Giovanni Angelo Becciu (born 2 June 1948) is an Italian Catholic prelate who served as prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints from 2018 until his resignation under duress in 2020.

[11] He received his episcopal consecration on 1 December 2001 from Cardinal Angelo Sodano with co-consecrators Archbishop Paolo Romeo, a Vatican diplomat, and Bishop Sebastiano Sanguinetti [it], who hailed from Becciu's native diocese in Sardinia.

Because he was not from Cabinda and because of his family links to the regime of José Eduardo dos Santos, Vieira Dias's appointment was met with massive protests by Cabindan Catholics, and his installation was delayed for well over a year.

So what the Pope is saying is that we must surpass this, because AIDS means there is a lack of understanding of the concept of true love between men and women.... Because of that, many times we are not of the same thinking as NGOs.

"[21] As he left Angola for his next assignment, Becciu denounced popular belief in witchcraft that led to children being accused as sorcerers and abused: "the charges are a frequent practice on the African continent and they must be eliminated".

[28] On 10 May 2011, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Becciu to the office of Substitute for General Affairs in the Secretariat of State, replacing Fernando Filoni.

[36] In his role as substitute, Becciu periodically spoke on behalf of the Vatican, addressing specific events in the news while allowing the Pope to avoid becoming involved in public debates.

I find it extremely unjust that our employees, proudly carrying out a service for the Pope and the church, have gotten to the point, for some time now, of being ashamed to tell people they work here.

"[42] Asked about U.S. President Donald Trump's order restricting immigration in January 2017, Becciu stated: "Certainly there is concern because we are messengers of another culture, that of openness.

"[43] In his August 2018 "Testimony", Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò alleged that Becciu, as substitute, "knew in every detail the situation" regarding former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick's sexual abuse of adult priests and seminarians, reports of which had reached Rome.

[48] During his time as substitute, Becciu was reportedly involved in repeated attempts to secure loans to support the Istituto Dermopatico dell'Immacolata (IDI), a struggling hospital in Rome originally owned by the Italian province of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception (PICFIC).

[50][51][52] In February 2013, Benedict XVI appointed Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi to govern the Congregation of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception, PICFIC's parent order, as his pontifical delegate and to be commissioner of the IDI.

[53][54][51] Late in 2014, Cardinals Versaldi and Becciu reportedly requested that the Institute for the Works of Religion (IOR), the Vatican's commercial bank, grant a 50 million euro loan to IDI in order to keep it afloat.

Determining that the IDI would never be able to repay the loan, the IOR board in 2015 rejected the proposal, with Cardinal George Pell, the prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, reportedly "vocally opposed" to it.

[55] Becciu and Versaldi subsequently requested that the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) grant a similar 50 million euro loan to the Fondazione Luigi Maria Monti (FLMM), a for-profit partnership of the Vatican Secretariat of State and the Congregation of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception that had been created to take over the IDI and nominally replace PICFIC as the owner the hospital.

[50] Reportedly influenced by the lobbying of Becciu, Pope Francis subsequently withdrew oversight over APSA's investment decisions from Pell's office.

[55] In order to remove the loan from APSA's books, officials from the Secretariat of State sought a $25 million grant in June 2017 from the U.S.-based Papal Foundation.

Lay board members were reportedly initially led to believe that the loan would go to fund the IDI; in fact, the recipient of the grant was the Holy See.

[58] At the end of 2012, Angolan businessman Antonio "Mosquito" Mbakassi,[c] an "oligarch"[62][60] with close ties to the family of president José Eduardo dos Santos,[63][64] who had met Becciu during the latter's time as nuncio to Angola, directly approached the Vatican secretariat of state to propose that the Holy See invest US$200 million in an oil exploration project to be carried out by his company Falcon Oil Holdings SA.

Perlasca asked investment manager Enrico Crasso to assess the proposal; In turn, Credit Suisse, which served as the banker and financial adviser to the secretariat, recommended that Crasso turn to WRM, the family office and investment fund of London-based Italian financier Raffaele Mincione, to perform due diligence on the potential loan.

[69] According to statements made to a UK court by businessman Gianluigi Torzi, a broker involved in the London property deal, a lay Secretariat of State employee named Fabrizio Tirabassi "openly admitted" blackmailing Becciu.

[6] The BBC commented that the Pope's sanctioning the indictment and trial of a cardinal who was a senior member of the Vatican hierarchy and reported to be a friend of Francis indicated his intention to take unprecedented action to clean up the Church's reputation regarding financial misdeeds, at the risk of publicly revealing the possible mismanagement of the Holy See's finances.

[citation needed] When Giacomo dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto was elected Grand Master on 2 May 2018, Pope Francis extended Becciu's mandate indefinitely.

[83][76] On 14 October 2020, Cecilia Marogna, a business associate of Becciu, was arrested in Milan, Italy, after she was implicated for receiving 500,000 euros (US$587,350) from funds that had been intended to finance a "parallel diplomacy" program to help African conflict zones.

[84][85] On 3 July 2021, a Vatican judge indicted Becciu on multiple charges, including embezzlement, money laundering, fraud, extortion, and abuse of office.

In the letters, Francis denied both to having authorized Becciu to hire a woman to help secure the release of a kidnapped nun in Mali or to invest Vatican money in a London business.

[88] On 16 December 2023, the Vatican announced that he had been found guilty and sentenced "to five years and six months imprisonment, perpetual disqualification from public office, and an eight thousand euro fine".