<img src="https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/19/0/0/6158/4107/664/0/75/0/aa2be50_1695138724217-000-33l962g.jpg" srcset=" https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/19/0/0/6158/4107/556/0/75/0/aa2be50_1695138724217-000-33l962g.jpg 556w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/19/0/0/6158/4107/600/0/75/0/aa2be50_1695138724217-000-33l962g.jpg 600w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/19/0/0/6158/4107/664/0/75/0/aa2be50_1695138724217-000-33l962g.jpg 664w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/19/0/0/6158/4107/700/0/75/0/aa2be50_1695138724217-000-33l962g.jpg 700w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/09/19/0/0/6158/4107/800/0/75/0/aa2be50_1695138724217-000-33l962g.jpg 800w" sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 556px, 100vw" alt="Rodolphe Saadé, CEO of CMA CGM and owner of " la="" provence,"="" during="" a="" visit="" by="" emmanuel="" macron="" in="" marseille="" on="" june="" 27,="" 2022."="" width="100%" height="auto">
Rodolphe Saadé, Pope Francis's sponsor? He is in any case the most generous of the donors who have bent over backward to help the Catholic leader's visit to Marseille. And without his funding, the Holy Father's procession in his Popemobile on the Prado on Saturday, September 23, amidst an expected crowd of almost 100,000, might never have taken place.
The fortune of the chairman and CEO of logistics group CMA CGM is no longer a secret. The shipowner has posted a record profit of €25 billion for 2022. In 2023, against a much less favorable backdrop, this figure is set to rise by €3 billion over the first two quarters. Since taking the helm of the company founded by his father, Jacques, Rodolphe Saadé, 53, has also become a key figure in his hometown. As the main partner of Olympique de Marseille football club, he is the largest private employer in the area, with 4,000 of his 155,000 employees working near Vieux-Port.
The group also owns the shipping company La Méridionale, which operates services to Corsica. No high-ranking politician travels to Marseille without greeting him in his monumental tower. The new owner of La Provence newspaper, after a tug-of-war with Xavier Niel (also an individual shareholder in Le Monde), is also expanding his investments in the media: The first issue of La Tribune Dimanche, around Bruno Jeudy, formerly of Paris Match and the first journalist Vincent Bolloré got rid of, is scheduled for October 8.
Less well known is the fact that his family's background is not Roman Catholic, but Greek Orthodox from Syria and Lebanon. When the diocese of Marseille turned to the region's major companies at the end of 2022 to help raise the €2.5 million budget needed to organize the "Mediterranean Meetings," which will bring together 120 young people of all denominations and 70 Catholic bishops from 30 countries around the Mediterranean, as well as the visit of Pope Francis, Saadé accepted.
Donations from other patrons, such as the McCourt Global group, owner of OM, and catering giant Sodexo, followed. In all, private partners are providing half of the event's funding, while individual donations on the eve of the pope's arrival amounted to just €100,000.
The Vatican's decision to speak from Marseille about the major challenges facing the Mediterranean, and to advocate pacification between the various countries and communities along its shores, could not fail to appeal to a group whose history is linked to this sea, and whose prosperity is heavily dependent on political stability around its shores. Cardinal Aveline – archbishop of Marseille and the driving force behind Francis' visit – had previously met with Tanya Saadé, Rodolphe's sister and managing director and president of the CMA CGM Foundation. The cardinal resumed talks with the shipowner before the summer.
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