Who is the “cardinal’s lady” the key figure in the Vatican’s “trial of the century”?

(CNN Spanish) — At the center of the Vatican’s “investigation of the century,” the once-powerful Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Pecchio who was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for a variety of financial crimes has made many headlines: Cecilia Marogna, nicknamed “The Cardinal’s Lady.”

Peque, who has pleaded guilty several times and announced he will appeal the Vatican court’s ruling, is accused of one of the crimes in an authorized payment of US$618,000 from the Vatican Secretariat of State to Cecilia Marogna. The “security advisory” is said to be using them to free a nun kidnapped in Mali. He did it when he was the number two in this company.

Vatican prosecutors argued that Marogna used the money for personal purposes, spending more than $54,000 on clothing, footwear and fashion accessories from high-end brands such as Prada, Gucci and Hermès. He was sentenced to three years and nine months in prison on charges of embezzlement. The court fined his company Logsic Humanitarne Dejavnosti approximately US$43,800. The Vatican news agency reported.

Marogna denied any wrongdoing and told the newspaper Corriere della Sera He spent the funds on travel and other living expenses for himself and his associates. He emphasized that the Vatican has created a “network of relations in Africa and the Middle East” to help diplomats and missionaries.

Why was Marogna baptized “the cardinal’s lady”?

Marogna, who is 40, was nicknamed the “Cardinal Lady” during the trial for her relationship with Bechiu. During the trial, pictures taken by Marogna inside the cardinal’s apartment were shown to the court and posted on social networks with captions such as “Feeling at home” and “My heaven”.

Marogna is from Sardinia, the same region as the cardinal, as reported when he was arrested in 2020. Catholic Agency ACI Prensa. In October of that year, Marogna was arrested in Milan a few days later in connection with the cardinal’s financial scandal. She was released two weeks later.

When the Vatican police informed Bechiu The money transferred to Marogna was not used as planned, he asked not to let anyone know because it would “cause serious harm to him and his family”.

During a pre-trial hearing, a witness was asked by prosecutors if Bechiu and Marogna were in an intimate relationship, which she denied. Both Becciu and Marogna denied an improper relationship.

And during the trial, the court heard a secretly recorded phone call with the Pope in which he wanted to confirm with the Pope that Francis had given his approval. Free money for kidnapped nun.

on the callBecciu is asking the Pope to confirm that he has authorized payments to Marogna for his payment to British firm Inkerman Group to secure the release of a nun kidnapped by Islamist militants in Mali in 2017. call

According to the transcript, the pope said he had a vague recollection of the call and asked the cardinal to put in writing what he wanted to confirm.

The nun in question, Colombian-born Franciscan Sister Gloria Cecilia Navez Gotti, was released in October 2021. The Vatican news agency reported.

With CNN’s Christopher Lamb reporting.