Christine Schwarzman and her billionaire husband, Stephen, are now in a new social set after getting to meet Pope Francis.
Blackstone Group Chairman and Chief Executive Schwarzman — worth more than $10 billion — and his wife donated $40 million in September to help underprivileged students pay for Catholic school.
Then, days later, they were welcoming Pope Francis to Our Lady Queen of Angels School in East Harlem.
Building a relationship with the Archdiocese of New York has been a long journey for the interfaith couple.
Stephen is Jewish, Christine Roman Catholic, and they got married in 1995 by a rabbi and a priest.
The former Christine Mularchuk — a 1970 graduate of Holy Trinity High School in Hicksville — in 2001 introduced Stephen to the late archbishop of New York, Cardinal Edward Egan.
“Christine is the driving force,” a source who knows them well told The Post. “It was she who arranged everything.”
The media-shy Christine is quite brash, the source said, and knows how to get things done.
Soon after Stephen met Egan, the Schwarzmans began sponsoring students at Catholic schools, including All Hallows and Cardinal Spellman in the Bronx, and starting this year are increasing their endowment.
Stephen requires all of the roughly 300 high school students he and his wife sponsor through the Inner-City Scholarship Fund to submit a letter in the spring describing their biggest achievements, along with their report cards.
These letters (one starts, “This year has been a roller coaster for me, but somehow I got through it”) are kept in a scrapbook in his office.
Stephen writes back to each student.
The couple’s advocacy is in contrast to many Wall Street elites, who instead choose to direct their charitable donations to charter schools.
Christine said during a press conference about their $40 million donation that, while charter schools produce good results, Catholic schools offer moral instruction as well.
“I applaud Christine and Stephen as it gives a clear message to all the other billionaires in the city,” the source who knows them well said.
The Schwarzmans declined comment.