The Associated Press also covered the story, with the headline “Vatican cardinal complains prosecutors asked about sex life.”

The prelate is Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, who oversaw the internal affairs of the Roman Curia as Substitute (Sostituto) of the Secretariat of State from 2011 to 2018. Pope Francis created him a cardinal in the 2018 consistory and named him Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. In 2020, Becciu resigned from the “rights connected to the cardinalate,” and he is now on trial in connection with a London real estate deal.

During the January 26 hearing, Vatican prosecutors announced that they were bringing new charges against four defendants, bringing the total number of defendants to ten. The tribunal had thrown out the charges against the four in December because of procedural mistakes, telling prosecutors that they would have to re-start their investigations in those cases.

Disputes between the prosecution and defense continued at the January 25 hearing, with defense lawyers saying that they had not received material that the court had ordered prosecutors to turn over. The court set a new deadline for delivery of the material.