Pope to donate $250,000 to rebuild Haitian school

Vatican City, Jul 16, 2010 / 08:45 am

An annual meeting of the Populorum Progressio Foundation dedicated to allotting funds to projects for vulnerable people across Latin America and the Caribbean will take place later this month. During the meeting, a substantial donation will be made in the Pope's name for the rebuilding of a Haitian school damaged in January's earthquake.

The administrative council of the Populorum Progressio Foundation, formed of Catholic prelates from across Latin America and representatives of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum," will meet this year in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic from July 20-23.

During what is their first annual meeting in a Caribbean nation, they will be discussing the allocation of funds destined to finance projects that aid indigenous, mestizo and African-American laborers in the Caribbean and throughout Latin America.

According to the communique released by "Cor Unum" regarding the event, this year's encounter carries on the tradition of meeting in areas that permit "direct contact with the concrete reality of the various areas of the continent and, at the same time, make the activities of the Foundation in particular churches known."

At the meeting, 230 projects from 20 different countries from Mexico to Bolivia, Brazil and the Antilles will be presented. Besides paperwork, the group will visit Church-run aid camps in Haiti and will celebrate Mass with the local Church community.

Also on that day, they will meet with representatives from humanitarian aid organizations and visit Caritas' national headquarters, where the president of “Cor Unum,” Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, will make a $250,000 donation on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI towards rebuilding St. Francis de Sales school in Port-au-Prince. The school was destroyed in the devastating earthquake last January.

The statement also announced that a second donation of an unspecified amount will be delivered in the Holy Father's name to the local chapter of Caritas that same evening.

Since its creation in 1992, the Populorum Progressio Foundation has worked to aid "integral development" in the poorest of areas through projects in the areas of production, communal infrastructure, education, health and construction.