BISHOPS GIVE $49,000 TO HOLY FATHER FOR CHARITY

VATICAN CITY, NOV 11, 2000 (VIS) - A communique published today announced that during the October 6 penitential celebration in St. John Lateran Basilica, on the occasion of the Jubilee of Bishops, a collection was taken up and given to the Holy Father to be used as he wished for charity. The amount collected was 106.5 million lire, or $49,000.

The Holy Father has decided to give this sum to Boys and Girls Town in Mbare, Rwanda, a center established through the Pontifical Council for the Family in collaboration with the Episcopal Conference of Rwanda and the apostolic nunciature in that country. There are 140 children, victims of the Lake Region conflicts, who live there and another 100 children from nearby towns who visit this center.

"Boys and Girls Town," states the communique, "offers them an integral education, and helps all those who have been deprived of joy and love to experience a climate, proper to a family, of welcome and tenderness. With this munificent gesture, the Holy Father has generously met the needs of so many sorely tried African children ."

...;GIFT; BISHOPS; CHILDREN;...;RWANDA;VIS;20001113;Word: 190;