Cardinal Cordes Takes Pope Benedict XVI's Aid to Haiti
(July 17, 2010) Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor
Unum, will visit Haiti next week to deliver the Pope's aid to the quake-stricken nation.
The German cardinal's visit is planned for July 22, which will coincide with a visit
to the neighbouring Dominican Republic where he will take part in a meeting of the
administrative council of the Populorum Progressio Foundation. During the meeting
the foundation will discuss the financing of 20 development projects in Haiti by the
Pope's Foundation. The cardinal, along with representatives of the foundation, "will
make several visit to the refugee camps run by the Catholic Church and will celebrate
a Mass, together with the local church, in one of them," revealed the Vatican in a
press statement. A meeting will be held at the Apostolic Nunciature with the representatives
of humanitarian organizations present in Haiti, and a visit will be made to the headquarters
of the national Caritas. On the occasion of the visit, Cardinal Cordes," in the name
of the Holy Father, is to allocate US$250,000, the first handing over of funds for
the rebuilding of St. Francis de Sales school in Port-au-Prince, destroyed during
the quake. He will also make a donation to Caritas-Haiti, always in the Holy Father's
name."