Letter from Pope Francis reportedly bans Becciu from conclave

Becciu has claimed the right to attend the conclave, despite his 2020 resignation of the rights and privileges of a cardinal.

The Vatican Secretary of State has reportedly unveiled a letter signed by Pope Francis, clarifying that convicted Cardinal Angelo Becciu cannot attend the upcoming conclave.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu at a press conference shortly after being sacked by Pope Francis in 2020. Credit: REUTERS/Alamy Stock Photo

Cardinal Pietro Parolin showed the letter to Becciu Thursday night, the Italian newspaper Domani reported.

Domani said Parolin allegedly had two typed letters, signed “F” by Pope Francis, indicating that Becciu could not participate in the conclave that will elect Francis’ successor - one letter from 2023 and another from last month during the pope’s illness.

As the senior cardinal bishop of voting age, Parolin presides over the assembly of cardinal electors.

A papal letter in Parolin’s possession would lay to rest questions of who had the legal authority to exclude Becciu from a conclave.

Becciu had claimed earlier this week that he had the right to attend the conclave, despite his 2020 resignation of the rights and privileges of a cardinal.

“The pope has recognized my cardinal prerogatives as intact, since there was no explicit will to exclude me from the conclave nor a request for my explicit renunciation in writing,” Becciu told L’Unione Sarda newspaper April 22.

Becciu was once the second-ranking official in the Vatican’s Secretariat of State and the pope’s de facto chief of staff.

But in September 2020, he was forced to resign the rights and privileges of a cardinal — although not formal membership of the college — after Vatican City prosecutors presented the pope with their preliminary findings from an investigation into possible financial crimes in Becciu’s former curial department.

In December 2023, the cardinal was convicted of financial crimes in a Vatican City courtroom, and given a sentence of five years and six months, a fine of 8,000 euros (around $8,700), and perpetual disqualification from holding public office.

Among other crimes, the cardinal was convicted of funneling tens of thousands of euros of Church funds into his brother’s personal bank account, something he defended as ordinary practice in supporting charitable works.

In a separate lawsuit, Becciu was accused of forcing from his position the Vatican’s first auditor general, Libero Milone, as a means of preventing internal audits of Vatican finances.

Becciu has taken credit for forcing Milone’s ouster from office in 2017, saying that the auditor was forced to resign under threat of criminal prosecution, for “spying” on the private finances of senior officials, including Becciu himself — though in October last year, Becciu shifted the blame to Pope Francis, saying he forced Milone out at the pope’s directive.

Becciu has insisted upon his innocence and appealed his conviction. The cardinal has said that journalists “misled the faithful” with false reporting about him, and that he is the victim of a miscarriage of justice in the Vatican City legal process.

Canon law states that cardinals who are not electors have the right to attend the general congregations — meetings of the Church’s cardinals — ahead of the papal conclave, but not to attend the conclave itself.

The Vatican has previously recognized Becciu as ineligible to vote.

In a statistical overview of the College of Cardinals, updated and distributed by the Holy See press office ahead of a 2022 consistory, Becciu was listed as a “non-elector,” along with cardinals who had reached 80 years old, and thus become ineligible to vote.

And in the course of a failed lawsuit against various media outlets, Becciu himself argued that their coverage deprived him of the chance to participate in a future conclave.

Still, as the cardinal arrived in Rome this week for those congregations and the pope’s funeral, Becciu insisted he was eligible to attend the election itself.

Becciu said back in 2022 that Pope Francis had personally invited him to attend the consistory and would soon “reinstate” him to full membership of the College of Cardinals.

In his comments this week, the cardinal acknowledged that he was listed by the Vatican as a non-elector, but said the press office list “has no legal value.”

Becciu has not publicly responded to the letter from Pope Francis.