VATICAN CITY
Europe Online
Vatican City (dpa) – The Vatican plans next week to clarify whether its scandal-plagued bank, the Institute for Religious Works (IOR), is going to have a new president, a spokesman indicated Wednesday, reacting to numerous reports of a looming change at the top.
Rumours have been mounting in recent days that German lawyer Ernst von Freyberg, appointed in February last year in one of the last decisions taken by former pope Benedict XVI before his resignation, is going to be replaced.
“The IOR is in a time of natural and peaceful transition and development,” Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said.
“The contribution from president Ernst von Freyberg is deeply appreciated and judged very positively, and further clarifications are possible, or even likely,” after Saturday when a key panel meets, Father Lombardi said.
That panel, the Council for the Economy, is made up of eight cardinals and seven lay experts. Vatican expert John Allen, a reporter for the US daily The Boston Globe, wrote in a report citing unnamed sources that one of the council‘s members, French financier Jean-Baptise de Franssu, is the front runner for the bank‘s top job.
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