(NewsNation) — A European princess with a background in engineering and investment banking has landed one of the most closely watched appointments in the Vatican’s latest shakeup of its financial oversight body.
Pope Leo XIV named Princess Gisela Bergmann of Liechtenstein, daughter of Prince Michael of Liechtenstein to the Council for the Economy on Aug. 11 as part of a broader round of appointments to the body that oversees the Roman Curia’s finances.
Bergmann, 36, holds a degree in engineering, and has held professional roles in investment banking and engineering in England, Canada, Singapore and Switzerland, according to the Vatican.
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Bergmann is currently chief executive of Industrie und Finanzkontor Etablissement, a financial company founded by her family.
The royal family of Liechtenstein, which dates back to 1136, acquired vast wealth and political influence under the Habsburgs and remains a powerful European constitutional monarchy today.
Vatican council oversees Holy See’s finances
The Council for the Economy isn’t ceremonial. It’s the body that reviews and approves the Holy See’s annual budget before they go to the pope. It also oversees financial practices across the Roman Curia and Vatican institutions.
The council’s 15 seats are always occupied by eight cardinals or bishops and seven lay experts from different countries, a structure that is designed to bring outside Vatican financial expertise into Vatican governance.
Other appointments
Bergmann joins other professionals including French insurance executive Denis Duverne and two Italians UBS wealth management executive Elena Principato-Wettstein and Paolo Nusiner, who has held various positions in academia, Catholic publishing, and in the corporate world.
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On the clerical side, Pope Leo added four new cardinal-archbishops: Grzegorz Ryś, archbishop of Krakow, Poland; Ladislav Nemet, SVD, archbishop of Belgrade, Serbia; Jean-Paul Vesco, OP, archbishop of Algiers, Algeria; and Roberto Repole, archbishop of Turin, Italy.
Continuing with Pope Francis
The new appointments don’t constitute a clean sweep. Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Germany, who has led the council since Pope Francis established it in 2014, remains its coordinator alongside German legal scholar Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchhoff as vice coordinator. Several other Francis-era appointees were reconfirmed for new five-year terms including Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark.
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