For the outside world, it’s perhaps Pope Leo’s pleas for cease-fires in Gaza and Ukraine that have attracted the most attention since his election just over three weeks ago. For Catholic insiders, all manner of papal acts have generated reaction, from his sartorial touches, his use of sung Latin in public prayer, and even his few personnel moves.
For Italians, however, one moment above all from the new pontiff’s agenda has raised eyebrows: His May 27 audience with Cardinal Angelo Becciu, whose vicissitudes over the past five years, including his grudging withdrawal from the recent papal conclave, have formed the Vatican’s most riveting prime-time domestic soap opera.
Though the audience has been of interest here mostly in terms of what it might augur about Becciu’s personal fate, it also points to a decision about a key structural reform with deep historical roots.
It was Becciu, of course, whom Francis compelled to resign as Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in 2020, fatefully stripping him of his rights and privileges as a cardinal, while allowing him to retain the title, in the wake of rumors of financial misconduct. Becciu was later indicted by the Vatican City State’s civil tribunal and convicted of various forms of financial fraud and corruption, sentenced to five and a half years in prison.
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