Pope Francis understood the power of a simple touch.

The Vatican tribunal says it convicted a cardinal of aggravated fraud and other charges because of his “objectively inexplicable behavior” in paying a self-styled intelligence analyst more than a half-million euros (dollars) in Vatican money.

A Vatican tribunal has convicted a cardinal of embezzlement and sentenced him to 5 ½ years in prison in one of several verdicts handed down in a complicated financial trial that aired the city state’s dirty laundry and tested its justice system.

Verdicts are expected for a cardinal and nine defendants in the most complicated financial trial in the Vatican’s modern history.

Lawyers for a once-powerful cardinal have accused Vatican prosecutors of being “prisoners to their completely shattered theory" in closing arguments of a trial that has raised fundamental questions about the rule of law in the city state.

A Vatican cardinal on trial in the Holy See’s big financial crimes case has complained he can't properly defend himself because prosecutors have withheld key evidence.

Revelations that a key prosecution witness may have been manipulated into changing his story and cooperating with prosecutors has jolted a Vatican trial over a money-losing investment in a London property.

The Vatican’s fraud and corruption trial has taken a dramatic twist with a once-powerful cardinal challenging the Vatican’s police commissioner on the stand about one of the more peculiar tangents of the case.

The Vatican’s financial trial has taken a surreal turn with a defendant asserting she escorted two emissaries of Russian President Vladimir Putin into the Holy See to negotiate the return of relics to the Russian Orthodox Church.

A cardinal has testified that Pope Francis authorized spending up to 1 million euros to free a Colombian nun kidnapped by al-Qaida-linked militants in Mali.

The lone cardinal indicted in the Vatican’s big fraud and embezzlement trial is complaining that the pope’s prosecutors offended his dignity by suggesting he was having sex with a co-defendant.

The Vatican prosecutor has conceded procedural errors in his fraud and corruption investigation into the Holy See’s finances and is offering to remedy them by essentially starting over.

Defense lawyers are questioning the very legitimacy of the Vatican tribunal where 10 people are on trial on finance-related charges.

A fraud and embezzlement trial involving mismanagement of the Holy See’s investments has begun in Vatican City, with a once-powerful cardinal who is among the 10 defendants declaring he remains “obedient” to Pope Francis, who fired him from a top post.

The Vatican has set a July 27 trial date for 10 people, including a once-powerful cardinal and papal contender, on charges related to the Holy See’s 350 million euro investment in a luxury London real estate venture.

A Vatican judge has indicted 10 people, including a cardinal, on charges including extortion, abuse of office and fraud in connection with the Secretariat of State’s 350 million-euro investment in a London real estate venture.

Pope Francis has celebrated a surprise Holy Thursday Mass with the cardinal he fired last year.

Cardinal George Pell answers' a journalists question during an interview with the Associated Press inside his residence near the Vatican in Rome, Monday, Nov. 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)ROME – The pope’s former treasurer, Cardinal George Pell, said Monday he feels a dismayed sense of vindication as the financial mismanagement he tried to uncover in the Holy See is now being exposed in a spiraling Vatican corruption investigation. After more than a year of investigation, no one has been indicted, though a handful of Vatican officials and Italian businessmen are under investigation. Pell, with his rather brusque, no-nonsense Australian sensibilities, clashed frequently with the Vatican’s Italian old guard as he sought to get a handle on the Vatican’s assets and spending. After Pell returned to Rome last month, he had a well-publicized private audience with Francis.

FILE - In this Friday, Sept. 25, 2020 file photo, Cardinal Angelo Becciu looks down as he meets the media during a press conference in Rome. The Vatican cardinal sacked by Pope Francis amid a corruption investigation is fighting back, suing an Italian newsmagazine and claiming that his ouster has deprived him of the chance of being pope and will undermine the legitimacy of a future papal election. In his complaint, Becciu said the damage to his reputation had harmed him personally as well as the Catholic faithful at large. As a powerful cardinal with pastoral, diplomatic and Vatican experience, Becciu had been considered “papabile” before his downfall. But the complaint said that by being forced to relinquish his rights as a cardinal, Becciu had lost his chance to one day become pope.

