Aid to Church in Need becomes Pontifical Foundation
(Dec. 07, 2011) The international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need – ACN,
has been elevated by Pope Benedict XVI to the status of a pontifical foundation.
The decision was enacted by a chirograph, an official document in Latin personally
signed by the Pope. The Holy Father named the prefect of the Congregation for the
Clergy, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, the president of the foundation. He in turn nominated
Baron Johannes Heereman von Zuydtwyck as executive president. The appointments took
effect Dec. 1. The official seat of the foundation is the Vatican but the international
headquarters of ACN will remain in Königstein, near Frankfurt, Germany. The organization
also has 17 national offices in Europe, North and South America and Australia. ACN
is supported by over 600,000 friends and benefactors who finance approximately 5,000
aid projects every year in over 140 different countries. In 2010, the total amount
of donations came to $114 million.