Pope Francis replaces four cardinals on Vatican Bank commission

In a decisive action, Pope Francis has fired four cardinals, including former Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone SDB from a five-member commission that oversees the activities of the scandal-hit Vatican bank. The only remaining cardinal following the major shakeup is Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, head of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) Among those dismissed were Cardinals Odilo Scherer from Brazil, Telesphore Toppo of India and Domenico Calcagno of the Vatican. All but Calcagno were only eleven months into a second, five-year term, in an appointment made by Benedict XVI made just 12 days before he resigned.

Pope Francis has replaced the men with Cardinals Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, Thomas Collins of Toronto; Santos Abril y Castillo of Saint Mary Major and Cardinal-designate Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State. The group is formally called the Commission of Cardinals overseeing the Institute for the Works of Religion, or IOR.

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The members of the commission are to elect a president in the coming days when it holds its first meeting. Cardinal Bertone was serving as president until he was replaced.

According to the Catholic newspaper The Tablet, the Vatican bank was caught in a money-laundering row in 2010 after Italian prosecutors uncovered allegedly suspicious financial activity within the organization.

Bank chairman Ettore Gotti Tedeschi and his deputy Paolo Cipriani had been investigated after financial police seized 23 million euros from a Vatican bank account.

While the Vatican bank was claiming to address money-laundering, it was alleged to have broken the law by trying to transfer money without identifying the sender or recipient, or what the money was being used for. These charges were furiously denied by the Vatican.

In the meantime, Francis is extending an invitation to engaged couples spend Valentine's Day with him. A note, entitled "The Joy of Yes Forever" issued by Vatican City invites engaged couples to a private audience with the Pontiff next month.

Pope Francis calls for your 'prayer and action'...

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