Conclave Part 2: Return of the Prodigal

Vatican fraudster returns ... Fly in the Conclave ointment ... Claims to have been forgiven by Pope Francis ... Doubts about his entitlement to vote ... What can go wrong? ... Silvana Olivetti reports from Rome 

Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu - dangerously close to Pope Francis' coffin

A spotlight has been thrown on the law and politics of voting in the forthcoming Papal Conclave. A disgraced Italian Cardinal convicted of serious fraud has announced that he is coming to Rome to claim a right to vote in the Conclave.

It is a development worthy of a Conclave sequel perhaps titled Conclave: The Prodigal Returns. There could be a colourful scene in the film in which Swiss Guards throw the similarly elaborately dressed Cardinal out the front door of the Sistine Chapel, his claim to be an eligible voter refused.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu was a Vatican insider and the bête noire of George Pell from 2014 to 2017. 

In 2014 Pope Francis gave Pell the job of opening up Vatican finances to scrutiny. Pell commissioned a PwC audit, which was "suspended" in 2016 by Becciu. 

The audit never took place. 

At the time Becciu famously said that "the Vatican is not a den of thieves". After that and several other defeats Pell left the Vatican to return to Australia to face sexual assault charges (of which he was acquitted by the High Court). 

The Becciu-Pell relationship caused controversy again during Becciu's trial when the transfer of $A2.3 million to Australia in 2017 was raised. Each cleric claimed that the other authorised the transfer in order to cause him trouble.

Pell wasn't the only person Becciu undermined in the Vatican. In 2017 he forced the auditor Libero Milone to resign. 

Becciu had accused the auditor of "spying" on him. Milone later responded by suing the Vatican €9 million for unlawful dismissal, a claim dismissed in 2024 by a Vatican court. Milone is still considering his appeal options. 

There have been growing rumours of Vatican financial improprieties. In 2012 a "Papal butler" leaked information about financial corruption in high places, the so-called "Vati-leaks" scandal. While the contents of the documents were not challenged, the leaker was sentenced by the Vatican court to 18 months in the Vatican dungeon for his trouble.

Rumours of Vatican financial scandals grew, including stories of Becciu's involvement in the London real estate market. There is too much to describe and digest here, but there's tons online about this scandal, and there's Maria Calabrò's book The Throne and the Altar. 

September 24, 2020 Pope Francis asked for and received Becciu's renunciation of all the prerogatives of a Cardinal. These included the right to vote in the Conclave and the right to be tried only by the Pope.

On July 3,2023 the Vatican prosecutors laid an indictment against Becciu and nine other people covering embezzlement, money laundering, fraud, extortion and abuse of office. 

On December 16, 2023 Becciu was convicted and sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison. He has appealed, and this apparently has stayed the sentence. 

There was a preliminary hearing of the appeal in October 2024 but there is no indication as to when a judgment will be delivered.

Suddenly, the day after Pope Francis died Becciu announced that he was coming to Rome for the funeral and to vote in the conclave. According to  La Repubblica on April 23, 2025 he claimed that the Pope had forgiven him and restored all his Cardinal rights. 

He based this claim on a private meeting with the Pope after the Pope had invited him to a meeting of Cardinals in Rome, called a Consistorio, in August 2024.

There is no written evidence of this, and Becciu has only raised it after Pope Francis died and therefore is not able to contradict him.

There are two views as to whether Becciu will be permitted to vote.

Probably, says a professor of Ecclesiastical rights at the University of Pisa, Pierluigi Consorti. This is because of a wish to avoid any allegation that the election of the Pope was illegitimate and invalid.

Probably not, said the learned author Maria Calabrò quoted in the National Catholic Register, a reportedly right-leaning US newspaper. She said that the invitation to join the August 2022 meeting was "a private act of pastoral mercy" by the Pope and not a restitution of rights.

Further, even if the Vatican appeals court were to suddenly announce a successful appeal and complete acquittal, Becciu could still be excluded from the Conclave. 

Legal experts point to an anti-stacking provision of the Apostolic Constitution. The section provides that during a pre-Conclave period, when the Papal throne is vacant, voting rights cannot be restored to a Cardinal who has lost them.

So, perhaps we will see the Swiss Guards performing their chucking-out duties at the Conclave after all.