Pope Francis asked this Saturday that fundraising for the missions of the Catholic Church be guided by spirituality to prevent corruption, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The leader of the Catholic Church addressed the national directors of the Pontifical Missionary Societies of the Vatican, which raise funds for missions in developing countries, specifically supporting the construction of churches and the training of priests and nuns.
Francis emphasized that fundraising cannot be considered a business and should be guided by the goal of spreading the gospel.
“Please don’t reduce papal mission societies to money,” Francis urged, emphasizing that it is a “means” that is “more than money.”
The Pope also warned that “if you lack spirituality and [a recolha de donativos] it’s just business, corruption will show up immediately”, recalling that “many stories of alleged corruption have been reported in the name of the missionary nature of the Church”.
According to the AP, the pope deviated from a previously prepared speech and apparently referred to a recent AP investigation into financial transfers by the American branch of the Pontifical Mission Societies.
This investigation revealed that the former official spent $17 million (€15.8 million) in donations and private equity fund donations related to agricultural investment in Africa.
The Vatican says it’s trying to clear things up with the US branch, which the AP says has legal backing.
The new management of American Works conducted a legal review of the transfers and concluded that they were approved under the authority of the previous administration.
In any case, he replaced the directors and employees of the plant, who approved the transfers, so that the incident would not happen again.
In response to the AP investigation, Rev. Andrew Small, former director of operations in the United States and now “number two” on a child protection advisory board set up to respond to church sexual abuse, defended the translations as consistent with the mission of the organization and the Church.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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