Andrea Tornielli, editorial director of the Dicastery for Communication, has written a brief article on the Vatican trial of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu and others associated with a London real estate deal.

“The Vatican justice system faces the most complex investigation and trial, with the largest numbers of defendants, that it has seen in decades,” said Tornielli. “It all started with the internal investigation authorized almost three years ago by Pope Francis, who repeatedly stressed the importance of the fact that reports of alleged irregularities, and the subsequent accusations, came from the Vatican control system.”

“It can therefore be said that the launch of the trial was and is a test of strength, a real ‘stress test’ for the judicial system of the Vatican City State,” Tornielli added.