Msgr Mauro Carlino A lawyer for Msgr Mauro Carlino downplayed the suspended Vatican official’s involvement in a controversial London property deal, saying that his role was limited and ultimately benefited the Secretariat of State by saving five million euros.
MsgrCarlino was secretary to Cardinal Angelo Becciu when he was “sostituto,” or the second-ranking official, at the Secretariat of State. In October 2019, MsgrCarlino was also one of five Vatican employees suspended after a raid on Secretariat of State offices.
While the Vatican has not commented on his current status, MsgrCarlino is listed as a resident of the Italian city of Lecce on the website of the local archdiocese.
SalvinoMondello, MsgrCarlino’s lawyer, responded this week to claims about the suspended secretariat official in an October 15 article in Italian newspaper La Stampa.
The lawyer’s letter appeared as the Vatican announced that Pope Francis had decided to take away the Secretariat of State’s responsibility for financial funds and real estate assets, including the London property.
Referring to the Secretariat of State’s purchase of a luxury property development in west London, MrMondello wrote that it was “absolutely erroneous and improper to define MsgrCarlino as ‘one of the protagonists of the scandal”.
MrMondello said that MsgrCarlino intervened in the affair only from February to May 2019, when he was asked to help reach an agreement with the broker Gianluigi Torzi for handing over the voting shares of the property at 60 Sloane Avenue.