Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the deputy Secretary of State, has disclosed that he chose not to report suspected extortion to authorities because he feared the Vatican might suffer “unpredictable reputational damage.”

In a May 2019 letter to Pope Francis, the archbishop explained that he planned instead to negotiate with Gianluigi Torzi, who is now a key defendant in the Vatican’s dramatic financial-misconduct trial.

Archbishop Peña Parra has sharply criticized the investment policies that he discovered when he took his role at the Secretariat of State, replacing Cardinal Angelo Becciu—who is also a key defendant in the current trial. He said that the office had engaged in speculative transactions and tried to cover up losses. Nevertheless he did not report the problems to the Vatican’s own Financial Information Authority.