Pope Francis Creates New Foundation Promoting Principles of "Fratelli tutti"

The foundation was proposed by Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, O.F.M. Conv., to support the work of the Fabric of St. Peter, the office responsible for the conservation and maintenance of St. Peter’s Basilica and the surrounding area.

Pope Francis named Gambetti in February as archpriest of St. Peter’s Basilica, vicar general for Vatican City State, and president of the Fabric of St. Peter.

Gambetti, who received the cardinal’s red hat in November 2020, was general custos, or head, of the convent attached to the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi from 2013 to 2020.

The 56-year-old Franciscan cardinal will oversee the new foundation.

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The Vatican said in March that a commission overseeing reform of the office managing St. Peter’s Basilica had completed its work.

In June 2020, Pope Francis named a commissioner to reform the administration of the Fabric, where documents and computers were seized at the request of judicial authorities.

The decision to appoint a commissioner was made following a report by the Vatican’s auditor general, which is responsible for monitoring offices of the Roman Curia and Vatican City State for financial corruption.

A Vatican press release issued on Dec. 15 said that the Fratelli tutti Foundation had three main aims: “to support and design pathways of art and faith”; “to invest in cultural and spiritual formation through events, experiences, pathways, and spiritual exercises”; and “to promote dialogue with cultures and other religions on the themes of the pontiff's latest encyclicals, in order to build a ‘social alliance.’”

It said that the new foundation would also assume responsibility, “in the symbolic embrace of the colonnade of St. Peter’s Basilica,” for “the weakest people, the outsider and the foreigner, the different and the marginalized,” offering “solutions in the light of the Gospel and the papal Magisterium.”