Pope Leo encourages wealthy US Catholics to keep donating

Pope Leo XIV on Saturday encouraged some of the wealthiest US Catholics to keep on giving to support his charitable works, in an audience that confirmed how the election of the first US-born pope has invigorated American Catholics and their donations.

The Chicago-born Leo met with members of The Papal Foundation, a major funder of papal development projects in the developing world, in the Apostolic Palace at the end of their annual pilgrimage to Rome. In his remarks, Leo thanked the foundation stewards for their generosity, which he said had allowed “countless people to experience in a concrete fashion the goodness and kindness of God in their own communities”.

He noted in particular the priests and nuns from poor countries who are able to study at Rome’s pontifical universities to earn advanced degrees thanks to scholarships funded by foundation’s grants, which, combined over the past four decades, have more than $270 million.

While the Papal Foundation contributions to the Vatican remained strong during Pope Francis’ 12-year pontificate. Some US Catholics also soured on donating to the Holy See following years of unrelenting stories of mismanagement, corruption and scandal, as well as Francis’ known criticism of American-style Capitalism.