VATICAN CITY, APR 19, 2005 (VIS) - The just-published annual report on papal charity, prepared by the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum," announced that Pope John Paul's aid to the poor and suffering for 2004 amounted to $9,252,047. This included aid to victims of both the December 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia and the internal conflict in Sudan, as well as monies allocated for projects of two foundations established by the late pope: the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel and the "Populorum Progressio" Foundation.
Cor Unum is the pontifical council charged with dispensing charity to the poor and needy, to victims of natural disasters and to projects approved by the two above-mentioned foundations. According to the 1988 Apostolic Constitution "Pastor Bonus," this financial aid is distributed in the name of the Holy Father "to stimulate the witness to evangelical charity." Money is donated to Cor Unum for papal charity through the "spontaneous generosity of dioceses, religious institutes, parishes, schools and individual faithful."
Relief sent to victims of the December tsunami totaled $460,000. Archbishop Paul Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, was sent by Pope John Paul as his special envoy to Indonesia and Sri Lanka, the two nations struck the hardest by the tsunami, from January 29 to February 4, 2005.
In July 2004 the archbishop visited Darfur, Sudan as the Pope's envoy to express his closeness to the populations struck by the internal conflict in that country and to bring aid for the neediest in the amount of 100,000 euro. A month earlier he visited the people of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, hit hard by devastating floods.
Aid provided by Cor Unum in 2004 for other calamities and urgent situations such as earthquakes, typhoons, floods, wars and refugee situations totaled $992,530. Financial assistance to developing nations for non-urgent matters in fields such as agriculture, education, health care, professional formation and home-building amounted to $2,024,532.
The 2004 contribution to the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel, established in 1984, amounted to $2,296,336 and was earmarked for 169 projects in 9 African countries.
The Populorum Progressio Foundation, which the Pope instituted in 1992, distributed aid last year totaling $1,881,000 to 19 Latin American nations to be used for 231 projects for indigenous peoples, Afro-Americans and poor mestizo farmers.
"With regard to the two Foundations," states the Cor Unum report, "it is important to underscore how Pope John Paul II, in establishing them, wished to give a permanent witness of his love for the populations of the Sahel (region of Africa) and of Latin America, calling on all local Churches, the faithful and men and women of good will to support this precious service aimed at the integral promotion of those peoples."
CON-CU/PAPAL CHARITY 2004/... VIS 20050419 (480)
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