Pope Francis’ phone call with Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who is on trial in a corruption case, was secretly recorded, it has emerged.
In the audio, released during a hearing at the Vatican on Thursday, Becciu asks the Pope if he approves a ransom payment for the release of Gloria Cecilia Narvaez, a nun kidnapped in Mali in February 2017.
On July 24, 2021, Francis told Becciu that he could not remember whether he had approved the payment or not, and asked him to send him his request in writing.
CNN, one of the leading media organizations in the US, reported that the conversations were recorded by Becciu’s relative, but did not share the identity of this person.
Becciu, 73, made a deal in 2018 with Cecilia Marogna, a self-styled security consultant, to free Narvaez, who had been kidnapped by militants from the al-Qaeda-linked Macina Liberation Front.
Marogna, 44, then put the Cardinal in touch with Inkerman, a United Kingdom (UK)-based risk and intelligence company.
Accordingly, Becciu said he sent Marogna 500,000 euros for ransom and 350,000 euros to pay the company in 2018-2019. UK-based news agency Reuters reported that the police argued that the payment to Marogna was 575,000 euros.
Some of the money was sent to a Slovenian company owned by Marogna, while the other part was given to Marogna in cash.
Police allege that Marogna spent most of the money on luxury clothes and spa services. Marogna denied the allegations at the hearing.
Becciu, who made the payments in question when he was the Vatican’s Deputy Secretary of State, argued that all transactions were approved by the Pope. Becciu was the third most powerful person in the Vatican, a position he held from 2011-2018.
In the hostage crisis resolved in 2021, militants freed the Colombian nun. The Vatican has not released information on whether a ransom was paid to the militants.
Becciu’s lawyers have not commented on the secret recording of the Pope’s speech, and Francis has not yet commented on the incident. There is no provision in Vatican law that allows the Pope to be compelled to appear as a witness in court.
