same for the first instance and the appeal.
More: https://www.mondayvatican.com/vatican/leo-xiv-and-the-trial-of-the-century
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