The Catholic Church would have obtained the release in October 2021 of the Colombian nun Gloria Cecilia Narvaez, kidnapped in February 2017 in Mali, once morest the payment of a ransom, indicates Africanews.
Operation Inkerman would have been authorized by the sovereign pontiff according to the revelations made Thursday by Cardinal Angelo Becciu, former adviser to Pope Francis.
Cardinal Becciu testified that it was Pope Francis himself who approved spending up to 1 million euros to hire a British intelligence firm to locate and free a Colombian nun taken hostage by extremists linked to Al-Qaeda in Mali., explains Nicole Winfield, correspondent for the Associated Press in the Vatican.
Cardinal Becciu testified that the Pope forbade him from telling anyone, including the Vatican police chief.
The operation had therefore taken place under the seal of secrecy. In order to guarantee the safety of the missionaries. Cardinal Becciu’s revelations can have serious consequences for missionaries.
“Usually any indication of ransom payment is kept confidential, so as not to encourage further abductions. Therefore, the fact that this information is made public, that the Pape himself approved a ransom of around 1 million euros, essentially to free the hostage, is a bombshell that might potentially put other missionaries in danger since it is now known that the Holy See was ready to spend a lot of money to free her. » ajoute Nicole Winfield.
Cardinal Angelo Becciu, former adviser to Pope Francis, is accused of embezzlement, abuse of power and tampering with witnesses, in the case of financial fraud at the Vatican, concerning the investment of 350 million euros by the Holy Headquarters in a property in London.
