Pope Francis approved a secret million-euro operation to free a Colombian nun who was held captive for more than four years by an Islamist militant group in Mali before she was released in 2021, a cardinal told a Vatican court on Thursday.
Cardinal Angelo Becciu, 73, the only cardinal among 10 defendants at a corruption trial that began last July, also testified that he had no improper relations with an Italian woman who was an intermediary in the operation to free the nun.
