News Vatican Information Service 07/16/2010

SUMMARY:

- Populorum Progressio Studies 230 Projects
- Other Pontifical Acts

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POPULORUM PROGRESSIO STUDIES 230 PROJECTS

VATICAN CITY, 16 JUL 2010 (VIS) - The Administrative Council of the Populorum Progressio Foundation will meet from 20 - 23 July to deliberate on the financing of projects in support of poor indigenous, mixed race, African-American, and rural communities of Latin America and the Caribbean.

  The administrative council is composed of the following members: Cardinal Paul J. Cordes, president of the foundation and of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum"; Cardinal Juan Sandoval Iniguez, archbishop of Guadalajara, Mexico and president of the council; Archbishop Edmundo Luis Abastoflor Montero of La Paz, Bolivia; Archbishop Alberto Taveira Correa of Belem do Para, Brazil; Archbishop Antonio Arregui Yarza of Guayaquil, Ecuador; Bishop Jose Luis Astigarraga Lizarralde C.P., apostolic vicar of Yurimaguas, Peru; and Msgr. Segundo Tejado Munoz, representative of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum". Also present at the meeting will be Msgr. Giovanni Battista Gandolfo, the new president of the Italian Episcopal Conference's committee for charitable initiatives in favour of the Third World, which is the main supporter of the Foundation.

  According to a communique made public today, it is emphasized that "this is the first time that the annual meeting of the Administrative Council is being held in a Caribbean country, a geographical area with significant cores of African-American and rural communities".

  A trip to Haiti on 22 July was planned before the earthquake that stuck the nation this past January. Each year, the Foundation finances a large number of projects in that country. The delegation will visit the refugee camps organized there by the Catholic Church and will celebrate Mass, together with a local church, in one of them. In the afternoon, a meeting with representatives of the humanitarian organizations present in Haiti will take place at the Apostolic Nunciature  as well as a visit to the national Caritas organization. During the visit, Cardinal Cordes will deliver $250,000 in the name of the Holy Father, the first instalment of funds for the project of rebuilding the Saint Francois de Sales School in Port-au-Prince, which was destroyed during the earthquake. He will also deliver, always in the name of the Holy Father, an offering to Caritas Haiti.

  The  communique notes that this year, 230 projects pertaining to 20 countries have been presented. They are oriented on tending to needs in various areas of: production (agricultural, artisanal, and microbusiness); communal infrastructure (potable water, latrines, community centres); education (training, school resources, publications); health (preventative campaigns, clinic resources); and construction (educational and health centres).

  The number of projects presented by country are: Brazil (57), Colombia (41), Peru (21), Haiti (20), Ecuador (19), El Salvador (13), Bolivia (8), Guatemala (8), Chile (7), Argentina (6), Dominican Republic (6), Costa Rica (4), Mexico (4), Paraguay (4), Uruguay (3), Venezuela (3), Cuba (2), Panama (2), Antilles (1), and Nicaragua (1).
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OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS

VATICAN CITY, 16 JUL 2010 (VIS) - The Holy Father:

- Appointed Fr. Jose Chittooparambil, C.M.I., as Bishop of the eparchy of Rajkot of the Syro-Malabars (area 109,950, population 15,805,000, Catholics 13,500, priests 149, religious 606), in India. The bishop-elect was born in 1954 in Neeleswaram, India, was ordained to the priesthood in 1985, and is currently Prior General of St. Xavier's Province in Rajkot. He succeeds Bishop Gregory Karotemprel, C.M.I., whose resignation from the pastoral care of the diocese the Holy Father accepted on having reached the age limit.

- Accepted the resignation as Apostolic Administrator of the diocese of Pyay, Myanmar, presented by Bishop Gregory Taik Maung, titular bishop of Bocconia, in accordance with canons 411 and 401 para. 2 of the Code of Canon Law.

- Appointed Fr. Camillus Raymond Umoh as Bishop of the diocese of Ikot Ekpene (area 2,263, population 986,032, Catholics 109,812, priests 93, religious 119), Nigeria. The bishop-elect was born in 1956 in Nto Iblam, Nigeria, was ordained to the priesthood in 1984, and is currently a professor at the Catholic Institute of West Africa in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.

- Appointed Fr. Francis Xavier Yu Soo-il, O.F.M., as Military Ordinary for Korea (Catholics 100,862, priests 96, religious 47). The bishop-elect was born in 1945 in Nonsan, South Korea, took his perpetual vows in 1979, was ordained to the priesthood in 1980, and is currently vicar in the Franciscan house of formation in Seoul, South Korea.
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