Times Live
June 22, 2010
http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/article514747.ece/Cardinal-in-corruption-probe
The personal secretary of the late Pope John Paul II has weighed in on the sweeping corruption scandal that has touched senior Cardinal Cerscenzio Sepe, claiming he might have been set up.
"It's clear that somebody wants to hurt him," Archbishop of Krakow and Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz told Italian newspaper La Repubblica, echoing a defence issued by Sepe himself on Monday
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| Italian Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe gestures during a news conference in Naples. |
"I forgive, from the bottom of my heart, those that — in and outside the Church — wanted to hit me," Sepe, who is also archbishop of Naples, told a press conference on Monday, alleging that he was dragged into the investigation by his enemies.
Prosecutors in the central town of Perugia are investigating Sepe over kickbacks he allegedly accepted as the head of Propaganda Fide, the body handling the Vatican's vast real estate holdings and financing much of the Catholic Church's missionary work.
"I can't believe it! It is not possible, I have known him for years and he has only helped the Church," said Dziwisz, John Paul II' s right-hand man and a friend of Sepe.
The probe is part of a broad corruption investigation that has touched figures close to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, forcing one of his ministers to resign in May.
Sepe, who headed Propaganda Fide from 2001 to 2006, allegedly sold a building at a quarter of its market value to Italy's then infrastructure minister, Pietro Lunardi.
Italian media have reported that in exchange for the favourable sale price Propaganda Fide obtained public subsidies worth 2.5 million euros for public works that were never completed.
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