Vatican Diary / a German at the Ior, under Bertone's Shadow

Chiesa
February 22, 2013

http://chiesa.espresso.repubblica.it/articolo/1350439?eng=y


A countryman of pope Ratzinger at the head of the Vatican bank. But from the cardinalate commission of oversight out goes Nicora and in comes a protégé of the secretary of state. The appointment of the prelate postponed until the next pontificate

VATICAN CITY, February 22, 2013 – Among the last acts of governance of Benedict XVI, a substantial impact in the media has been created by the appointments concerning the Institute for Works of Religion, the financial institution based in the Vatican that holds deposits, as of November 2011, totaling 6.3 billion euro, on behalf of 20,772 clients.

To begin, on February 15 the Vatican press office announced the name of the new president of the supervisory board of the IOR.

The announcement was made in a statement from the Vatican press office that was also published on page 2 of “L'Osservatore Romano” dated February 16.

"The cardinalate commission of oversight of the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR),” the note states, “has provided for the appointment, in keeping with the statutes, of the new president of the board of supervision in the person of the attorney Ernst von Freyberg. The other four members of the board of supervision maintain their positions.”

On the basis of article 8 of the statutes of the IOR of 1990, in fact, it is the responsibility of the commission of cardinals to appoint and revoke the lay members of the supervisory board.

The four confirmed are the German Ronaldo Hermann Schmitz, the American Carl Albert Anderson, the Spaniard Manuel Soto Serrano, and the Italian Antonio Maria Marocco.

“This decision,” the statement continues, “is the result of profound evaluation and of various interviews that commission of cardinals carried out, always with the support of the board of supervision. This was a matter of a process of several months, meticulous and detailed, that permitted the evaluation of numerous profiles of high professional and moral stature, also with the assistance of an independent international agency, a leader in the selection of business executives. The Holy Father, who closely followed the entire process of the selection and choice of the new president of the board of supervision of the IOR, expressed full agreement with the decision of the commission of cardinals.”

Speaking with journalists, the director of the press office, Fr. Federico Lombardi, specified that the choice was adopted “unanimously" by the cardinals on the morning of February 13, and that the pope was informed of it on the afternoon of the 14th, reiterating that in any case this is not in itself a pontifical appointment.

“The procedure for the search for the new president of the IOR was begun last summer,” Lombardi explained, adding: “The agency Spencer Stuart was used, and the commission of cardinals gave the mandate to proceed in this way.”

"The way in which the personnel of the agency approached the work was noteworthy,” Fr. Lombardi continued, explaining that “the agency presented forty candidates, a selection reduced the first number to six, and then to three. These had talks with the commission of cardinals, with the two cardinals residing outside of Rome [Scherer and Toppo - editor's note] being informed by telephone.”

Von Freyberg, 55 years old, married, is a member of the Knights of Malta and co-director of the Association for Pilgrimages to Lourdes of the archdiocese of Berlin. But his biographical profile unleashed the attention of the media in another respect.

The new lay president of the IOR is in fact also the president of the shipbuilding Blohm & Voss Group of Hamburg, whose "fundamental activity,” Lombardi specified, “is today in the transformation and repair of cruise ships, in activity for industry operating on the high seas, in the construction of yachts. Currently it is also part of a consortium that is building four frigates for the German navy.”

The spokesman of the shipbuilding group explained that these are ships destined to help Germany and NATO fight terrorists and pirates and that, in any case, it is the last commission of this kind for the group itself, after which Blohm & Voss will no longer handle military contracts.

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The day after the announcement of the appointment of von Freyberg, news also came of the renewal of the commission of cardinals that presides over the IOR.

On February 16, in fact, a statement was released by the press office, this one also published in “L'Osservatore Romano” and bearing the date of the following day, giving the news that Benedict XVI “has renewed for a five-year term” the commission of cardinals of the IOR.

In practice, the pontiff confirmed Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, secretary of state, who remains president of the commission, and the cardinals Jean-Louis Tauran, president of the pontifical council for interreligious dialogue, Odilo P. Scherer, archbishop of São Paulo, Brazil, and Telesphore P. Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi, India.

The only member of the commission replaced was Cardinal Attilo Nicora, president of the Financial Information Authority, AIF, in whose place the pope has appointed Cardinal Domenico Calcagno, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, APSA.

