VATICAN - Official presentation of the Good Samaritan Foundation to support needy persons suffering from AIDS entrusted to the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Workers

Monday, 20 December 2004

Vatican City (Fides Service) - In July Cardinal Lozano Barragan, President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Workers share with Fides an important programme to “identify the most urgent needs and distribute resources where they are most needed in Africa” . The project the Good Samaritan Foundation, has been officially presented and is already operative in some African countries and thanks through information supplied by Papal Nuncios and Presidents of Bishops’ Conferences of various regions the most urgent needs are being identified and addressed
The ‘Good Samaritan’ Foundation, endowed with public, canonical and civil legal status has its registered office in Vatican City at the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Health Workers. The purpose of the Foundation is to provide economic support to the sick who are most in need, and in particular those suffering from AIDS.
Since the appearance of this epidemic (in about the 1980s) more than 22 million people in the world have died because of AIDS and at the present time 37,800,000 people live with HIV/AIDS which is one of the most devastating epidemics of our times, a serious and widespread human tragedy and one of the greatest health challenges of our times Cardinal Barragán said.
“People are dying and we must come to their aid”, the Cardinal said at the end of the official presentation of the Foundation.
The Foundation’s legal premises is at the Council. Offerings are welcomed and may be sent to the Vatican Bank Istituto per le Opere di Religione or an international cheque made out to “Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, president of the Good Samaritan Foundation”, Palazzo San Paolo, Vatican City.
(AP) (20/12/2004 Agenzia Fides; Righe:25 Parole:292)


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