Pope Leo keeps heterodox Cardinal Marx as head of Vatican economic council

(LifeSiteNews) — Pope Leo XIV has confirmed Cardinal Reinhard Marx as leader of the Vatican’s Council for the Economy while naming eight new members, including four laypeople.

According to the Holy See Press Office, the Pope announced new members of the council and confirmed previous ones in their roles on Tuesday, August 11. Marx remains as coordinator of the Council for the Economy, and his deputy remains German legal scholar and laywoman Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchhof of Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf.

Among the new members of the council are Cardinals Grzegorz Ryś of Kraków, Ladislav Nemet of Belgrade, Jean-Paul Vesco of Algiers, and Roberto Repole of Turin. In addition, the Pope appointed four experts from the business world: Denis Duverne, Gisela Liechtenstein, Paolo Nusiner, and Elena Wettstein Principato.

Confirmed in their positions on the council were Cardinals Odilo Pedro Scherer of São Paulo, Gérald Cyprien Lacroix of Québec, and Joseph William Tobin of Newark, as well as the other members Leslie Jane Ferrar, Alberto Minali, and Secretary Brian Edwin Ferme.

The Council for the Economy was established in February 2014 by Pope Francis through the motu proprio Fidelis dispensator et prudens. The council is responsible for overseeing the economic management, administrative structures, and financial activities of the Roman Curia, institutions affiliated with the Holy See, and the Vatican City State.

The confirmation of Cardinal Marx is especially noteworthy since the former head of the German Bishops’ Conference was a key leader and a driving force in the heretical German Synodal Way.

The archbishop of Munich and Freising is radically pro-LGBT and has publicly dissented from Church doctrine on numerous occasions.

During meetings of the Synodal Way, Marx voted in favor of heretical documents that called for women’s ordination, claimed that homosexual acts are not sinful, and advocated for ordaining “transgender” priests. The documents on homosexuality and transgenderism both cite “the human sciences.”

Marx also praised the current German abortion law that allows abortion up to 12 weeks for having “contributed to peace” in society and claimed the present law keeps both “the plight of the woman” and “the child’s right to life” in mind, despite it resulting in around 100,000 unborn children killed each year.

The cardinal recently introduced heterodox guidelines for the “blessing” of “couples of all gender identities” in his diocese. The Vatican opposed the direction, and Pope Leo met with Marx to discuss the issue. However, it appears there were no conceivable consequences for Marx, and that he remains in good standing with Leo given his confirmation as coordinator of the Council for the Economy.