By Charles Igwe
Vatican authorities announced the appointment of Professor Paolo Garonna as the new President of the Centesimus Annus pro Pontifice Foundation, a Vatican-based non-profit lay organization dedicated to promoting Catholic social teaching. Garonna has been a member of the Foundation’s Scientific Committee since 2008 and succeeds Professor Anna Maria Tarantola, who served as President since March 2019. Tarantola, former Deputy Director General of the Bank of Italy and President of RAI (Italy’s public broadcaster), announced she would not renew her term for personal reasons.
Paolo Garonna is a professor of Economic Policy at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome. He holds a degree from Sapienza University in Rome and has conducted research at the University of Denver in the USA and the University of Cambridge in the UK.
Garonna has held various prestigious roles, including Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, Director General of ISTAT (Italy’s national statistical office), Chief Economist at Confindustria (Italy’s leading business association), and Secretary General of the Italian Federation of Banks, Insurance, and Finance. He has authored numerous studies and publications on Catholic social teaching, economics, and finance.
