The Vatican clarified the roles of the two supervisory bodies of the
so-called Vatican Bank on Friday, responding to an Italian report
alleging that the pontiff wanted to remove a group of cardinals from
governance of the bank. Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said in a statement that the Cardinals Commission of Vigilance of the Institute for Works of Religion, as the bank is formally known, is «fully operational».
Burke said the pope wanted to make a distinction between the cardinals’ group and the bank’s Board of Superintendence, a group of seven lay members with expertise in financial management.
«The Holy Father wished to reinforce the role of the Cardinals Commission as a distinct and separate entity from the Board of Superintendence, as the statutes of the Institute arrange», said the spokesman.
«Pope Francis has asked that starting this year the meetings of the Board take place separately from those of the Commission so as to underline the distinction in their roles», he said.
The Pontiff had previously appointed three new members to the superintendence board in December, adding American Scott Malpass, Spaniard Javier Marin Romano, and German Georg Freiherr von Boeselager.