Vatican’s trial of the century resumes after setbacks appeal

The appeals phase of the Vatican’s “trial of the century” resumed Tuesday after a pair of setbacks for the pope’s prosecutors that could have big repercussions on the outcome of the troubled case. The case concerns the once-powerful Cardinal Angelo Becciu and eight other defendants, who were convicted of a handful of financial crimes in 2023, after a sprawling two-year trial.

However, the Vatican’s high Court of Cassation recently upheld a lower court’s decision to throw out the prosecutors’ appeal entirely. That means the defendants can only expect to see their verdicts and sentences improved if not overturned.

On the same day as the Cassation ruling, the Vatican’s chief prosecutor, Alessandro Diddi, also dropped months of objections and abruptly resigned from the case, rather than face the possibility that the Cassation court would order him removed. At issue is Diddi’s role in a now-infamous set of WhatsApp chats that have thrown the credibility of the entire trial into question.