Vatican launches American-style campaign to help erase a $58-million deficit
Leo celebrated Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, marking the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, during which he gave the pallium woolen stole to 54 new archbishops. He thanked donors who have contributed to the church, using the language of the publicity campaign to say their financial support was a sign of union with his young pontificate.
In churches around the world, Masses on the June 29 feast day often include a special collection for Peter's Pence, a fund that underwrites the operations of the central government of the Catholic Church and pays for the pope's personal acts of charity.
With a promotional video, poster, QR code and website soliciting donations via credit card, PayPal, bank transfer and post office transfer, the Vatican is betting this year that an American-style fundraising pitch under the Chicago-born Leo will do more to help keep the Holy See bureaucracy afloat and erase its 50-million to 60-million euro structural deficit, an amount equal to about $58 million to $70 million.
The video features Leo's emotional first moments as pope, when he stepped out onto the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica and later choked up as he received the fisherman's ring of the papacy. With an evocative soundtrack in the background, the video superimposes a message, available in several languages, urging donations to Leo via the Peter's Pence collection.
'With your donation to Peter's Pence, you support the steps of the Holy Father,' it says. 'Help him proclaim the Gospel to the world and extend a hand to our brothers and sisters in need. Support the steps of Pope Leo XIV. Donate to Peter's Pence.'
At the end of his noon blessing Sunday, Leo used the same language about his first steps to say the Peter's Pence fund is 'a sign of communion with the pope and participation with his Apostolic Ministry.'
'From the heart, I thank those who with their gifts are supporting my first steps as the successor of St. Peter,' he said.
The fund has been the source of scandal in recent years, amid revelations that the Vatican's secretariat of state mismanaged its holdings through bad investments, incompetent management and waste. The recent trial over the Vatican's bungled investment in a London property confirmed that the vast majority of Peter's Pence contributions had funded the Holy See's budgetary shortfalls, not papal charity initiatives as many parishioners had been led to believe.
Between the revelations and the COVID-19 pandemic, which closed churches and canceled the traditional pass-the-basket collection June 29, Peter's Pence donations fell to $51 million in 2022 — a low not seen since 1986 — that was nevertheless offset the same year by other investment income and revenue to the fund.
Donations rose to about $56.7 million in 2023 and hit about $63.6 million last year, according to the Peter's Pence annual report issued last week. But the fund incurred expenses of $88.3 million in 2024, continuing the trend in which the fund is exhausting itself as it covers the Holy See's budgetary shortfalls.
On top of the budget deficit, the Vatican also is facing a shortfall of some $1.17 billion in its pension fund that Pope Francis, in the months before he died, warned was insufficient to fulfill its obligations in the medium term.
Unlike countries, the Holy See doesn't issue bonds or impose income tax on its residents to run its operations, relying instead on donations, investments and revenue generated by the Vatican Museums, and sales of stamps, coins, publications and other initiatives.
For years, the United States has been the greatest source of donations to Peter's Pence, with U.S. Catholics contributing about a quarter of the total each year.
Vatican officials are hoping that under Leo's pontificate, with new financial controls in place and an American math major running the Holy See, donors will be reassured that their money won't be misspent or mismanaged.
'This is a concrete way to support the Holy Father in his mission of service to the universal Church,' the Vatican's economy ministry said in a news release last week announcing the annual collection and new promotional materials surrounding it. 'Peter's Pence is a gesture of communion and participation in the Pope's mission to proclaim the Gospel, promote peace, and spread Christian charity.'
Winfield writes for the Associated Press.
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