Milone claims his resignation from the role of auditor general was extorted under threat of arrest in 2017, as was a similarly forced resignation of one of his two deputies, Ferruccio Panicco, on the following day. Mr Panicco died from cancer in 2023.

Mr Milone believes he was framed and forced to resign seven years ago to avoid being arrested and sent to jail in the Vatican. He believes that those who wanted to remove him as auditor general deceived Pope Francis regarding his activities to get the Pope to agree to his removal.

Mr Milone, 75, and his lawyers told this to a small group of journalists, including America's Vatican correspondent, at a press briefing in his lawyers' office in Rome on June 19.

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The Vatican's first auditor-general, Libero Milone, said "At his funeral, at his casket, I promised him that we would seek out the truth".

Milone added that Pell's success in overturning his convictions demonstrated that "some judicial systems are efficient and effective".

Cardinal Pell, a key figure in Pope Francis's financial reform efforts, died on 10 January 2023 at the Salvator Mundi Hospital in Rome.

Pell's unexpected death hours after surgery has raised questions among Vatican observers and close associates.

Several unusual circumstances have fuelled speculation surrounding Cardinal Pell's death:

• The cardinal's casket was closed during the funeral, preventing mourners from participating in the traditional farewell touch or kiss
• Reports have emerged suggesting that internal CCTV cameras at the hospital were not functioning on the day of Pell's death, raising questions about the monitoring of his care
• Additionally, claims have surfaced that no medical doctor was on duty the evening the cardinal died, potentially compromising the level of medical attention he received

Adding to the intrigue, at least two cardinals, close friends of Pell, had urged him to return to Australia for his surgery, expressing concerns about his safety in Rome. However, Pell insisted on staying, determined to address his fellow cardinals in pre-conclave meetings despite being too old to vote.

Sudden and mysterious

Milone shared his concerns as he prepared for an appeal hearing regarding his controversial dismissal in 2017.

Libero Milone is the last surviving member of the high-powered trio that initiated Pope Francis's financial reforms.

Milone and his deputy, Ferruccio Panicco, were abruptly fired in June 2017, just days before Cardinal Pell had to return to Australia to face child sexual abuse charges.

The circumstances surrounding the pair's dismissal were mysterious. Vatican police raided Milone's office and confiscated electronic equipment.

The former auditor-general and Panicco sued the Vatican for wrongful dismissal in 2022, seeking over €9m in compensation. However the Vatican court rejected the claim in January 2024, leading to the current appeal.

Panicco passed away in 2023.

Sources

The Australian

Katholisch

CathNews New Zealand

"This is unacceptable!" said a visibly irate Milone at a news conference in Rome on Thursday. Milone, who was hired by Pope Francis in 2015 to aid him in making financial reforms at the Vatican, added that "Pope Francis' silence on the matter is deafening."

"What are we, in the 18th century?" Milone asked at one point, questioning the rule of law in the small Catholic city state. He later called the Vatican's financial and judicial system "Orwellian."

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They are demanding the Catholic Church pay for damages to their reputations caused by their unceremonious sacking in 2017.

Milone (pictured with the Pope) was the Vatican's first auditor general. Panicco was his deputy.

Pope Francis appointed Milone to the auditor general's role. Milone's brief was to clean up Vatican finances and raise accounting procedures to international standards of accountability and transparency.

He and his deputy were sacked two years later by Cardinal Archbishop Angelo Becciu.

Milone says at first he had good relations with Francis, telling him "everything I found" and meeting him regularly.

But that changed in 2016. That was about the same time he requested more information from Becciu on the purchase of a London building. He suspected Francis did not receive his letters after that.

Soon after, both auditors were sacked.

Milone blames this on Becciu, who until Francis fired him in 2020 was the third-highest-ranking official at the Vatican.

Becciu masterminded "operation eject-Milone", the ousted auditor says.

When Becciu sacked Milone in 2017, he told reporters Milone "went against all the rules and was spying on the private lives of his superiors and staff, including me".

Milone denies this.

"We did the right thing, we never spied, we have been honest, we did what we had to do, but unfortunately what we had to do was very embarrassing," he says.

Meanwhile, in 2020 Pope Francis fired Becciu. He is currently one of 10 defendants at a trial in the Vatican on charges including corruption and embezzlement related to the purchase of a building in London. All of them deny any wrongdoing.

So far the Vatican has made no comment on the lawsuit, which Milone and Panicco's lawyers filed last week with the Vatican prosecutor's office.

He sees his firing as a battle between "the Middle Ages and modernity". He is calling out "the small mafia at the Vatican" that was offended by his findings of lapses in the Catholic institution's finances, including "many cases of rule violations, improper predisposition of accounting records, and incorrect registrations."

Becciu says he has nothing new to say about the Milone case, that it was the pope who ordered Milone's ousting and that he merely carried it out.

His lawyers say Milone has given "a completely unfounded reconstruction" of events in the legal filing.

Milone and Panicco's 53-page legal filing alleges that "a filter" was put up which made it difficult for Milone to reach the pope, who was the target of a "disinformation operation" by some in the Vatican.

Milone says he has proof that several Vatican offices concealed transactions or obstructed auditors' attempts to see real estate and investment portfolios. He also pointed to significant anomalies in the management of funds at the Catholic pediatric hospital Bambino Gesù.

Source

• Religion News Service
• Reuters