Foundation allocates more than 5.5 million euros to training priests

The Roman Academic Training Center Foundation (CARF) has allocated more than 5.5 million euros throughout 2023 to train more than 2,000 priests and religious from 80 countries on five continents.

As detailed in the Annual report 2023 recently published, this amount represents 76% of the resources of the entity founded in 1989 at the initiative of Saint John Paul II to promote prayer for vocations, spread the good name of priests and ensure that no religious vocation is left without formation due to lack of resources. This task was entrusted to Blessed Álvaro del Portillo, first Prelate of Opus Dei.

The majority of this aid, over 3 million euros, was allocated for training in Rome, mainly at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. The rest has been invested in paying for ecclesiastical studies at the University of Navarra and the Bidasoa International Seminary, in Spain.

The CARF Foundation has some 5,400 benefactors who, on a recurring or ad hoc basis, or through legacies, offer donations for the development of its activities.

Sometimes, these contributions are made with a specific purpose of supporting pastoral work. For this reason, the Social Action Board of the CARF Foundation has also allocated some resources in 2023 to provide liturgical objects to churches with fewer resources, medical and health aid to priests and religious displaced from their place of origin, or care for those who due to age they need assistance.

Since its inception, more than 800 bishops and superiors of religious institutions have requested the collaboration of the CARF Foundation.

The president of the entity, Fernando Martí Scharfhausen, explains in a letter contained in the Report that last year, in addition to training aid, it was possible to finance the liver transplant of a Haitian priest.