Multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos and his fiancée Lauren Sánchez were received at the Vatican by Pope Francis, Lauren Sánchez posted on her Instagram account on August 15, 2024. The companion of the world's 3rd richest man is vice-president of the Bezos Earth Fund, a fund that fights climate change, among other things.
“It was an honor for Jeff and me to spend time with His Holiness, @franciscus at his home in the Vatican,” Lauren Sánchez commented on the social network. The media personality is in a relationship with Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post.
Bezos’ fortune is currently (as of August 19, 2024) estimated by Forbes magazine at around $200 billion dollars.
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The meeting with the Pope focused in particular on the urgency of climate action, “something he’s passionate about, as are all of us at the Bezos Earth Fund,” the 54-year-old explained. This $10 billion fund, launched in 2010 by Jeff Bezos, is intended to subsidize climate action. It also supports early childhood education initiatives.
“His belief in finding beauty and meaning in everything we do resonated deeply with me,” recounted the fund's vice-president. “His wisdom, warmth, and humor were deeply touching. He reminded us not to take life too seriously, a simple yet powerful reminder to keep lightness in our hearts,” she said.
Finally, Lauren Sánchez praised in her Instagram comment how the Pope encourages priests to read poetry and literature to “stay connected with the human spirit.” This is a reference to the Pope's recent letter “on the role of literature in formation,” published in July by the Holy See.
Jeff Bezos honored at the Vatican in 2022
In October 2022, Jeff Bezos received the “Galileo Prophets of Philanthropy” award at the Vatican. In the presence of Cardinal Turkson, president of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and Cardinal Parolin, the Pope's secretary of state, he outlined his vision for combating climate change, including his Blue Origin project to “move all polluting industries off Earth.”
He also thanked the Catholic Church for its support of education. Jeff Bezos shared an anecdote about his father, who didn’t know how to speak English when he arrived in the United States from Cuba. Two priests who ran a mission in Delaware came to the rescue. Along with 15 other boys, “They housed him and educated him, and gave him opportunities he wouldn’t have had otherwise,” he said.
Zuckerberg, Schmidt, Cook, Musk...
Since his election in 2013, the Pope has on several occasions received leaders of major companies, including Eric Schmidt (Google) on January 15, 2016, Tim Cook (Apple) a week later, and Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, on August 29, 2016. In July 2022, Tesla boss Elon Musk and four of his children were also received by the Pope.
These meetings have sometimes given rise to controversy due to the contradictions between the Church's social doctrine and the ideological positioning of these companies, particularly on issues of bioethics and tax evasion.
