By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – A defendant at a Vatican trial testified on Wednesday that superiors including Pope Francis approved a $15 million settlement to get the Vatican out of a botched London real estate deal to avoid a total loss. Testifying for more than four hours, Monsignor Mauro Carlino described the final phases of the venture, which began when the Vatican’s Secretariat of State invested 350 million euros ($390 million) in 2014 with Italian broker Raffaele Mincione to buy a luxury building in London. In 2018, the Vatican felt it was being fleeced by Mincione, accordi…