Cardinal Pell returns to Vatican mired in financial scandal

Cardinal George Pell, who left Vatican in 2017 to face child sexual abuse charges in Australia, returned to Rome on Wednesday to find a Holy See mired in type of corruption scandal he worked to expose and clean up. 79-year-old Pell arrived at Rome's Leonardo da Vinci airport on a flight from Sydney wearing a blue surgical mask. He waved briefly to reporters before getting into a waiting car without making any comments.

trip is his first back to Rome after he took a leave of absence as Pope Francis' finance czar in 2017 to face historic sexual abuse charges stemming from his time as archbishop of Melbourne. After he was absolved by Australia's High Court in April, Pell said he wanted to return to Rome to clean out his Vatican apartment, but intended to make Sydney his home.

It wasn't immediately clear how long Pell would remain in Vatican or what his nda might involve. Vatican didn't immediately say if he would meet with Francis. pope never turned on Pell throughout Australian court proceedings, keeping his job vacant for two years so as to t prejudge outcome.

Pell arrived same day that European anti-money laundering evaluators began a periodic visit to Vatican. y, too, found a mounting financial scandal in tiny city-state that already has cost a half-dozen people ir jobs, including one of Holy See's most powerful cardinals, Angelo Becciu.

Pell and Becciu had long clashed over Australian's efforts to bring greater transparency and accountability to Vatican's balance sheets. Council of Europe's Moneyval team will be checking Vatican's compliance with international rms to fight money laundering and terror financing.

Vatican submitted to Moneyval evaluation process after it signed onto 2009 EU Monetary Convention and in a bid to shed its im as a financially shady offshore tax haven whose bank has long been embroiled in scandal. Moneyval has faulted Vatican prosecutors in past for failing to prosecute many cases despite receiving dozens of suspicious transaction reports from Vatican's financial watchdog.

Vatican prosecutors did last year open a corruption investigation into Holy See's investment in a London real estate venture, but to date one has been indicted. Vatican's secretariat of state has sunk more than 350 million euros (nearly $400 million) into London venture, much of it donations from faithful.

Tens of millions were paid in fees to Italian businessmen who acted as middlemen in real estate deal. Last week, Pope Francis fired Becciu, cardinal who helped orchestrate original deal. Becciu was “substitute,” or 2 in Vatican secretariat of state from 2011 to 2018, when Francis made him a cardinal and named him prefect of Vatican's saint-making office.

Becciu has defended London investment as sound and has denied any wrongdoing in it. He says Francis actually cited an unrelated issue in firing him: allegations that he used 100,000 euros (USD 117,000) in Holy See money to make a donation to a charity controlled by his bror. Becciu and his family have denied wrongdoing. Pell's brusque style and aggressive clean-up effort ruffled many fears within Vatican old guard, Becciu's especially. Australian congratulated Francis after Becciu was sacked.

“I hope cleaning of stables continues in both Vatican and Victoria,” Pell said in a statement last week, referring to his home state of Victoria, where he was initially convicted.

Pell served 13 months in prison before Australia's High Court acquitted him in April of molesting two choir boys in late 1990s when he was archbishop of Melbourne. In his first television interview after his release, Pell linked his fight against Vatican corruption with his prosecution in Australia. 

(Im Credits: AP)

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