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican's latest corruption scandal already had all the elements of a spy thriller: One cardinal who was fired during a “surreal" nighttime audience with the pope. Another cardinal, the nemesis of the first, who returned triumphantly to Rome after being acquitted of sexual abuse in Australia. Enter Cecilia Marogna, a 39-year-old political consultant who was arrested Tuesday in Milan on an international warrant issued by the Vatican, Italy's financial police confirmed Wednesday. According to Vatican documents published in Italian newspapers and shown on investigative television shows this week, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the onetime No. Italian Vatican commentator Luis Badilla, writing in the much-read Vatican blog Il Sismografo, has noted that that the new president of the Vatican criminal tribunal, a former Italian magistrate, is also an editorial commentator for Italy's La Repubblica newspaper, whose expose last month led to Becciu's ouster.

Cardinal George Pell has a drink in a cafe at the Vatican, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020. Corriere speculated that Becciu might have “bought” the testimony of Pell’s accuser to get Pell out of the Vatican. Becciu and Pell were known to have clashed over the Australian’s financial clean-up efforts at the Holy See. “In relation to what has been published by some organs of information, I categorically deny any interference in the trial of Cardinal Pell,” Becciu said in a statement released by his lawyer, Fabio Viglione. The Victoria Police media unit said Monday they couldn’t find any record that the Vatican had alleged witnesses against Pell were bribed with Vatican money.

Australian Cardinal George Pell arrives at Rome's international airport in Fiumicino, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020. The 79-year-old Pell arrived at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport on a flight from Sydney wearing a blue surgical mask. It wasn't immediately clear how long Pell would remain in the Vatican or what his agenda might involve. Pell and Becciu had long clashed over the Australian's efforts to bring greater transparency and accountability to the Vatican's balance sheets. In his first television interview after his release, Pell linked his fight against Vatican corruption with his prosecution in Australia.

FILE - In this Feb. 27, 2019, file photo, Cardinal George Pell arrives at the County Court in Melbourne, Australia. Pell will fly back to Rome on Tuesday, CathNews, an information agency of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference said, citing “sources close to” Pell. Pell’s return follows Francis last week firing one of the cardinal’s most powerful opponents, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, over a financial scandal. In his first television interview after his release, Pell linked his fight against Vatican corruption with his prosecution in Australia. “I hope the cleaning of the stables continues in both the Vatican and Victoria,” Pell said, referring to his home state of Victoria where he was convicted.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu talks to journalists during press conference in Rome, Friday, Sept. 25, 2020. The powerful head of the Vatican's saint-making office, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, has resigned from the post and renounced his rights as a cardinal amid a financial scandal that has reportedly implicated him indirectly. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)ROME – A powerful Vatican cardinal who was sacked by Pope Francis in an astonishing twist to the Vatican's latest financial scandal pushed back Friday against allegations he embezzled Holy See money and denied he did anything wrong. Cardinal Angelo Becciu presided over an extraordinary news conference a day after Francis fired him and yanked his rights and privileges as a cardinal. Asked about Pell's statement, Becciu readily admitted the two had professional differences.

ROME – The powerful head of the Vatican's saint-making office, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, resigned Thursday from the post and renounced his rights as a cardinal amid a financial scandal that has reportedly implicated him indirectly. The Vatican prosecutor has placed several Vatican officials under investigation, as well as the middlemen, but not Becciu. The last time a cardinal’s rights were removed was when American Theodore McCarrick renounced his rights and privileges as a cardinal in July 2018 amid a sexual abuse investigation. In the Vatican statement, the Holy See identified Becciu as “His Eminence Cardinal Angelo Becciu,” making clear he remained a cardinal but just without any rights. But by renouncing his rights as a cardinal, Becciu has relinquished his rights to take part.