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The transfers from the Vatican Secretariat of State to Australia would amount to 2 million Australian dollars (a double figure compared to the 700 thousand euros previously discussed), on which the judiciary and the Vatican gendarmerie are investigating, following of the scandal over the purchase of the Sloane Avenue building in London by the Secretariat of State. This was reported by The Australian newspaper in a report that provides many details on 4 transfers, which took place between the beginning of 2017 and the end of 2018, while the investigation and the trial against Cardinal George Pell for alleged sexual abuse of minors were ongoing (accusation from which the former prefect of the Vatican economy was convicted in first instance and on appeal, but from which he was completely acquitted this year by the Australian High Court). As you will remember, on June 29, 2017 Pell was suspended from office to return to Australia to defend himself.
The case is rekindled as another news arrives from Australia that alarms the Vatican. Pope Francis was warned by the Australian health authorities of the potential exposure to the coronavirus after the apostolic nuncio to Australia, Monsignor Adolfo Tito Yllana, tested positive for Covid. The local press reports. The archbishop had a private meeting, face to face with the Pope, on Tuesday 6 October, less than two weeks ago before the positive outcome. The Sydney Nine News television network reports that Monsignor Yllana’s positive case (found in Canberra) was the first in the territory in over 100 days of zero cases. He tested positive on day 10 of self-isolation. Monsignor Yllana had traveled to Canberra in a private vehicle after flying to Sydney from the Vatican on 9 October. It is not excluded that he contracted the virus abroad, even in Italy.
The flows of money (which according to the newspaper have already been delivered to the Vatican) have been reconstructed by AUSTRAC, the Australian anti-money laundering. Last Monday, during a hearing in the Australian Senate, Nicole Rose, the head of the Australian FIU (equivalent to the Italian FIU and the Vatican AIF) announced that she had sent the results achieved to the police, federal and State of Victory. But yesterday a spokesman for the Vittoria Police (who also conducted the investigation against Pell starting in February 2017) told the Guardian Australia that for the moment no further investigations will be carried out on the transfers because the AUSTRAC report was not accompanied by clues. of suspicious activity relating to the transactions themselves.
Angelo Becciu (former substitute of the Secretariat of State who had to resign on September 24 from the office of Prefect of the Causes of Saints and the rights that come to him from being a cardinal) has repeatedly denied forcefully having interfered with the trial of Cardinal Pell and Vivian Waller, the attorney for the man who accused Pell of abusing him in the 1990s, denied any connection or knowledge of the alleged funding.
A first wire transfer of $ 415,000 would date back to February 2017. The second mailing by the Secretariat of State would come in May 2017, the third and fourth payments totaling AUD 1.3 million would come from the Vatican in 2017 and June 2018. , as written by The Australian.
Pope Francis called the Apostolic Nuncio to Australia to report on the case on 6 October to Rome. Cardinal Pell, who returned to the Vatican and was received by the Pope, publicly argued that we must look at corruption in the Vatican and in the state of Vittoria.
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