Vatican Radio 4/19/2012:
“Each year the wish list
gets longer and longer..its' really a wonderful opportunity for the Pope and he
responds throughout the world! He doesn't restrict it" says Bishop Michael
Bransfield of Charleston-Wheeling, West Virginia, President of the US charitable
organisation the Papal Foundation.
They are the lay Catholic men and women from across the US who each year gift the Holy Father a 'wish list', in short the funds to carry out or sponsor charitable works that are particularly dear to him. On Saturday the Foundation members - who are known as Stewards of St. Peter - will meet with the Holy Father and present him a donation of over 8 million dollars to fund projects throughout the world.
Bishop Bransfield who is accompanying the Stewards on their annual pilgrimage to the See of St. Peter, says they “see this as a vocation, they see this as their ability to help the Holy Father to do things that otherwise he simply wouldn’t be able to do”...
Q: Quite a big difference in the case of the Papal Foundation, how did it all begin?
A: “Early in the 1980’s JPII had a lot of charities that he was not able to fund and a lot of concerns in Easter Europe and throughout the world. So Cardinals and Archbishops who were his friends…Cardinal Krol and Cardinal McCarrick got together and set up a foundation, it started in Philadelphia but immediately spread throughout our country because the Archbishops and Cardinals backed them up and brought in members”.
Q So how does it work?
A: “They put together this organisation and asked these people, who really are from all over the States, to give a million dollars each that would stay in the United States and the money that came from that, the income and different grants would come to the Holy Father for the poor of the world and for his charities or works that he wanted done. [The Pope] sends a list over and in November we meet in Washington and its reviewed by the grants committee and then again by the board and they approve what they can fund and what they can do for the Holy Father because the wish list gets longer and longer”.
They are the lay Catholic men and women from across the US who each year gift the Holy Father a 'wish list', in short the funds to carry out or sponsor charitable works that are particularly dear to him. On Saturday the Foundation members - who are known as Stewards of St. Peter - will meet with the Holy Father and present him a donation of over 8 million dollars to fund projects throughout the world.
Bishop Bransfield who is accompanying the Stewards on their annual pilgrimage to the See of St. Peter, says they “see this as a vocation, they see this as their ability to help the Holy Father to do things that otherwise he simply wouldn’t be able to do”...
Q: Quite a big difference in the case of the Papal Foundation, how did it all begin?
A: “Early in the 1980’s JPII had a lot of charities that he was not able to fund and a lot of concerns in Easter Europe and throughout the world. So Cardinals and Archbishops who were his friends…Cardinal Krol and Cardinal McCarrick got together and set up a foundation, it started in Philadelphia but immediately spread throughout our country because the Archbishops and Cardinals backed them up and brought in members”.
Q So how does it work?
A: “They put together this organisation and asked these people, who really are from all over the States, to give a million dollars each that would stay in the United States and the money that came from that, the income and different grants would come to the Holy Father for the poor of the world and for his charities or works that he wanted done. [The Pope] sends a list over and in November we meet in Washington and its reviewed by the grants committee and then again by the board and they approve what they can fund and what they can do for the Holy Father because the wish list gets longer and longer”.
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