ROME, DEC. 24, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The College of Cardinals is offering the needy of Haiti and Iraq personal donations adding up to €151,875 ($199,000).
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican press office, reported that the cardinals took up the collection during the extraordinary consistory in November.
The sum will be split between the two countries. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Pope’s secretary of state, will send the donation to the respective nuncios, which will distribute it to the poor and sick of each region.
Haiti is enduring a cholera epidemic in the wake of last January’s earthquake that destroyed the capital. Iraq’s Christians, meanwhile, are suffering a series of particularly dramatic attacks.
