Pope Francis has rejected a hefty charitable donation from Argentina's president Mauricio Macri - partially because the sum included the figure 666.
Earlier this month, the President made a donation of 16,666,000 Argentine pesos (£860,000) to Scholas Occurentes educational foundation, an organisation which is supported by the Pope.
According to the Vatican Insider – a publication specialising in information about the Vatican run by the Italian newspaper La Stampa – Francis wrote to the Argentinian branch of the foundation and requested they returned the money. The Pope apparently also had possible concerns about the donation's political overtones.
“I don’t like the 666,” he wrote in a postscript.
The article claimed, “The Pope's discomfort was difficult to hide and the reaction was almost immediate".
The number 666 is known as the “number of the beast” and some believe it can invoke the Antichrist.
The Pope and the centre-right President already have a tense relationship and hold different views on issues of social policy. The Pope does not support the austerity measures Macri has implemented to avert critical levels of inflation.
In February, a piece looking at Macri's trip to the Vatican was headlined as “Pope gives Macri a frosty 22 minutes.”
