VATICAN CITY
National Catholic Reporter

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

In the abstract, if one were to draw up the ideal profile of a financial expert the Vatican might enlist to help clean up its reputation as a magnet for scandal, the wish list might include the following four points:
•Someone with clear secular credentials as an advocate of transparency and a leader in the fight against money laundering;
•Someone who’s had experience helping a place with a shady past attain new respectability;
•Someone comfortable in a multi-lingual and multi-cultural environment;
•Someone who understands an idiosyncratic small state with a monarchical system of government.

Defined that way, there probably aren’t many people who would fit the bill, but the Vatican seems to have found one: a 40-year-old Swiss lawyer named René Brülhart, who for the past ten years has led anti-money laundering efforts…