The case reached the Court of Cassation after a series of procedural clashes in the appeal court, including:
— defense motions seeking Diddi’s recusal following intercepted communications suggesting contacts with individuals involved in the wider case;
— defense arguments that the promoter’s appeal was inadmissible because it failed to follow procedural rules and timelines; and
— a countermove from the promoter’s office seeking to challenge the appeal court itself — effectively attempting to halt proceedings by disputing the court’s authority to declare the promoter’s appeal inadmissible.
The Vatican’s Court of Cassation accepted Diddi’s decision to abstain from the case, a move that effectively ends the push to force a formal ruling against him. In its more detailed ruling, the court reaffirmed that the promoter’s appeal was filed incorrectly and that the appeal court acted properly in declaring it inadmissible.
The court is presided over by Cardinal Kevin Joseph Farrell, with Cardinals Matteo Zuppi, Augusto Paolo Lojudice, and Mauro Gambetti among the judges, alongside other members of the panel.
Background: London deal and first verdicts
The broader trial centers on Vatican financial management tied to the Secretariat of State and its London real estate investment. Vatican prosecutors argued that intermediaries worked together to extract money from the Holy See as control of the property shifted between financiers.
Becciu — the first cardinal tried by a Vatican civil tribunal following a decision by Pope Francis — was convicted in the first-instance verdict and sentenced to five years and six months in prison on charges including embezzlement and fraud. Other defendants received prison sentences as well, including Enrico Crasso (seven years), Raffaele Mincione (five years and six months), Cecilia Marogna (three years and nine months), and Gianluigi Torzi (six years). In total, first-instance convictions amounted to about 37 years of prison time, along with an order to confiscate 166 million euros ($193.6 million), though several defendants were acquitted on some counts.
The appeal phase has unfolded in a changed Vatican context after the death of Pope Francis and the election of Pope Leo XIV, who has signaled he intends to let Vatican justice proceed without the kinds of papal interventions that marked earlier stages of the case.
