Powerful Cardinal, a Fixture of Vatican Intrigue, Resigns Suddenly

By Jason Horowitz
New York Times
September 24, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/24/world/europe/italy-vatican-francis-becciu.html

In a cryptic statement, the Vatican did not explain the reason for Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu’s departure. News reports had connected him to a financial scandal.

In a cryptic late-night announcement, the Vatican on Thursday said Pope Francis had accepted the resignation of one of the church’s most powerful officials, Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, a fixture of church intrigues and internal power plays who also lost his rights as a cardinal.

The Vatican, in its one-sentence statement, did not explain the reason for the cardinal’s resignation as head of the department in charge of making saints but it comes amid his reported connection to a financial scandal involving a London real estate deal that hemorrhaged church money but enriched middlemen.