VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu is insisting he is eligible to vote in the coming conclave despite having resigned from his rights as a cardinal and his subsequent conviction for embezzlement and other crimes which he is currently appealing. 

In April 22 comments to local Italian media as he left his native Sardinia for Rome for Pope Francis’ funeral, Cardinal Becciu said he would “participate in the conclave,” claiming his cardinal privileges “remain intact.” He added that he believed there was “no formal or legal impediment to my presence at the conclave among the electors of the new Pontiff.”

He said the Pope’s passing had left him “deeply shocked and dismayed,” adding that “death, however sudden, cannot erase seven years of close collaboration, of shared decisions at the highest levels of ecclesial life, and of a friendship built day after day.”

The former deputy Vatican secretary of state lost all cardinal privileges in September 2020 after Vatican prosecutors presented Pope Francis with findings from an investigation into alleged financial crimes. 

As a consequence, Pope Francis required him to resign both as prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, his position at that time, and “the rights connected to the cardinalate.” He duly agreed to comply, retaining the title of cardinal while being stripped of the rights and privileges associated with the office. 

The lost entitlements included the right to participate not only in a papal conclave but also in cardinal consistories, and the right to be tried only by the Pope in canonical matters. In 2021, he became the first cardinal to ever be tried by the Vatican’s criminal court.

In 2023, the court convicted the cardinal of embezzlement, aggravated fraud, and abuse of office, handing him a jail sentence of five years and six months in prison, a fine of 8,000 euros, and perpetual disqualification from holding public office. He has always maintained his innocence and is currently appealing against the conviction through the Vatican’s Court of Appeal, which began hearings last October but has yet to give a ruling. 

Pope Francis invited Cardinal Becciu to attend a consistory in August 2022, an invitation that was described as a “private act of pastoral mercy” but not a step toward his rehabilitation or reinstatement of his cardinalatial rights. 

But speaking Tuesday, Cardinal Becciu gave that 2022 invitation as a reason for his eligibility to vote, saying that it showed “the Pope recognized that my cardinal prerogatives remain intact.”

The cardinal took part in the first general congregation on April 22, in accordance with cardinalatial rules, as both non-electors and electors can attend them, but he is listed in the documentation under the "non-electors.” The Vatican’s website also officially lists him as a “non-elector.”

Article 36 of John Paul II's apostolic constitution Universi Dominici Gregis, which regulates the vacancy of the Apostolic See, states in this regard that: 

“Cardinals who have been canonically deposed or who with the consent of the Roman Pontiff have renounced the cardinalate do not have this right [to elect a Supreme Pontiff]. Moreover, during the period of vacancy, the College of Cardinals cannot readmit or rehabilitate them.”

A source close to the cardinal’s case said his claim to be eligible to vote was “ridiculous” as he “cannot reclaim this privilege when the legal ruling remains in force.” 

Italian investigative journalist Maria Antoinetta Calabro, author of a 2024 book on Vatican finances titled The Throne and the Altar, also pointed out in the Huffington Post April 22 that it was Cardinal Becciu who resigned his cardinalatial privileges back in 2020.

“For all these years, he has never raised the issue, perhaps because it would have triggered a public stance by Pope Francis, who had shown pastoral care towards him, allowing him to participate in public consistories and papal functions,” Calabro said. “However, the right to vote in the election of Francis’ successor is another matter.”