According to Marogna, she also used the money "for different operations," and said her bank statements could show she has paid companies in Somalia.
"It is not that in some countries you go to pay sources with a debit card," she said, adding that there were also London brokers involved.
Asked about "hypothetical covert operations to free kidnapped clergy," Marogna responded: "I am aware of these situations. I may have had sensitive information about this, but it's not like I was going to the terrorists to take the hostage."
"I can speak with intermediaries to try to resolve situations. But I can also tell you that Becciu and I weren't the only ones running certain businesses," she said.
Marogna also insisted that the sums she received from the Vatican were not used to pay kidnapping ransoms and she was "not aware" that the Vatican had ever paid anything to criminal organizations, arguing that 600,000 euros was "small change" and would not be enough "to close any negotiations."
She told the Corriere della Sera that she met Becciu after sending him an email in 2015 to see if he agreed with her analysis of security problems at Vatican nunciatures. In a different interview she said she knew he had previously been the nuncio to Angola.
The then-sostituto of the Secretariat of State met with her at the Vatican for an hour and a half and "a relationship of esteem was born that resulted in an operational collaboration," she said.
According to Marogna, "there was a lack of parallel diplomacy in the North African and Middle Eastern countries, but I knew what to do and how to move, also to reduce the dangers deriving from the nunciatures and missions from the terrorist cells present in those countries."
Hannah Brockhaus is Catholic News Agency's senior Rome correspondent. She grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.