VATICAN CITY
Reuters
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY, July 1 (Reuters) – The Vatican bank’s chairman is to step down as soon as next week as part of the restructuring of an institution that has been an embarrassment to the Catholic Church for decades, Vatican sources said on Tuesday.
But the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, disagreed over whether Ernst von Freyberg was leaving willingly or whether he was being pushed out over differences within the Vatican about the pace of reform.
Freyberg’s departure is expected to be announced in connection with the publication, most likely next week, of the new annual report of the bank, officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR).
The new statues of the bank are expected to make the chairman’s job a full-time, residential position and, according to one source, Freyberg has decided he wants to return to his family in Germany.
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