The Pope appoints 8 cardinals and 7 lay people to the new Council for the Economy (©ANSA) ST. PETERS DOME Today the Vatican announced the members of the work group which will direct the newborn Vatican “finance ministry” ANDREA TORNIELLI VATICAN CITY The Pope has appointed eight cardinals and seven lay people as members of the Vatican Council of the Economy which is to be co-ordinated by the cardinal Archbishop of Monaco Reinhard Marx. Their mandate will last five years. The Secretariat for the Economy, essentially the Vatican “ministry of finance”, was established just a few days ago and Australian cardinal George Pell chosen as its head. The other cardinals besides Marx who will form the new Council are: the Archbishop of Lima Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne; the Archbishop of Galveston-Houston, Daniel N. DiNardo; the Archbishop of Durban Wilfrid Fox Napier; the Archbishop of Bordeaux, Jean-Pierre Ricard; the Archbishop of Mexico, Norberto Rivera Carrera; the Bishop of Hong Kong, John Tong Hon and the Vicar of Rome, Agostino Vallini. A part from the first two, Marx and DiNardo, the other six cardinals had all been members of the Council of 15 that was looking into the Holy See’s economic and administrative affairs. Francis did away with this Council and in recent days established the new “ministry of finance”. So the cardinals have been dealing with the Vatican’s economic and financial issues for a while now. The group’s co-ordinator, Marx, is also a member of the C8, the Pope’s group of eight cardinal advisors who help him with Curia reform. The seven lay members of the new Council are: Joseph F.X Zahra, Malta (Vice-Coordinator), former director of the Central Bank of Malta and President of the Commission for Reference on the Holy See’s financial dicasteries; Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, France, CEO of Invesco and a member of the Invesco Worldwide Management Committee; John F. Kyle, Canada, Vice President of Treasure of Imperial Oil Limited; Enrique Llano Cueto, Spain, Professor at the University of Madrid; Jochen Messemer, Germany, international director of Versicherungsgruppe; Professor Francesco Vermiglio, Italy, Professor at the University of Messina and at the Luiss, as well as member of the board of the central Bank of Malta and George Yeo, former finance minister of the Republic of Singapore. “The relationship between the Council and the Secretariat for the Economy will be defined by their statutes, and, in any case, the Council is understood to be a body having the authority to act, and is not a mere advisory body of the Secretariat of Economy,” Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi said, adding that “the Council is now operational, and its first meeting is scheduled for May.” The different provenances of the Council’s members reflect the universality of the Church,” as the Motu Proprio “Fidelis dispensator et prudens” requires. The Motu Proprio was recently issued officially establishing the Secretariat for the Economy. “The establishment of the Council for Economics is a key step towards the consolidation of the existing management structures of the Holy See, which is meant to improve the coordination and supervision of economic and administrative issues,” the spokesman stated.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 17:03:30 +0000
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