After its new website was launched on November 2016, “Peter’s Pence” is coming to social media, announced the Secretary of State on March 30, 2017; its accounts on Twitter and on the picture-sharing network Instagram were created on March 1.
According to the Secretary of State’s announcement, the goal is:
[to] make known the works of charity accomplished by the solidarity of the faithful throughout the entire world – be they religious, laymen, societies, organizations or foundations – and of the structures that closely collaborate with the pope in the exercise of his mission.
Quoting the Holy See on March 30, 2017, the press agency Zenit gave as an example of a work of charity the “latest initiatives requested by the pope”: the creation of a pediatric hospital in Bangui (Central African Republic) and the “collection for Ukraine”, as well as financial support for the first Catholic university in Jordan.
In 2013, Peter’s Pence made a lot of progress, raising 71.8 million throughout the world, after making 60.6 million the year before. The amount raised is not mentioned on the 2014 report, nor on the 2015 report that was released on March 4. (see DICI#351 March 17, 2017).
The press agency I.Media recalled on March 31, 2017, that Peter’s Pence was created at the loss of the Pontifical States in order to save the Holy See from going bankrupt several times. It was born in 1860 of the initiative of the Catholic faithful, first in England, then in Belgium, France and Austria. At the time, the funds were meant to help the papacy, through the Apostolic Nunciatures. Since 1942, the Pence has been run by the Institute for Works of Religion (IWR)
