Pope appoints trusted fellow Augustinian to run Vatican’s charity office

ROME (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Thursday entrusted the Vatican’s charity works to a fellow Augustinian, signaling a line of continuity with Pope Francis who had elevated the centuries-old job to a position of action and prominence that helped define his legacy.

Leo named Archbishop Luis Marín de San Martín, a Spanish member of Leo’s religious order and an undersecretary in the Vatican’s synod office, as his chief almsgiver and prefect of the Vatican’s charity office.

Marín replaces Polish Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, 62, who becomes the Archbishop of Lodz, in Poland, his home archdiocese that has been without an archbishop for a year.

Francis had redefined the role of the Vatican’s chief almsgiver and had asked Krajewski to essentially be the hands-on extension of his own personal acts of charity that he could no longer do himself as pope.

Krajewski became one of Francis’ most visible officials. He installed showers for homeless people around St. Peter’s Square, sat at Francis’ side at public audiences and spearheaded Vatican donations of everything from ambulances for Ukraine to COVID-19 vaccines for a group of transgender prostitutes.

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He once traveled to Lesbos, in Greece, to bring refugee s to Rome and provided 1,600 free calling cards to recently arrived migrants on the island of Lampedusa so they could let their families know they had survived the perilous Mediterranean crossing.

The existence of the Vatican almoner dates back centuries. It is mentioned in a papal bull from the 13th-century Pope Innocent III, and Pope Gregory X, who ruled from 1271-1276, organized it into an official Holy See office for papal charity.

Until Krajewski came along, the almoner was typically an aging Vatican diplomat who was serving his final years before being allowed to retire at age 75. Francis changed that, making it a much more dynamic position that enlisted off-duty Swiss Guards to deliver meals to homeless people on cold nights and write checks to needy people in the name of the pope.

The office funds its work by producing papal parchments, handmade certificates with a photo of the pope that the faithful can buy for a particular occasion — say a wedding, baptism or priestly ordination — with the name of the recipient and an apostolic blessing written in calligraphy.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.