Mental health charity among new causes backed by Harry and Meghan
THE Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Archewell Foundation has named new causes it would be supporting, including an online racial justice movement and mental health charity Mind.
It made the announcement less than a week after their televised two-hour, tell-all primetime show with Oprah Winfrey was broadcast.
During the programme, Meghan told the chat show host she had been suicidal while in the royal family and claimed she received no help after telling staff about her suffering.
She and Harry also made explosive allegations of racist comments about their one-year-old son, Archie.
In an update from the foundation, it said it would be providing support to Colour of Change, Mind, The PressPad Charitable Foundation and URL Media.
UK-based charity Mind was among those who supported Meghan’s openness about her mental health during the interview.
THE Vatican warned that it has nearly depleted its financial reserves from past donations to cover budget deficits over recent years, as it urged continued giving from the faithful to keep the Holy See afloat and Pope Francis’ ministry going.
The Vatican published its 2021 budget in its latest effort at greater financial transparency amid a predicted €50 million budget deficit this year.
The aim is to reassure donors that their money is being well spent, following years of mismanagement that is currently the focus of a Vatican corruption investigation.
Pope Francis’s economy minister, the Reverend Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, said the coronavirus pandemic, which reduced donations as well as revenue from the shuttered Vatican Museums, would contribute to a projected 30 per cent reduction in revenue to €213m in 2021, from €307m in 2019, the last year available.
He noted the Vatican had achieved significant costcutting during the lockdown last year, with drastically reduced travel, consultation fees, conference and assembly costs and putting off unnecessary property repairs and maintenance.
In an interview with Vatican media, Father Guerrero said he expected to further cut expenditures by 8% in 2021, without resorting to layoffs, which Francis opposes.
But even then, the €50m deficit expected for 2021 will require once again dipping into reserves of past donations to cover expenses.
Fr Guerrero confirmed that in 2019, the Vatican used 27.2 million euros in Peter’s Pence reserves to cover its operating costs, on top of the €53.8m in revenue to the Peter’s Pence fund that year.
In 2020, he estimated the Vatican took €40m in Peter’s Pence reserves and that a similar amount was expected in 2021.“The Holy See, let me insist on this, helps the mission of the Holy Father and is supported fundamentally thanks to the contribution of the faithful,” Fr Guerrero said.
“From one side, we can only be grateful for the generosity of the faithful in this very difficult year: in the midst of the difficulties of this time of pandemic they have continued to collaborate because they believe in the mission of the Church and want to support the Holy Father.”
Peter’s Pence funds, usually offered during an annual collection at Mass, are billed as a concrete way to help the pope in his ministry and works of charity but are also used to run the Holy See bureaucracy.
“This recourse to Peter’s Pence reserves in recent years means that the liquidity of the fund is being depleted and with the current crisis it is very likely that in 2022 we will have to resort to some extent to the assets of Apsa,” he said, referring to the Vatican’s central bank, which manages the Holy See’s real estate and other financial investments.
The Peter’s Pence funds have come under scrutiny amid an investigation by Vatican prosecutors into the Secretariat of State’s €350m investment in a London real estate venture, some of which was apparently funded by the Peter’s Pence.
Several Italian brokers and dealers, as well as some Vatican officials, are under investigation on suspicion they fleeced the Holy See of millions in fees.
Earlier this month, the prefect of the Dicastery for Communication, Paolo Ruffini, said the dicastery is open to receiving private donations “to reduce the use of the Holy See’s resources”.