CNA Staff, Nov 23, 2020 / 14:00 pm
Cardinal Angelo Becciu is launching a second defamation lawsuit in relation to "offensive" media reports surrounding the events that led to his resignation from the rights of a cardinal, his lawyer told CNA Nov. 23.
The latest lawsuit involves statements made by an Italian woman, Geneviève Ciferri Putignani, to the Italian newspaper "La Verita," published Nov. 22, in which Putignani alleged that Becciu accused her of plotting against him, while swearing and invoking the names of God and the pope -- a claim the cardinal strongly rejects.
Becciu's lawyer, Fabio Viglione, said in an official statement: "The sacrilegious content of the article, seriously offensive to the Holy Father and my client, rests on attributions of phrases and attitudes that the cardinal rejects with absolute firmness, denouncing their total falsity, and which will be brought to the attention of the judicial authority."
"I received a mandate from Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu to propose an immediate complaint for aggravated defamation against Mrs. Geneviève Ciferri Putignani, in relation to the statements attributed to her today by the newspaper "La Verità,'" Viglione said in the statement he sent to CNA Nov. 23.