The Pope’s personal secretary, Gozitan Mgr Alfred Xuereb, has been appointed prelate secretary general of the Vatican’s new Secretariat for the Economy.

The decree was signed by Pope Francis this morning together with the decree appointing Cardinal George Pell prefect of the same secretariat.

The secretariat’s responsibility includes handling all economic and administrative business of the Holy See and the Vatican state. It has the same level of duties and rights as that of a State Secretariat.

The secretariat is a new structure answerable directly to the Pope, who is to be assisted by an economic council made up of 15 people - eight cardinals and seven lay experts.

Another development expected to be announced in the coming days is the setting up of an Auditor General’s office that would be able to refer directly to the Pope and the Economic Council to launch a study on the Holy See’s economic and administrative structures.

In November, the Pope named the 55-year-old priest to supervise the activities of the Vatican Bank making him responsible for overseeing two commissions he (the Pope) created to supervise the bank itself and the economic structure and finances of the Holy See.