The Intermittent Cardinal

In Rome, you have to have a heart like a whirling dervish to be able to follow in real time the about-faces that are taking place at St. Martha’s House.

The latest acrobatics, on August 21, 2022, from his native Sardinia, Cardinal Angelo Maria Becciu took advantage of a Mass being celebrated in front of an audience of the faithful, to make a declaration which did not take long to ignite the web.

“The pope called me on the phone yesterday – Saturday August 20, ed. – to tell me that my cardinal prerogatives would soon be reinstated, and to ask me to go to the next consistory which is to be held in Rome, this is why I will not be able to be present among you next Sunday,” stated the former deputy of the Secretariat of State.

The newspaper L'union sarde had confirmation from its lawyers that the porporato had received a formal convocation for the ordinary consistory scheduled for August 27, during which the Sacred College will welcome twenty-one new members, including 16 electors in the event of a conclave, and a Sardinian cardinal, in the person of Msgr. Arrigo Miglio, archbishop emeritus of Cagliari.

Contacted in the process by the Italian news agency Ansa, Msgr. Becciu admits to having been touched by the Pope's gesture: “I thanked him with all my heart and I confirmed that I am once again in full communion with him,” he declared, his voice filled with an emotion that even Cinna could have made his own.

The announcement surprised more than one prelate, which says a lot about the confusion that seems to reign behind the high walls of the Leonine enclosure: Cardinal Becciu is indeed at the heart of a historic trial being conducted by the magistrates of the Vatican court.

It is surprising that the main defendant of a sprawling affair where the Holy See got bogged down in the presumed fraudulent purchase of a London building, for a sum three to four times higher than the real price, should be thus cleared by the successor of Peter in person, while the Vatican tribunal has not yet rendered its verdict, at the risk of making the magistrates look like puppets.

In fact, the enigmatic process of rehabilitating Cardinal Becciu began almost a year and a half ago, when the sovereign pontiff went to the high prelate to concelebrate the Holy Thursday Mass with him.

If the former substitute for the Secretariat of State were restored to all his prerogatives, he could be an elector at a future conclave, having not yet reached the age limit set at 80 years.