Vatican questions $17 million donation to impact investing fund, moves to prevent similar gifts

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican is seeking clarity after the former director of its U.S. missionary fundraising office oversaw the transfer of at least $17 million of its donations into a new non-profit and private equity fund that he created. The new management of The Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States, which raises money for the Catholic Church in the developing world, has written off most of that money – the $10.2 million it invested in the private equity fund — as a loss since “there is no timeline and no guarantee of investment return,” according to its latest financial statement. The money was transferred from TPMS-US into a New York-based non-profit, Missio Corp., and a private equity fund created by the Rev. Andrew Small while he was the national director of TPMS-US from 2011-2021.