22, September 2021
Roman Catholic Cleric tells Biya: “We do not want this war in Southern Cameroons” 0
A French Cameroun Roman Catholic priest has launched a scathing attack on the Biya Francophone Beti Ewondo regime calling on the 88-year-old dictator to stop the senseless war in Southern Cameroons.
“We do not want this war anymore. The children who are dying in Southern Cameroons are the children of the poor. We have never heard that the son or daughter of an army general has died there, that an army colonel’s child has died there in Southern Cameroons. Let’s stop, let’s stop!” the man of God told a predominantly Francophone audience during the funeral Mass of a soldier killed on the front line.
In the video widely circulated on social media networks, the Roman Catholic cleric can be heard shouting his indignation at the ravages of war in Southern Cameroons.
The much respected Minister of the Word also took the opportunity to appeal directly to the President of the Republic Paul Biya.
“I would like to ask you to please convey the message of the grieving families, the poor families, the families who have lost their children in this nasty way, we ask you to convey this message to the Head of State, that he should help us not to mourn our children anymore. The Cameroonian nation has all the possibilities to stop this murderous war. I pray in the name of the church that the Head of State will help us to stop crying for our children, please pass this message on to him,” the priest said.
By Rita Akana
5, October 2021
Cardinal on trial as Vatican financial scandal case resumes 0
The trial of a once powerful Catholic cardinal and nine others resumes Tuesday at the Vatican over alleged financial fraud and a disastrous London property deal paid for with charity funds.
Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who served as the equivalent of chief of staff for Pope Francis at the time of the deal and was later fired from another post, is being tried alongside high-rolling London-based financiers and other Church employees.
They are accused of crimes including embezzlement, fraud and corruption relating to the Church’s loss-making purchase of a luxury property in London’s upscale Chelsea district.
Becciu was at the time number two at the Secretariat of State, the most powerful department in the Vatican’s central administration.
The case against the 73-year-old, which carries charges of embezzlement, abuse of office and witness tampering, also includes separate allegations over hundreds of thousands of euros of Church funds paid to his brother’s charity.
The trial is unprecedented in going before a Vatican tribunal of three lay magistrates rather than a religious court, after Francis changed the law to strip cardinals and bishops of legal privileges.
Becciu, one of only two defendants who attended a preliminary hearing in July in the temporary courtroom at the Vatican Museums, insists he will prove his innocence “with respect to every charge”.
The trial, which is expected to last months, follows a two-year probe into how the Secretariat of State managed its vast asset portfolio and, in particular, who knew what about the disastrous 350-million-euro (now $407-million) London investment.
Since becoming pope in 2013, Francis has vowed to clean up the Church’s finances.
The scandal is particularly embarrassing because funds used for risky ventures like the London one came from the Peter’s Pence, money donated by churchgoers for the pope’s charities.
– Risky investments –
Ahead of the trial, prosecutors painted a picture of risky investments with little or no oversight, and double-dealing by outside consultants and insiders trusted with the financial interests of the Secretariat of State.
The Catholic Church suffered a major loss when it purchased this London property in the upscale neighbourhood of Chelsea
The Catholic Church suffered a major loss when it purchased this London property in the upscale neighbourhood of Chelsea DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS AFP/File
The primary defendants are “actors in a rotten predatory and lucrative system, sometimes made possible thanks to limited, but very incisive, complicity and internal connivance,” they argued.
The current case dates from 2013, when the Secretariat borrowed more than $200 million, mainly from Credit Suisse, to invest in a Luxembourg fund managed by an Italian-Swiss businessman, Raffaele Mincione.
Half was intended for stock market purchases and the rest for part of the building in London’s Sloane Avenue.
Prosecutors allege Mincione used the money to invest in high-risk ventures over which the Church had no control. By 2018, the Secretariat had already lost millions and tried to pull out of the deal.
Another London-based financier, Gianluigi Torzi, was brought in to broker the purchase of the rest of the building and cut ties with Mincione. But he is accused of instead joining forces with him.
Torzi allegedly inserted a clause into the sale deal that gave himself control of the building through voting rights. He is accused of demanding 15 million euros to relinquish control.
Mincione and Torzi were helped, prosecutors claim, by Enrico Crasso, a former financial consultant to the Secretariat, and employee Fabrizio Tirabassi, both of whom face charges including fraud.
Also implicated are two former top officials within the Vatican’s financial affairs watchdog, including its ex-president, Swiss lawyer Rene Bruelhart, who prosecutors say did not do enough to protect the Secretariat’s interests.
Source: AFP