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The election of Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff, could mark a turning point in fixing the Vatican’s deeply troubled finances, according to a recent report from AP News.
The Vatican is currently grappling with a €50 – 60 million ($57 – 68 million) structural deficit, a €1 billion ($1.14 billion) pension shortfall, and a donor base increasingly skeptical after years of financial scandal and bureaucratic lack of transparency, AP reported.
Pope Leo, born in Chicago and known for his hands-on leadership and resourcefulness while serving as a bishop in Peru, steps into this financial storm with both pastoral and administrative experience, according to the report. His American identity is already shifting donor expectations.
“I think the election of an American is going to give greater confidence that any money given is going to be cared for by American principles, especially of stewardship and transparency,” said Father Roger Landry, director of the Pontifical Mission Societies, the Vatican’s main missionary fundraising body in the US.
AP’s report said that many US donors had grown disillusioned during Pope Francis’ papacy, even as American generosity remained consistent. Ward Fitzgerald, president of the Papal Foundation, stressed that modern Catholic donors — especially younger ones — want transparency.
Pope Francis’ 12-year pontificate initiated long-overdue reforms, including the establishment of a financial oversight council and a corruption trial that exposed significant internal failings. The Secretariat of State, the Vatican’s top administrative office, lost control over its own assets following a botched real estate investment in London that became a symbol of Vatican mismanagement.
But as Pope Francis’ health declined, that same office returned to prominence, leading a new Vatican fundraising commission launched during his hospitalization. The commission includes no Americans and has no external oversight, raising red flags.
“There are no Americans on the commission,” Fitzgerald said. “I think it would be good if there were representatives of Europe and Asia and Africa and the United States.”
Despite these tensions, Pope Leo brings a credible record of practical charity and disciplined spending. In Chiclayo, Peru, he revitalized local Caritas programs, opened a shelter for Venezuelan migrants, and raised funds for COVID-19 oxygen plants. In one viral moment, hours after his election, he stood in rubber boots in a flooded Peruvian street launching a campaign to aid flood victims.
As a former math major and two-time superior of the global Augustinian order, Pope Leo brings a head for numbers and direct experience with balance sheets, according to the report.
“He has a very good interest and also a very good feeling for numbers,” said Father Franz Klein, an economist with the Augustinians who worked with him in Rome.
“I have no worry about the finances of the Vatican in these years because he is very, very clever,” he added.
Known for his practical approach, the new pope once taught himself to repair broken-down parish vehicles using YouTube tutorials, according to AP.
During his time leading the Augustinians, he also helped create a global foundation to support provinces in need. By the end of 2023, the fund had nearly €1 million in assets and supported sustainable projects in Africa, including a rehabilitation center for former child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
