Pope Francis has asked the educational foundation Scholas Occurrentes to turn down a donation totaling 16,666,000 pesos — nearly $1.2 million. His reason? In part, because "I don't like the 666," Francis reportedly wrote in a postscript of his note to the Argentina-based foundation. In the Bible, the number 666 is deemed the "number of the beast," or the devil's number.
Now, the 666 was far from the only reason Francis pushed the organization — which touts itself as "an international organization of pontifical right approved and raised by Pope Francis" — to reject the donation. The man behind the money was Argentine President Mauricio Macri, a man with whom The Guardian reports Francis has long had a "frosty relationship," largely over the center-right president's austerity measures.
The organization has heeded Francis' request and returned the donation, citing the "confusion" caused by those trying to "misrepresent this institutional gesture" as an improvement in relations between Francis and Macri.
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