Check the destination of the amount raised
A buyer paid this Saturday in Monaco 715,000 euros (about $ 854,000) for the Lamborghini that Pope Francisco had received this year last year. The sale was made by Sotheby’s auction house.
The Lamborghini Huracán, a model that the Italian luxury car manufacturer gave the pontiff a present, was estimated between 250,000 and 350,000 euros in the catalog. It was auctioned for more than double that amount.
Pope Francis had given a blessing and signed his name in the car when he received it in November, when he asked that all the money obtained from the sale be used for charity.
The Holy Father asked for a significant portion of the money to go to the projects of the Pontifical Aid to the Church in Need (AIS) Foundation – specifically to the foundation’s projects aimed at the Christian communities in Iraq. Following the military defeat of the Islamic State, these communities are finally returning to their villages on the Nineveh Plain, from where they were expelled by the terrorists.
Aid to the Church in Need is particularly committed to the safe return of Christians to northern Iraq by launching an ambitious reconstruction plan through the Ninive Reconstruction Committee , which involves all the churches in Iraq. “Receiving the generous offer of Pope Francis comforts us and strengthens the hope of so many of our persecuted Christian brothers in the Middle East,” the foundation writes in a statement.
Sotheby’s did not provide the identity of the buyer.
In addition to the AIS works, the Lamborghini auction will also help an Italian association that welcomes victims of prostitution networks, as well as two other Italian organizations active in Africa.
Vatican News / AFP
