With a promotional video, a poster, QR Code and a website requesting donations via credit card, paypal, bank transfer or mail, the Vatican is betting this year in modernity
This Sunday (29), the launched Vatican’s new campaign to raise donations from the faithful, seeking to help Santa Fe in its deficit calculated between 50 and 60 million euros (something between R $ 320 and R $ 350 million). This happened at the opening of the Feast of St. Peter and Paul, traditionally used by the Catholic Church for this purpose. Leo XIV celebrated Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and, during the prayer of Angelus, thanked the donors who contributed, saying that their financial support was a “sign of unity” with his young pontificate. It also reflected on Christian unity, the conversion and testimony of the martyrdom of Christ, which unites the church in a “deep communion.” In churches around the world, June 29 masses often include a special collection for Peter’s pence, a fund that supports the central government’s operations of the Catholic Church, the Vatican, and pays the Pope’s personal acts of charity.
With a promotional video, a poster, QR Code and a website requesting donations via credit card, paypal, bank transfer or mail, the Vatican is betting this year in a more modern and close -style background campaign. The video presents images of the first moments of Leo XIV as Pope, as when he entered the loggian of St. Peter’s Basilica shortly after being elected and received the papacy fisherman ring. With an evocative soundtrack to the background, the video overlaps a message, available in several languages, asking for donations. “With your donation to Peter’s pence, you support the steps of the Holy Father,” says the message. “Help him proclaim the gospel to the world and extend his hand to our needy brothers and sisters. Support the footsteps of Pope Leo XIV. Make a donation.”
The Vatican believes that, under the command of Leo XIV, born in Chicago, the United States, the renewal of the campaign should help maintain the Holy See bureaucracy in operation and eliminate its structural deficit. For years, the United States has been the largest source of donations for Peter’s pence, with American Catholics contributing about a quarter of the total of each year. At the end of his blessing, at noon this Sunday, Rome’s time, the Pope stated that Peter’s Pence Fund is “a sign of communion with the Pope and participation in his apostolic ministry” “From heart, I thank those who, with their donations, are supporting my first steps as St. Peter’s successor,” he said. According to the Pope, “the invisible but deep unity among the Christian churches that are not yet in full and visible communion” is at the center of their episcopal mission. “The church of Rome is committed by the blood shed by the saints Peter and Paul, to serve with love the communion of all churches.”
Financial scandals
Pedro’s Pence Fund has been a source of scandal in recent years, amid revelations that the Vatican Secretariat of State has misunderstood its participation through bad investments, incompetent management and waste. The recent judgment on Vatican’s poor investment on a London property confirmed that the vast majority of Pedro’s Pence contributions funded the Holy See’s budget deficits, not papal charity initiatives, as many parishioners were led to believe. Amid the revelations and impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which closed churches and canceled the traditional basic basket collection on June 29, Pedro de Pence donations fell to 43.5 million euros in 2022-a low not seen since 1986. However, it was compensated by other investment revenues.
Donations increased to 48.4 million euros by 2023 and reached 54.3 million euros last year, according to Pedro’s annual report of Pedro published last week. But the fund incurred expenses of 75.4 million euros in 2024, continuing the tendency of exhaustion. In addition to the budget deficit, the Vatican is also facing a one billion euros deficit on its pension fund. Pope Francis, in the months prior to his death, warned that the fund would be unable to fulfill his medium term obligations. Unlike other countries, the Holy See does not issue titles or charge its residents’ income tax to perform its operations, depending on donations, investments and revenue generated by Vatican museums and sales of stamps, coins, publications, among other initiatives. Vatican authorities expect that, under the pontificate of Leo XIV, with new financial controls in force and an American mathematician directing to the Holy See, donors believe that their money will not be poorly spent or misunderstanding.
Posted by Luisa Cardoso
*With information from Estadão Content
