A second high-ranking Holy See official told a Vatican court on Friday that Pope Francis had authorized spending hundreds of thousands of euros in ransom payments to try to free a nun who was kidnapped by al-Qaida-linked militants in Mali.
Archbishop Edgar Pena Parra, the Holy See's No. 3, told the Vatican tribunal that he had sought, and received Francis' approval to wire the money soon after he took up his duties as the "substitute" in the secretariat of state in late 2018.
One tangent of the Vatican trial concerns 575,000 euros wired from the Vatican's Swiss Bank account to a Slovenian-based front company owned by Cecilia Marogna, a self-styled security analyst who was hired in 2016 by Pena Parra's predecessor, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, as an outside consultant. Becciu told the court that Francis had authorized spending up to 1 million euros to free the Colombian nun. Becciu said he and Marogna had travelled to London to meet with, and subsequently hire, the British security firm Inkerman to find Narvaez and secure her freedom. She was ultimately released in October 2021.
"I went to the pope. I asked for an audience and the Holy Father confirmed to me the destination of this money, which was for the question of the possible freedom of the Colombian nun kidnapped in Mali," Pena Parra said under questioning by the tribunal president, Judge Giuseppe Pignatone.
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
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