Leo XIV’s Held Closed-Door Meeting with Wealthy American Donors
The evening was organised by the Vatican foundation Borgo Laudato si’, with the Andrea Bocelli Foundation as co-organizer. Employees of the dicasteries of the Holy See, the Governorate of Vatican City State and the offices of the Roman Curia were invited.
Images show that several chairs remained empty. A Vatican employee said that the invitation wasn’t put up on the notice board until the morning of the concert.
The evening consisted of a concert by tenor Andrea Bocelli and an interreligious children’s choir. Leo XIV then gave interviews to the American television networks NBC and Telemundo.
Journalists from other media who were present were not allowed to speak with visitors and were kept under tight control.
The incoming head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, the divorced lawyer Montse Alvarado, was seated in the front row at the public Bocelli event. It is not clear whether she subsequently joined the private dinner with the pope and wealthy American donors.
Who Sat at the Dinner
After the concert, there was a buffet for Vatican employees. Leo XIV joined a different private dinner with a large group of wealthy, predominantly American guests. Bocelli then gave them an additional private concert behind closed doors.
Among the guests was Rudy Giuliani, 81, a former lawyer of U.S. President Donald Trump, who served as mayor of New York from 1994 to 2002.
Others included Venezuelan banker Julio Herrera Velutini, Jewish fundraiser Israel Schachter, and Alex Capecelatro, a homosexual AI entrepreneur. He had already been received in private audience by Leo XIV in December 2025, together with his “husband” and Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez.
The remaining guests were mainly successful entrepreneurs, particularly from Florida and Chicago.
The Organiser of the Dinner
One key figure in organising the evening, including the closed private dinner, was Rev. Manuel Dorantes, who was born in Mexico, raised in Chicago. He has been chief operating officer of Borgo Laudato si’ since late 2024.
Before becoming a priest, Dorantes worked as a journalist for NBC in Chicago.
Borgo Laudato si’s finances are not public. It is a Vatican foundation that operates below the financial radar and in the American way, with private sponsors, sometimes through foundations they have established.
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