Can an American Pope apply American fundraising and standards to repair Vatican finances in difficulty?

As a bishop in Peru, Robert Prevost was often on the lookout for used cars that he could buy cheap and repair himself for use in the parishes around his diocese. With really broken cars, he watched YouTube videos to learn how to repair them.

This kind of mentality of not being without buttocks could serve Pope Leo XIV although he tackles one of the greatest challenges to which the Pope: the chronicle of the High Catholic Church.

As an adult in mathematics born in Chicago, a canon lawyer and twice superior to his world augustinian religious order, the 69 -year -old Pope can probably read a balance sheet and give meaning to the complicated finances of the Vatican, which has long been mired in the scandal. That he can change the financial culture of the Holy See, consolidate Pope Francis’ reforms and convince the donors that their money is wisely.

Leo already has one thing for him: his American. American donors have long been the support system for the economic life of the Holy See, funding everything, papal caritative projects abroad to the restorations of the Saint-Pierre basilica at the house. The election of Leo as the first American pope sent an excitement shock through American Catholics, some of which had embittered a donation to the Vatican after years of implacable stories of mismanagement, corruption and scandal, according to interviews with the best Catholic fundraising, philanthropes and church management experts.

“I think that the election of an American will give more confidence than any money given will be taken care of by the American principles, in particular stewardship and transparency,” said Reverend Roger Landry, director of the Vatican missionary fundraising operation in the United States, pontifical mission companies.

“There will therefore be a great hope that American generosity will first be appreciated and then, then, will be well managed,” he said. “It has not always been the circumstance, especially lately.”

Reforms and unfinished affairs

Pope Francis was elected in 2013 under the mandate to reform the opaque finances of the Vatican and increased during his pontificate of 12 years, mainly on the regulatory front. With the help of the late Australian Cardinal George Pell, Francis has created a Ministry of the Economy and a Council made up of clergy members and profane experts to supervise the Vatican finances, and he fought the bureaucracy dominated by Italian to comply with international accounts and budgetary standards.

He authorized a trial of historical corruption, but deeply problematic, on a sloppy real estate investment which condemned a formerly powerful Italian cardinal. And he punished the State Secretariat of the Vatican which had enabled the London agreement to pass by stripping it of its ability to manage its own assets.

But Francis has left unfinished affairs and his global file, at least according to some in the donor community, is far from being positive. The criticisms cite the frustrated reform efforts of Pell and the dismissal of the very first verifier general of the Holy See, who says that he was ousted because he had discovered too many financial acts.

Despite the imposing years of tightening and hiring of the belt, Francis left the Vatican in the somewhat disastrous financial strait: the main stop of stopping budget deficits, known as Peter’s Pence, is almost exhausted, according to the officials. The deficit of 1 billion euros ($ 1.14 billion) of the pension fund that Pell warned about ten years ago remains untreated, although Francis has planned reforms. And the structural deficit continues, the Holy See recording a deficit of 83.5 million euros ($ 95 million) in 2023, according to its latest financial report.

While Francis’ health was getting worse, there were signs that his efforts to reform the medieval financial culture of the Vatican were not really stuck either. The same State Secretariat that Francis had punished for losing tens of millions of euros in the London Scandal Property Agreement ended up directing a new Papal fundrassing commission which was announced when Francis was at the hospital. According to its founding charter and its statutes, the Commission is headed by the State Secretariat, the assessor, is entirely made up of Italian officials of the Vatican without expertise in collecting professional funds and has no required financial monitoring.

For some Vatican observers, the Commission feels the State Secretariat led by the Italian, taking advantage of a sick pope to announce a new flow of uncontrolled donations in its chests after its 600 million euros ($ 684 million) were removed and granted to another office to manage as a punishment for London fiasco.

“There are no Americans at the Commission. I think it would be good if there were representatives of Europe and Asia and Africa and the United States to the Commission, “said Ward Fitzgerald, president of the Papal Foundation based in the United States. It is made up of wealthy American Catholics that since 1990 has provided more than $ 250 million (219 million euros) in grants and scholarships with the Pope’s global charitable initiatives.

Fitzgerald, who spent his real estate investment career, said that American donors – in particular the young generation – expect transparency and responsibility for the beneficiaries of their money, and know that they can find non -Vatican Catholic charities who meet these expectations.

“We would touch on transparency before starting to solve the problem,” he said.

That said, Fitzgerald said that he had not seen any important reference in the will of donors to finance the specific donations to the Papal Foundation project during the Pontificate Francis. Indeed, the American donations to the Vatican on the whole have remained more or less consistent, even if the offers of other countries have decreased, the American bishops and the individual Catholics contributing more than any other country in the two main channels to make a donation to papal causes.

A head for figures and fundraising

Francis moved Prévost to take control of the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, in 2014. Residents and colleagues priests say that he has constantly rallyed funds, food and other rescue products for the most necessary experience – who suggests that he knows how to collect funds when times are tight and how to spend wisdom.

He strengthened the local charity of Caritas in Chiclayo, with parishes creating food banks that have worked with local businesses to distribute given food, said Reverend Fidel Purisaca Vigil, Diocesan spokesperson.

In 2019, Prevost inaugurated a shelter on the outskirts of Chiclayo, Villa San Vicente de Paul, to house desperate Venezuelans migrants who had fled the economic crisis of their country. The migrants still remember him, not only to give them shelter and their children, but to have brought living chickens obtained from a donor.

During the COVVI-19 pandemic, PREVOST launched a campaign to collect funds to build two oxygen plants to provide harshly affected residents in oxygen. In 2023, when massive rains flooded the region, he personally brought food in the flooding area.

In the hours following his elections of May 8, the videos became viral on the social networks of Prevost, carrying rubber boots and holding in a flooded street, launching a solidarity campaign, “Peru gives a helping hand”, to collect funds for flood victims.

Reverend Jorge Millán, who lived with Prevost and eight other priests for almost a decade in Chiclayo, said that he had a “mathematical” mentality and knew how to do the work. Prévost would always be looking for used cars to buy for use around the diocese, said Millán, noting that the bishop had to travel long distances to reach all her herd or go to Lima, the capital.

Prevost liked to repair them himself, and if he did not know what to do, “he was looking for solutions on YouTube and he would find them very often,” Millán told the Associated Press.

Before going to Peru, Prévost served two mandates as previous, or superior general, of the Augustinian world order. Although the local provinces of the Order are financially independent, PREVOST was responsible for examining their balance sheets and supervised the budgeting and investment strategy of the headquarters in Rome, said that Reverend Franz Klein, the economist based in Rome of the Order who worked with Prevost.

The Augustinian campus is on first-rate real estate just outside the Saint-Pierre square and completes income by renting its picturesque terrace to media organizations (including AP) for the Vatican Major events, including the Conclave which elected Leo Pope.

But even Prevost has seen the need for better fundraising, especially to help the poorest provinces. Towards the end of his 12 -year term and with his support, a committee proposed the creation of a foundation, Augustinians around the world. At the end of 2023, he had 994,000 euros ($ 1.13 million) and helped finance autonomous projects across Africa, including a center to rehabilitate former soldiers in Congo.

“He has a very good interest and also a very good feeling for the figures,” said Klein. “I do not worry about the Vatican finances during these years because it is very, very intelligent.”

This story was initially presented on Fortune.com