WHEN PRAYER IS NOT ENOUGH
2nd Vatican official says pope OK’d ransom payments for nunBy NICOLE WINFIELD
People crowd St. Peter's Square at the Vatican as Pope Francis delivers his blessing as he recites the Angelus noon prayer from the window of his studio, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023. A second high-ranking Holy See official told a Vatican court on Friday, March 17, 2023, that Pope Francis had authorized spending hundreds of thousands of euros in ransom payments to try to free a nun who was kidnapped by al-Qaida-linked militants in Mali.. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, FIle)
VATICAN CITY (AP) — A second high-ranking Holy See official told a Vatican court on Friday that Pope Francis had authorized spending hundreds of thousands of euros in ransom payments to try to free a nun who was kidnapped by al-Qaida-linked militants in Mali.
Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, the Holy See’s No. 3, told the Vatican tribunal that he had sought, and received Francis’ approval to wire the money soon after he took up his duties as the “substitute” in the secretariat of state in late 2018.
Pena Parra was answering questions for a second day Friday after being called by defense attorneys representing the 10 people on trial for a host of alleged financial crimes.
One tangent of the Vatican trial concerns 575,000 euros wired from the Vatican’s Swiss Bank account to a Slovenian-based front company owned by Cecilia Marogna, a self-styled security analyst who was hired in 2016 by Pena Parra’s predecessor, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, as an outside consultant.
Becciu told the court last year that he had sought Marogna’s advice in 2017 following the kidnapping of Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which has bankrolled its insurgency by kidnapping Westerners. During her captivity in Mali, the group periodically showed Narvaez on video asking for the Vatican’s help.
Becciu told the court that Francis had authorized spending up to 1 million euros to free the Colombian nun. Becciu said he and Marogna had travelled to London to meet with, and subsequently hire, the British security firm Inkerman to find Narvaez and secure her freedom. She was ultimately released in October 2021.
In their indictment request, prosecutors alleged a double payment: They said some 500,000 British pounds, or the then-equivalent of 575,000 euros, had been sent to Inkerman’s Barklays Bank account for the operation. Separately, they listed nine payments from the Vatican’s Swiss Bank account totaling 575,000 euros sent to Marogna’s Logsic DOO company from Dec. 20, 2018 to July 8, 2019. Citing Slovenian bank records, prosecutors allege that Marogna used the money to buy high-end luxury items and go on vacation.
Both Becciu and Marogna are accused of embezzlement, charges they both deny.
Pena Parra, who replaced Becciu as “substitute,” told the court that he was confronted with the request for payment to the Slovenian account by his deputy, Monsignor Alberto Perlasca, who had been asked by Becciu to process the wire transfer. But Pena Parra said he couldn’t proceed without first securing the pope’s approval.
“I went to the pope. I asked for an audience and the Holy Father confirmed to me the destination of this money, which was for the question of the possible freedom of the Colombian nun kidnapped in Mali,” Pena Parra said under questioning by the tribunal president, Judge Giuseppe Pignatone.
Becciu, for his part, insisted in a spontaneous declaration to the court on Friday that Francis had approved the operation and was prepared to write a statement for Becciu’s defense to that effect when they spoke by telephone on July 19, 2021, days before the trial opened.
Prosecutors recently produced an exchange of letters between Becciu and Francis in the following days in which Francis refused to provide the statement. Becciu produced a letter Friday indicating Francis himself had asked Becciu to provide a draft statement, and the cardinal suggested that his subsequent refusal to sign off on it appeared to have been coached.
Pope sought to lose ‘as little as possible’ in London deal
March 16, 2023
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis gave clear indications to get out of a disastrous London real estate deal by saying the Vatican must “start over and lose as little money as possible,” an exit strategy that eventually involved paying off a broker 15 million euros, the Holy See’s No. 3 official told a court Thursday.
Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, the “substitute” in the secretariat of state, was the highest-ranking witness to be questioned by defense attorneys for 10 people on trial for alleged financial crimes involving the London property and related dealings. His testimony was eagerly sought by the defense, given that he oversaw the final phase of the London deal in 2018-2019 as well as the negotiations with the broker, Gianluigi Torzi.
Prosecutors have accused Torzi of extorting the Holy See for the 15 million euros in exchange for ownership of the building, charges he denies. The nine other defendants have similarly denied wrongdoing.
The crux of the London case rests on the passage of ownership of the London property to Torzi’s Gutt SA fund at the end of 2018 after the Vatican decided to prematurely exit another fund that had invested in it.
Pena Parra accused Torzi of deceiving the Vatican but he also identified his onetime deputy, Archbishop Alberto Perlasca, of having entered into the deal with Torzi without any approval or authority to sign contracts.
By the time Pena Parra first learned of the deal Nov. 22, 2018, Perlasca had already signed the contracts giving Torzi effective control of the property in the form of the 1,000 voting shares in Gutt, while the Vatican held 30,000 non-voting shares. The lawyer Perlasca engaged assured the Vatican the deal was in its interests, but the lawyer turned out to have ties to Torzi, Pena Parra said.
