VATICAN CITY, JAN. 20, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI appointed Cardinal Attilio Nicora, currently head of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, as president of the newly created Financial Information Authority.
The Pope also appointed on Wednesday the members of the executive council of this new entity: Claudio Bianchi, former professor of accounting at Rome’s La Sapienza University; Marcello Condemi, associate professor of economic law at Rome’s G. Marconi University; Giuseppe Dalla Torre del Tempio di Sanguinetto, rector of Rome’s LUMSA University; and Cesare Testa, former president of the Central Institute for the Sustenance of the Clergy.
The financial agency was established Dec. 30 as an «autonomous and independent body with the specific task of preventing and countering the laundering of money and the financing of terrorism with respect to each subject, both legal and physical, entity and institution of whatever nature, of Vatican City State, of the Dicasteries of the Roman Curia and of all the other institutions and entities dependent on the Holy See,» a Vatican communiqué explained.
Other appointments
Also on Wednesday, the Pontiff accepted the resignation of Bishop Mihály Mayer, 70, of Pecs, Hungary, according to canon 401.2 of the Code of Canon Law, which provides for a prelate to resign in cases of illness or other grave cause.
The Holy Father named Bishop András Veres, 51, of Szombathely as apostolic administrator of the Pecs Diocese.
The Pecs Diocese has 401,000 Catholics served by 132 priests and 58 religious.
Benedict XVI appointed Father Luis Gonzaga Féchio, 45, as auxiliary bishop of the Brazilian Archdiocese of Belo Horizonte.
The Belo Horizonte Archdiocese has 3,302,578 Catholics, 542 priests, and 2,106 religious.
