Pope expresses solidarity with Haitians, Coptics

(January 10, 2010) Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday expressed his closeness with the people of Haiti “a year after the terrible earthquake, which was unfortunately followed by a grave cholera epidemic.” He expressed his solidarity while addressing a large crowd that had gathered in St. Peter’s Square in Rome to recite the weekly midday ‘Angelus’ prayer with him More than 1 million people remain homeless in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and cholera has killed more than 2,400 people nationwide since October. The Pontiff said he has sent the president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council ‘Cor Unum’, Cardinal Robert Sarah to Haiti to express his “constant closeness and that of the whole church” to the people there. The Pontifical Council "Cor Unum," coordinates the Catholic Church’s charity and development operations worldwide.
Present at Sunday’s ‘Angelus’ prayer were also a group of some 200 Italian Parliamentarians along with a group of Coptic Christians, in a show of support for religious freedom. A terrorist attack at a Coptic church in Alexandria, Egypt, on Jan. 1 claimed the lives of 23 and wounded some 80, an act denounced by the Pope on January 2^nd. "I greet the group of Italian Parliamentarians present here, and I thank them for their commitment, together with others of their peers, in favour of religious liberty," the Pope said. "With them, I also greet the Coptic faithful here present and I renew to them my closeness." The delegation released a statement calling for religious liberty, and exhorting national and international institutions to take concrete steps to combat anti-Christian sentiments.