VATICAN CITY — In a new television interview, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the Vatican’s former deputy secretary of state claims that the late Cardinal George Pell had authorized a large bank transfer to Australia, contradicting what the Australian cardinal had said prior to his death.

In an hour-long Belgian television documentary “Het Vaticaan: de staat van de kerk” (The Vatican: The State of the Church) that aired on Oct. 24, Cardinal Becciu also dismissed speculation that the money may have been intended to influence Cardinal Pell’s 2017 criminal trial, calling the accusation “crazy, crazy stuff.”

He asserted that Cardinal Pell, then prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, had authorized the transfer of AUS$2.3 million (US$1.5 million today) in 2017 and 2018, a claim that was questioned in the same documentary by the Vatican’s ex-auditor general, Libero Milone.

Cardinal Becciu told the program that the large funds transfer “had been requested from us at the time by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications because the ‘.catholic’ domain was to be guaranteed.” The funds were sent to a tech security company called Neustar so that the Church could use “.catholic” on the internet instead of, for example, “.com” or “.org.”

“But not only that,” the Italian cardinal continued. “That authorization was given by Cardinal Pell.”

Ever since Cardinal Pell was forced to leave his position as prefect on June 29, 2017, to face charges of sexual abuse in Australia — charges that led to a wrongful conviction and imprisonment — speculation has revolved around the possibility that witnesses, lawyers and other figures in Australia were bribed to achieve the conviction for which he was fully exonerated. However, to date, no firm evidence has come to light proving such allegations.

Pope Francis appointed Cardinal Pell in 2014 to clean up the Vatican finances and, along with Libero Milone, the Vatican’s first auditor general appointed a year later, he was increasingly coming across misuse of Vatican funds and financial corruption. Both Pell and Milone were forced to resign within 10 days of each other.

The transfer of the funds to Australia is not disputed: During a 2021-2023 trial that led to the convictions of Cardinal Becciu and eight other defendants for embezzlement and other financial crimes related to the sale of a London property, a document showing the wire transfers from the Vatican Secretariat of State to Neustar was presented as evidence. Cardinal Becciu during the trial also confirmed the transfers.

Archbishop Becciu, as he was then, is named in the document as transferring two of the four transfers to Neustar, totaling US$1.24 million, on May 17, 2017, and June 6, 2018. Msgr. Paolo Borgia, then Assessor for General Affairs in the Vatican, also made two transfers amounting to US$716,500 on Feb. 2, 2017, and Dec. 6, 2017.

The Belgian television documentary observed that the transfers began precisely at the time when Cardinal Pell was reporting on the “opacity” of the London property deal.

Cardinal Pell, however, denied any knowledge of authorizing them.

In May 2022, months before he died after undergoing a routine hip operation in a Rome hospital, he issued a statement saying Cardinal Becciu had sent him a message on Dec. 17, 2020, in which he said the destination of the funds from the Secretariat of State to Australia “was none of my [Pell’s] business, but was known to the Holy Father.”

“It was not my usual practice to sign off on payments from the Secretariat of State,” Cardinal Pell wrote. He went on to say in his statement that the only record he had of payments to Neustar was in 2015 when $150,000 was “paid as a deposit” by the Pontifical Council for Social Communications.

During the London property trial, it was also shown that the payments came out of Peter’s Pence which is handled by the Secretariat of State and over which Cardinal Pell had no direct access.

“No one disputes that the Pontifical Council for Social Communications paid amounts to Neustar Australia for their expensive services and to ICANN, the registry, for the reservation of the title ‘Catholic’ in 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018,” Cardinal Pell said.

But he added that he did not have information on payments beyond 2015 “which I allegedly authorized,” and therefore asked: “What was the purpose?  Where did the money go after Neustar?”

In private comments to journalists, Cardinal Pell often expressed his desire to get to the bottom of these transfers, why they were made and where the funds actually ended up — something he would also not have done had he knowingly authorized them. Two of the four payments were also made after he had left Rome to face trial.

In the Belgian television documentary, Cardinal Becciu called the allegations that the funds were used against Cardinal Pell as “crazy, crazy stuff” and “manipulated news.” Milone, however, told the program that, in his opinion, sending Cardinal Pell back to Australia “was part of the scheme” in order to stop them both from uncovering further financial corruption.

This included the London property scandal that cost the Holy See hundreds of millions of euros in losses, as well as kickbacks for numerous individuals, some of whom were also convicted in the Vatican trial, but also large investments in dubious funds, including pharmaceutical companies that produce contraceptives.

Milone further cast doubt on other claims by Cardinal Becciu made in the documentary, including that he had to remove Milone because of a 2016-2017 Vatican police investigation that allegedly showed the auditor general was spying on numerous Vatican individuals, including Cardinal Becciu, by using external consultants.

“Notwithstanding that this accusation has been repeated many times since June 2017, never has any evidence been produced of me employing people to spy, even when specifically requested,” Milone told the Register Nov. 4. “All of this makes me strongly doubt anything that Cardinal Becciu says.”

In the Belgian television documentary, Cardinal Becciu said that he had “all the compassion for Cardinal Pell, for what he went through,” but added: “He should have learned that when you are innocently accused, it is a great suffering. You cannot make others suffer the same suffering.”

He also inferred that the Pope has too much power over administrative issues. Filmed talking in a car to his brother Antonio, he said he believes “it will be necessary to clarify the exercise of papal authority — that is, he should no longer be a head of state.” His brother agreed, replying: “If another one like him comes along, then that’s that.”

In an Oct. 29 judgment, the Vatican detailed its reasons for convicting Cardinal Becciu in December 2023. He was sentenced to five years and six months in prison, fined $8,700, and permanently disqualified from holding public office, but Cardinal Becciu has always protested his innocence. He continues to live in freedom pending an appeal which will take place next year.

The Register has contacted the cardinal for comment and had not received a response prior to publication.