Eight cardinals, seven laymen appointed to Vatican finance body

Pope Francis named eight cardinals and seven laymen on Saturday to a new Vatican Council for the Economy, intended to supervise the finances of the Holy See.

The eight cardinals are: Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising; Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne, Archbishop of Lima; Cardinal Daniel N DiNardo; Archbishop of Galveston-Houston; Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, Archbishop of Durban; Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard, Archbishop Bordeaux; Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera, Archbishop of México; Cardinal Joh Tong Hon, Bishop of Hong Kong; Cardinal Agostino Vicar General for the Diocese of Rome.

The seven laymen in the council include Maltese economist Joseph Zahra, former director of the Central Bank of Malta, France's Jean-Baptiste de Franssu, chairman of mergers and acquisitions advisory firm INCIPIT and former head of the European Fund and Asset Management Association; Spanish University of Madrid economist Enrique Llano Cueto; German former McKinsey & Company partner Jochen Messemer; Italian University of Messina Business Administration professor Francesco Vermiglio; George Yeo, a former Singapore Finance Minister, and retired oil executive John Kyle.

In a statement, the Holy See made it clear that the body has policy-making powers and is not just an advisory board.

"The members appointed to the Council are from various geographical areas, reflecting... the universality of the Church," the statement reads.

Source: VIS