At a Dec. 22, 2018 meeting with the pope and two people external to the Vatican who had looked at the contracts, Pena Parra realized the Vatican had been duped and had acquired “empty boxes.”
Francis, he said, gave clear, general instructions how he wanted the disaster resolved: “Start over and lose as little money as possible,” Pena Parra quoted Francis as saying. “I realized that it was all a deception.”
Over the ensuing six months, Pena Parra and a team negotiated an exit strategy with Torzi after ruling out “riskier” legal action against him. After initially hoping to pay a maximum of 3 million euros, the Vatican received a proposal from Torzi’s lawyers for 25 million euros, reduced to 15 million, Pena Parra told the court.
“For me it was profoundly painful that we had to pay 15 million euros for this, but it was the only possibility,” he said. “We were forced into it. Torzi had all the power and we couldn’t do anything about it.”
“It really was a Via Crucis,” he said, referring to Christ’s final moments before his crucifixion.
Perlasca was initially a prime suspect in the investigation, but flipped in August 2020, started cooperating with prosecutors and became their star witness. He was never charged and is considered an injured party in the case.
The investigation was triggered after Pena Parra sought a 150 million euro loan from the Vatican bank to extinguish the mortgage on the property, considering the 1 million euro monthly mortgage payment too onerous. Initially the bank, known as IOR, agreed but by July 2019 refused and reported the whole deal as suspicious to Vatican prosecutors.
Pena Parra was still bitter with the bank Thursday, claiming the Holy See lost some six months in needless mortgage payments, since he quickly secured the loan from another Vatican office after the IOR delivered its negative verdict.
March 16, 2023
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis gave clear indications to get out of a disastrous London real estate deal by saying the Vatican must “start over and lose as little money as possible,” an exit strategy that eventually involved paying off a broker 15 million euros, the Holy See’s No. 3 official told a court Thursday.
Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, the “substitute” in the secretariat of state, was the highest-ranking witness to be questioned by defense attorneys for 10 people on trial for alleged financial crimes involving the London property and related dealings. His testimony was eagerly sought by the defense, given that he oversaw the final phase of the London deal in 2018-2019 as well as the negotiations with the broker, Gianluigi Torzi.
Prosecutors have accused Torzi of extorting the Holy See for the 15 million euros in exchange for ownership of the building, charges he denies. The nine other defendants have similarly denied wrongdoing.
The crux of the London case rests on the passage of ownership of the London property to Torzi’s Gutt SA fund at the end of 2018 after the Vatican decided to prematurely exit another fund that had invested in it.
Pena Parra accused Torzi of deceiving the Vatican but he also identified his onetime deputy, Archbishop Alberto Perlasca, of having entered into the deal with Torzi without any approval or authority to sign contracts.
By the time Pena Parra first learned of the deal Nov. 22, 2018, Perlasca had already signed the contracts giving Torzi effective control of the property in the form of the 1,000 voting shares in Gutt, while the Vatican held 30,000 non-voting shares. The lawyer Perlasca engaged assured the Vatican the deal was in its interests, but the lawyer turned out to have ties to Torzi, Pena Parra said.
At a Dec. 22, 2018 meeting with the pope and two people external to the Vatican who had looked at the contracts, Pena Parra realized the Vatican had been duped and had acquired “empty boxes.”
Francis, he said, gave clear, general instructions how he wanted the disaster resolved: “Start over and lose as little money as possible,” Pena Parra quoted Francis as saying. “I realized that it was all a deception.”
Over the ensuing six months, Pena Parra and a team negotiated an exit strategy with Torzi after ruling out “riskier” legal action against him. After initially hoping to pay a maximum of 3 million euros, the Vatican received a proposal from Torzi’s lawyers for 25 million euros, reduced to 15 million, Pena Parra told the court.
“For me it was profoundly painful that we had to pay 15 million euros for this, but it was the only possibility,” he said. “We were forced into it. Torzi had all the power and we couldn’t do anything about it.”
“It really was a Via Crucis,” he said, referring to Christ’s final moments before his crucifixion.
Perlasca was initially a prime suspect in the investigation, but flipped in August 2020, started cooperating with prosecutors and became their star witness. He was never charged and is considered an injured party in the case.
The investigation was triggered after Pena Parra sought a 150 million euro loan from the Vatican bank to extinguish the mortgage on the property, considering the 1 million euro monthly mortgage payment too onerous. Initially the bank, known as IOR, agreed but by July 2019 refused and reported the whole deal as suspicious to Vatican prosecutors.
Pena Parra was still bitter with the bank Thursday, claiming the Holy See lost some six months in needless mortgage payments, since he quickly secured the loan from another Vatican office after the IOR delivered its negative verdict.
No comments:
Post a Comment