Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu is an Italian prelate and former deputy secretary of state at the Vatican who in 2023 was sentenced to several years in prison on embezzlement charges pending the results of an appeal. He is not eligible to take part in the next papal conclave.

Born on June 2, 1948 in Pattada, Sardinia, Becciu completed his studies in theology and philosophy and was then ordained to the priesthood on 27 August 1972. He attended the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, where he earned a doctoral degree in canon law.

He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1984, serving in various missions around the world including the Central African Republic, New Zealand, Liberia, the United Kingdom, France and the United States.

In 2001, Pope John Paul II appointed Becciu as Apostolic Nuncio to Angola and São Tomé and Príncipe. He later served as Nuncio to Cuba from 2009 to 2011. In 2011, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him as Substitute for General Affairs in the Secretariat of State, making him the third most powerful official in the Vatican.

Pope Francis made Becciu a cardinal in 2018 and appointed him as Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. However, in September 2020, Pope Francis accepted Becciu’s resignation from his position and rights as a cardinal amid a financial scandal.

In July 2021, Becciu became the first cardinal to be tried by the Vatican’s criminal court, facing charges of embezzlement, abuse of office, and witness tampering related to a controversial London real estate deal and other financial matters, one involving a charity his brother ran in Sardinia. Throughout the trial, Becciu maintained his innocence.

On December 16, 2023, Becciu was convicted of several counts of embezzlement and sentenced to 5 years and 6 months in prison, fined 8,000 euros, and permanently disqualified from holding public office.

Cardinal Becciu was also named in a €9.3 million lawsuit against the Vatican by the Vatican’s former auditor general and his deputy in 2022. ¹Libero Milone and his deputy Ferruccio Panicco claimed unlawful dismissal after they were forced to resign in 2017 after uncovering financial irregularities. Becciu accused Milone of spying on Vatican official; Milone insisted he was doing his job and that he was spied upon. A Vatican tribunal initially ruled against Milone in January 2024, but he has appealed the decision. The forced resignations of Milone and Panicco, who has since died, took place a year after Becciu played a key role in halting the Vatican’s first external audit by PricewaterhousCoopers (PwC) in 2016.

Allegations persist around his role in sending large sums of money to Australia around the time of Cardinal Pell’s trial in Australia which some believe might have been used to negatively influence the outcome of the court hearings. Becciu has denied the allegations.

Becciu is not eligible to take part in the next papal conclave because in 2020 he resigned from the rights associated with the cardinalate, including the right to participate in a papal conclave.

The Italian cardinal is therefore listed by the Vatican as a “non-elector” despite being of voting age (under 80 years old), and although Pope Francis invited Becciu to attend a consistory in August 2022, this invitation was described as a “private act of pastoral mercy” and not a step towards his rehabilitation or reinstatement of his cardinalatial rights.

Given these factors, particularly his resignation of cardinalatial rights and his continued status as a non-elector, Cardinal Becciu is not eligible to participate in the next papal conclave unless Pope Francis explicitly reinstates his rights as a cardinal, which has not occurred at the time of writing.