VATICAN CITY
The New York Times
By RACHEL DONADIO
Published: June 15, 2013
ROME — Three months into his papacy, Pope Francis took his first significant step on Saturday toward making changes at the troubled Vatican Bank, naming a trusted prelate to fill a key vacancy in an indication that the pope intends to keep a close watch on the institution.
In a statement, the Vatican said Francis had approved of the nomination of Msgr. Battista Mario Salvatore Ricca as interim prelate of the bank, a top post that allows him access to its inner workings.
The appointment is Francis’s first for the Vatican Bank. The bank’s reluctance to reveal its client list has put it under intense pressure in recent years to meet European norms to prevent money laundering as a condition for using the euro.
Monsignor Ricca, who manages the Vatican residence where the pope has chosen to live as well as others there, will report to a committee of cardinals led by the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, and will be present at all board meetings, the statement said.
In one of his final acts as pope, Benedict XVI in February named Ernst von Freyberg, 54, a German aristocrat and industrialist, as the first non-Italian president of the bank, nine months after his predecessor, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was ousted in a boardroom coup after intense internal power struggles.
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