A convicted Italian cardinal leaves the conclave to select a new pope.

A convicted Italian cardinal, convicted of financial crimes by the Vatican said Tuesday he will not take part in the secret conclave to elect the new pope.

By Christopher Lamb and Lauren Said-Moorhouse, CNN

RomeCNN — 

Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu of Italy participates in the Palm Sunday mass procession in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican, April 2, 2023.

On Tuesday, the convicted Italian cardinal who was found guilty of financial crimes by the Vatican announced that he would not attend the secret conclave.

Pope Francis ordered Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, once one of the most influential people in the Vatican, to give up his “rights and privileges” as a cardinal in 2020 after he was involved in a financial scandal at the Vatican.

Becciu made an appeal for his right to attend the conclave after the pope’s death last week, but he announced in a statement on Tuesday that he was officially withdrawing. He declared, “I have made the decision to comply, as I have always done, with Pope Francis’ desire to stay out of the Conclave while still believing that I am innocent.”

The Vatican said Monday that cardinals have decided to begin conclave on May 7 and choose a new leader for the 1.4 billion Catholics worldwide. Which the convicted Italian cardinal shouldn’t involve.

Seven days after stating to a Sardinian newspaper that “there was no explicit will to exclude me from the conclave nor a request for my explicit renunciation in writing,” Becciu has decided to leave the conclave.

In the past, the Sardinian cardinal served as the equivalent of a papal chief of staff, known as a “sostituto” (substitute) in the Holy See’s Secretariat of State. The position gave Becciu walk-in access to the pope and gave him enormous power within the central government of the church. Later on, he was transferred to oversee the department of saint-making at the Vatican.

In 2023, Becciu was found guilty of embezzlement and fraud and sentenced to five and a half years in prison. The Vatican’s criminal court has found him guilty, making him the first cardinal to do so.

However, the convicted Italian cardinal, who has consistently insisted on his innocence, filed an appeal that is still being reviewed. During this process, he is permitted to stay in an apartment in the Vatican.