ROME — Pope Francis continued shaking up the Vatican on Wednesday as he named new cardinals to an oversight commission for the troubled Vatican Bank, replacing all but one of the appointees made by his predecessor, Benedict XVI, in another example of how the new pope is consolidating power.
Since becoming pope less than a year ago, Francis has shifted personnel in important Vatican departments, placing his picks in key positions while signaling that he intends to crack down on the intrigues and disarray that plagued the Vatican bureaucracy under the shy, aloof Benedict.
The Vatican Bank, officially known as the Institute for Works of Religion, has been under scrutiny for years, amid suspicions that some accounts might be fronts for illegal interests. European regulators are pushing the secretive bank to become more transparent and adhere to international banking standards, a process that began under Benedict.
Shortly after he announced his surprise resignation last February, Benedict approved new five-year terms for the existing five-man committee overseeing the bank, including Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, then the secretary of state, the Vatican’s second-ranking official. On Wednesday, Francis retained only one of those five — Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran — while replacing Cardinal Bertone with Pietro Parolin, the man who also replaced him as secretary of state.
“It is not surprising,” said one Vatican official familiar with the bank, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “It has been in the works. It is a normal turnover. It is good for the working of the institution.”
Francis’ move comes a month before cardinals from around the world will come to the Vatican for a consistory to witness the formal appointment of new cardinals and discuss church affairs. On Sunday, Francis designated his first group of new cardinals, with a majority coming from outside Europe.
Francis has paid close attention to the bank, having named a direct liaison during the summer after the job had remained vacant for more than a year. He has also appointed a separate special commission to scrutinize the bank’s activities.
One of Benedict’s last acts was to appoint Ernst von Freyberg, a German industrialist, as the bank’s first non-Italian president. Mr. von Freyberg has focused on bringing the bank into compliance with international norms and has hired a forensic accounting firm to vet the bank’s 19,000 accounts for problems or suspicious transactions.
In December, Moneyval, a European monitoring agency, commended the Vatican for making significant efforts to comply with international laws to combat terrorism and money laundering, but added that more improvement was needed. Moneyval criticized officials as still having inadequate controls to protect against financial crimes at the bank, and at the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, which oversees the Vatican’s real estate holdings and financial assets.
Carlo Marroni, a journalist and expert on Vatican financial affairs, said Francis might also decide eventually to replace Mr. von Freyberg and the other members of the bank’s board of directors, though as yet he has given no indication of doing so. The board answers to the supervisory committee appointed on Wednesday.
“It’s a surprise move on the eve of the consistory,” said Mr. Marroni, who writes for the Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore. “It’s a strong signal of change in the management of the pontifical finances.”
The new supervisory committee consists of five men: Secretary of State Parolin; Cardinal Tauran; Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, archbishop of Vienna; Cardinal Thomas Christopher Collins, archbishop of Toronto; Cardinal Santos Abril y Castilló, archpriest of the Papal Basilica of St. Mary Major.
The four cardinals who were removed are Cardinal Bertone; Odilo P. Scherer of Brazil; Telesphore P. Toppo of India; and Domenico Calcagno of Italy.