This change is not surprising in itself. In fact, the report drafted last July by the experts of Moneyval on the inclusion of the Holy Spirit among the virtuous countries in the fight against terrorism and money laundering, asked for the dissolution of the conflict of interest created by the presence of Nicora both in the controlling institution, the AIF, and in a controlled institution, the IOR.

Also on February 16, Fr. Lombardi explained that the lay board, meaning the board of supervision of the IOR, including the new president von Freyberg, is intended to remain in office until 2015.

The twofold change at the top of the IOR prompted a deluge of comments in the press and also in the ecclesiastical world, cardinals not excluded.

It was asked, in fact, if it were truly necessary to appoint the new lay president of the board and, above all, to renew the members of the commission of cardinals right on the heels of the announcement of the resignation of Benedict XVI and a few days from the beginning of the sede vacante. Without waiting, that is, for the appointment of the new pope, who in any case will have, if he wishes, the power to change at his pleasure the commission of cardinals.

On the basis of the statutes of 1990, in fact, in the governance of the IOR the pope intervenes only in the appointment of the five cardinal members of the commission. While all the other appointments are "a cascata," meaning that they do not require the direct intervention of the pontiff.

In fact, the president of the commission of cardinals - which has the task of overseeing “the fidelity of the Institute to the statutory norms” - "is designated by the members of the commission itself.” While the board of supervision made up of five lay professionals - which has the responsibility of administration and management of the IOR, as well as the oversight and supervision of its activities on the financial level - is appointed in its turn by the cardinals of the commission. The board of supervision itself, then, following the approval of the commission of cardinals, appoints the director general and the vice-director, who are responsible for the practical management of the Institute and who since 2007 have been Paolo Cipriani and Massimo Tulli.

There is no norm, moreover, that would establish that the secretary of state should also be president of the commission of cardinals of the IOR. If in fact Jean Villot led the commission until his death in 1979, his successor Agostino Casaroli, while having been a member of the commission from 1979 to 1994, never became its president. Angelo Sodano, who became secretary of state at the end of 1990, replaced Casaroli in 1994 and immediately became president of the commission. While Tarcisio Bertone became part of the  commission of cardinals in October of 2006, one month after becoming secretary of state, but became its president only at the end of 2007, after the exit of Sodano from the commission.

The IOR, moreover, although being defined as a "central institution” of the Catholic Church, is not part of the Roman curia and therefore is in part detached from the norms that regulate the life of the Holy See.

This can be seen, for example, with regard to age limitations. A number of times, in fact, the cardinal members of the commission at reaching the age of 80 have had to leave their other positions in the curia, but not their membership in the IOR. This was the case of Cardinal Maximilien de Fürstenberg, who remained in office until his death in 1988 at the age of 84, or of Jozef Tomko, who remained in office until 2006 when he was 82. Cardinals Casaroli, John J. O'Connor, Carlo Furno, and Rosalio José Castillo were also replaced after passing the age of 80.

There remains open the question of the prelate, a figure provided for by the statutes as a liaison between the commission of cardinals and the lay board. Until 1993 this position had been filled by Monsignor Donato De Bonis, who previously, under the old statutes, had been the secretary of the administrative office of the IOR, the president of which was Bishop Paul C. Marcinkus. De Bonis left the position in 1993 to become prelate of the Order of Malta, and thus the position of prelate of the IOR remained vacant, although in fact the role was filled by the personal secretary of the secretary of state.

On the page dedicated to the IOR in the Annuario pontificio of 2000, the position of prelate is even eliminated. But not in the statutes. Such that in the summer of 2006, the commission of cardinals headed by Cardinal Sodano (who in September was to leave the position of secretary of state) appointed the new prelate in the person of Monsignor Piero Pioppo, who was Sodano's personal secretary.

In January of 2010, Pioppo was made archbishop and sent as apostolic nuncio to Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, and as a result the position of prelate was left free. In 2012 the inspectors of Moneyval wrote in their report that they had learned in their talks at the Vatican that a new prelate had already been appointed. But nothing happened.

And Lombardi as well, illustrating for journalists the latest appointments to the IOR, said that the appointment of the prelate will take some more time. At least in this case, therefore, it will be necessary to wait for the next pontificate.