Vatican City, May 5, 2022 / 11:30 am
Cardinal Angelo Becciu was questioned about investments during a hearing in the Vatican’s ongoing finance trial on Thursday, while his former deputy, Msgr. Alberto Perlasca, is seeking damages as a civil plaintiff.
From 2011 to 2018, Becciu was the second-ranking official in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State, a powerful curial department that is one of four civil plaintiffs in a trial to prosecute Vatican officials and collaborators in connection with the controversial deal to purchase a London investment property.
The Secretariat of State is currently one of the injured parties, along with the Vatican’s two financial bodies, APSA and the IOR, and internal financial watchdog authority ASIF.
A lawyer for Msgr. Alberto Perlasca, a suspect turned key witness for the prosecution, said at the start of the May 5 hearing that the former head of administration at the Secretariat should also be awarded damages as a civil plaintiff.