There is a change on the horizon for the papal
household: The Pope’s current almoner, the Spanish archbishop Félix del
Blanco Prieto could hand in his resignation in the next few days. Benedict XVI has apparently decided to replace him with Guido Pozzo, who is currently secretary of the Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei. For the last three years Pozzo has been involved in the tough task of keeping dialogue between the Holy See and the Society of St. Pius X (founded by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre) going.
Pozzo, from Trieste, was born in 1951 and was ordained a diocesan priest in 1977. Ten years later he served in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, led by the then cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. He taught at the Lateran University and was assistant secretary of the International Theological Commission.
Benedict XVI nominated him secretary of Ecclesia Dei on 8 July 2009, on the day he issued the Motu Proprio “Ecclesiae unitatem”, placing the commission in charge of dialogue with the Lefebvrians and relations with traditionalist communities which continued to celebrate the ancient mass, under the aegis of the former Holy Office.
The Pope’s almoner is an archbishop who is a member of the papal family’s ecclesiastical staff and is always present in ceremonies and audiences, alongside the Prefect of the Papal Household.
The role dates back to the early centuries of the Church, when deacons first and then one or more of the members of the Pope’s family had the task of handing out the alms. In a papal bull issued by Innocence III (1198-1216), the almoner is referred to a san already existing figure, while the role of the Office of Papal Charities was established by Gregory X in the eighth century.
The papal almoner has the dignity of archbishop and since the era of Leo XIII (1878-1903) this figure has also been responsible for handing out apostolic blessings on parchment paper, authenticating them with his signature. All revenues from the issue of blessing “certificates” go to the Pope’s charity.
The current almoner, del Blanco Prieto, who came to the Vatican after serving as apostolic nuncio in a number of countries, explained to Vatican daily broadsheet L’Osservatore Romano how the papal charities office caries out its work: “Requests are usually made by individuals and families. In order to take them into consideration they must be stamped by the local parish priest. After this, we examine the questions, check whether the person or family have already received any benefits, then we decide on the sum to be donated, which could be between 100 and 500 Euros. As previously mentioned, it is mostly individuals who turn to us. We prefer to help single people and families rather than big projects. We also get requests from institutions, each of which has its own praiseworthy objective; but we are here to offer a little but concrete helping hand, not to finance large projects. These can be financed in other ways.”