Click to view full size

The Vat­i­can ap­peals tri­bunal de­clared a mis­tri­al Tues­day in the Holy See’s big “tri­al of the cen­tu­ry,” a stun­ning blow to both Pope Fran­cis’ lega­cy and Vat­i­can pros­e­cu­tors who had put a car­di­nal and sev­er­al oth­er peo­ple on tri­al over al­leged fi­nan­cial crimes.

In a 16-page rul­ing, the ap­peals court ruled that Fran­cis and Vat­i­can pros­e­cu­tors both made pro­ce­dur­al er­rors that nul­li­fied the orig­i­nal in­dict­ment against Car­di­nal An­ge­lo Bec­ciu and the oth­ers and re­quired a new tri­al. The court set a June 22 as the date for the new tri­al to be­gin.

De­fense lawyers said such a rul­ing was sig­nif­i­cant if not his­toric, since it amount­ed to a Vat­i­can court de­clar­ing that an act of the pope had no ef­fect.