Convicted Cardinal Wants To Take Part In Conclave To Select Pope Francis' Successor

Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu has been listed as a "non-elector" by the press office of the Holy See.

A cardinal who was sentenced to five and a half years in prison after being convicted of embezzlement said Tuesday he intends to participate in the next conclave — the election to pick Pope Francis’ successor — even though the Holy See press office has declared him a “non-elector.”

Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who became the first cardinal to ever be prosecuted by the Vatican’s criminal court in December 2023, has appealed the conviction, denying wrongdoing. Becciu can still live in a Vatican apartment while his appeal is pending, according to CNN.

While the press office of the Holy See designated Becciu as a “non-elector,” Becciu is demanding that he take part in the conclave.

“The Pope recognized my cardinal’s prerogatives as being intact as there was no explicit wish to exclude me from the conclave, nor a request for an explicit written renunciation on my part,” Becciu told Sardinian newspaper L’Unione Sarda, according to a translation by the Times of London.

Becciu was convicted of embezzlement over a London real estate investment and for funneling money to a charity led by his brother and using the Vatican’s funds to pay an intelligence analyst.