VATICAN CITY (CNS): The Vatican has welcomed an Italian court decision to clear Naples Cardinal Michele Giordano of charges of complicity in loan sharking.
The December 22 ruling, following a two-year investigation, “left no margin for any doubt regarding the cardinal’s innocence, which could have been proclaimed immediately”, said Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls.
Prosecutors had accused Cardinal Giordano of funnelling more than $500,000 to a usury ring run by his brother and embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from archdiocesan bank accounts.
The cardinal repeatedly protested his innocence. His lawyers noted that he authorised magistrates to examine the transaction histories of his bank accounts, including those at the Vatican bank, which would have been otherwise off limits.
Mr Navarro-Valls said in a December 23 statement that Cardinal Giordano’s innocence “appeared certain from the beginning of the proceedings”.
“At the conclusion of the process, one cannot but deplore the fact that someone, now recognised as innocent, had to be put through such a serious and prolonged investigation,” he said.
