‘I’m more use outside the Church’
An interview with John Studzinski, one of the City's most successful bankers
2 May 2008

John Studzinski is made CBE by the Queen at Buckingham Palace in February this year

Padre Pio has never been more popular. St Pio of Pietrelcina, as he is officially known since he was canonised by Pope John Paul II in 2002, has more than 1,000 miracles attributed to him by the Vatican. Now, 40 years after he died at the age of 82, his body has been exhumed and put on display in Italy, in accordance with custom where the condition of saints' bodes are checked for incorruptibility.

And, with perfect timing, on June 3 three composers - James MacMillan, Roxana Panufnik and Will Todd - will premiere pieces of music at Westminster Cathedral to accompany the post-Communion prayer St Pio wrote.

The evening, funded by the Genesis Foundation, would not be possible without benefactor John Studzinski, an American banker and one of Britain's most generous philanthropists.

Sometimes described as an "enigmatic Renaissance man", this Knight of the Order of St Gregory now heads US private-equity firm Blackstone, having been at HSBC, where he is rumoured to have made £25m in only three years. The New Englander made his name in the financial world after joining Morgan Stanley in 1980, moving to England four years later to build the bank's European division. He has been in this country ever since.

Another word attributed to Studzinski is "Anglophile", although he smiles at the Henry James cliche and points out that, having been here for three decades, and being 52, he could be considered more European than American. Certainly he describes his background as being more attached to the old continent.

"I was born in America but my family come from Polish immigrants and their mindset is still European," he says, "although we were all raised with the American work ethic and entrepreneurial spirit. And of course Catholicism in America among the immigrant community is very real."

He grew up in Peabody, Massachusetts, a town named after the great American philanthropist George Peabody, a link many have commented on.

"It's an interesting analogy," he says, "but I think the press has made it more than I have."

It was the sort of tight-knit community we long for nowadays. "Parts of my family were involved in building the local Catholic church," he says. "Catholicism wasn't just something you did on Sunday, Catholicism was a seven days a week thing. Faith is about upbringing, but also role models, and I've had some good role models in my life about faith, some very strong ones.

"Basil Hume used to say to me the Greek word religios means 'path to God'. In my early days I was conscious of the fact that my path to God was through my religion. It had the element of community, family, it was very strong and nurturing."

He mentions Basil Hume often; the banker was clearly very fond of the cardinal, and they shared a common passion: the homeless. Studzinski has given much time and money to the Passage, the Cardinal Hume Centre, and to the charity Emmaus, which helps previously homeless people to build profitable retail enterprises ("they all break even or make a profit," he points out). Why the homeless in particular?

"I've worked with the homeless since I was 15," he explains. "I've always felt that with homelessness you can have a lot of early wins. If you affect one person's life you've done a lot, because you've affected their dignity and self-esteem, you've affected their self-confidence, and that person may have family and friends, and it will have a positive impact. You can change the planet one person at the time."

Back to the Anglophile comparison, I suggest a comparison with John Paul Getty Jr. Again he rather shrugs it off, although he was fond of his fellow American. "He was just wonderful, so humble and understated," he recalls. "I remember a stove broke down at the Passage and I needed £60,000 or something. Private people should always be respected but I knew of his great generosity, and so I wrote him a short note asking if he would make a donation. The following day the cheque appeared with a note saying, I'm delighted to help. No palaver. No ego. So much about philanthropy is giving with a sense of humility. He was a good example."

Does he get begging letters himself? "Yes," he says, there is a pile. "They're difficult, because you want to help everyone. There are people you try to help, and I do that through my foundation. Some you shouldn't help because they aren't the appropriate person; others I refer to another charity with which I'm familiar."

All the charity work he does, he says, centres around one word: dignity. "I'm interested in human dignity from the standpoint of the homeless, and it's the same with Human Rights Watch and my work with young artists. Part of that is nurturing the creative process, which requires a degree of respect for human dignity. It sort of comes back to this essence of human dignity."

He also cites the interfaith movement and Bede Griffiths, an English Benedictine missionary and friend of C S Lewis who lived in India and developed what is known as "Buddhist Catholicism".

"He wrote a lot. He's one of the first people to write thoughtfully from a humanist point of view about faith and interfaith. I believe the dignity of God is reflected in the individual. To me you see the face of Christ in everyone, whether it's a colleague or a homeless person."

All of this is not what anyone would expect from the typical investment banker. But Studzinki has very much avoided the stereotypical life of conspicuous consumption, directing most of his spare energies towards the Church. He is unmarried, and I ask whether he would ever consider becoming Fr Studzinski. "I've considered it many times. Basil and I had a long talk; he always took the view that I'd be more useful to the Church not being in the Church."

In the past he's been critical of rich people who do not give. Is he still? "I am. But it's easy to be critical of the rich. I do believe that the more you give the richer you are. To be fair to the rich, the newfound billionaires, a lot of them are learning how to give. It's a bit like riding a bicycle, some people are more nervous than others.

"I've had a lot of people see me privately, saying: 'How do you know if you give a million dollars it will be put to good use?' You don't, but you know that if you have a lot of money you can make great changes to society. You just need to get proactive. There are two types of philanthropy: there is proactive project-based philanthropy, and passive chequebook philanthropy. If you want to be more comfortable you should get proactively involved."

At the end it is all about passion.

"When you meet someone who is passionate it rises above words and subtexts," he says. "I get passionate about human rights and the homeless and therefore it's easy for people around me to know it's not about doing it for the social network.

"The Padre Pio evening is about three young composers I believe we should be nurturing and investing in."

He came upon the idea during a funeral service where he had just gone to Communion and stumbled upon Padre Pio's prayer after Communion.

"It dawned on me that there wasn't that much great music written for prayer and meditation after Communion."

What's the attraction of Padre Pio? I ask. He laughs. "Padre Pio was obviously someone who had an extraordinary mystical component. You have all the mystical side and the debate about the stigmata and him being in two places at one, and the gift of fragrance.

"But the thing that was most interesting about him was that he was profound, in terms of what he wrote, a very clear thinking communicator about prayer.

"Today there's an element of him that's very accepting of human dignity, but he's also tough. If you read his books, there's no question he's tough, but there's a strong element of discipline and forgiveness. His prayer talks about the love of God and the humility and fear that we could be abandoned. Padre Pio believed at the end that God would never abandon anyone, that he was always with you.

"One of the things people don't like about certain religious communications is that they don't like grey. People love black and white, young people especially. If you read Padre Pio, it's very black and white, hauntingly black and white. What people respond to are spiritual leaders who walk the walk and talk the talk. He really did live the life."

The same, it could be argued, is true of the man they call "Studz".

For free tickets call 020 7491 7398 or e-mail: tickets@albion-media.co.uk. For more information, visit the Genesis Foundation website