Pope Meets Top Cardinals Amid Bank Shakeup Rumors

VATICAN CITY
ABC News (US)

VATICAN CITY — Jul 1, 2014

By NICOLE WINFIELD Associated Press

Pope Francis convened his top cardinal advisers for another round of financial reform talks Tuesday amid fresh turmoil at the embattled Vatican bank.

It was this time last year that the top two managers at the Institute for Religious Works were forced out after a Vatican monsignor with millions in the bank was arrested in an alleged money-smuggling plot.

They were replaced, but Italian news reports say another round of resignations is expected. A bank spokesman, Max Hohenberg, declined to comment Tuesday, saying only that the bank was working on its annual report.

The bank’s current president, Ernst Von Freyberg, was appointed in February 2013 in one of Pope Benedict XVI’s final acts in office. He has never been received in audience by Pope Francis, who was elected on a mandate of financial and bureaucratic reform.

Italian newsweekly L’Espresso reported last week that Von Freyberg would soon resign, citing among other issues a clash over access to information sought by Francis’ main liaison to the bank. A Vatican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a broader shake-up was expected next week.

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