Barely two weeks after receiving Marx in audience following the letter from the 26 priests, the Pope confirms him at the head of the body that oversees the finances of the Holy See.
Pope Leo XIV has appointed a new group of members to the Council for the Economy this Tuesday and has confirmed Cardinal Reinhard Marx as coordinator of the body, a position the Archbishop of Munich and Freising has held uninterruptedly since 2015, when he was appointed by Francis.
Among the new members are Cardinals Grzegorz Ryś, Archbishop of Łódź; Ladislav Nemet, Archbishop of Belgrade; the Dominican Jean-Paul Vesco, Archbishop of Algiers; and Roberto Repole, Archbishop of Turin.
Marx’s reappointment is the most politically significant aspect of the announcement. The German cardinal, who will turn 73 in September, has coordinated the Council for the Economy since its establishment and has weathered all the storms of the previous pontificate: from his high-profile offer to resign from the see of Munich in 2021—rejected by Francis—following the handling of abuse cases in his archdiocese, to his role as one of the main supporters of the German Synodal Way.
Marx has even openly challenged Rome on the issue of blessings for same-sex couples. Last April, he implemented in his archdiocese the guidelines “A Blessing Strengthens Love,” which authorize ritual blessings for same-sex couples and divorced-and-remarried persons, despite the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith having already rejected the German project in writing. Leo XIV’s response was swift: “The Holy See does not agree with the formalized blessing of couples,” the Pontiff stated on the return flight from his trip to Africa. Far from backing down, Marx denounced a “coordinated campaign” against the German Synod and maintained the application of the guidelines, which even earned him a critical letter from 26 priests in his own archdiocese, who threaten to appeal to the Holy See.
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