Vatican-funded projects to focus on coronavirus

A Vatican foundation for Latin America will fund 168 projects in 23 countries, with the majority of projects focusing on the effects the coronavirus pandemic has had in the area.

According to a press release, 138 of the Populorum Progressio Foundation's social projects this year will aim to help mitigate the short- and medium-term effects of COVID-19 in communities in Latin America.

Another 30 food aid projects requested by Pope Francis are already underway and organized in collaboration with the Vatican Commission COVID-19.

The foundation's board met in virtual meetings on July 29 and 30 to approve all projects.

"Faced with this crisis of global proportions that we are experiencing, these projects are intended to be a tangible sign of the Pope's charity, as well as an appeal to all Christians and people of good will to practice the virtue of charity and solidarity ever better, ensuring that during this pandemic "no one is left behind", as requested by the Holy Father Pope Francis ", said the press release.

The Populorum Progressio Foundation for Latin America and the Caribbean was established by St. John Paul II in 1992 "to help poor peasants and promote agrarian reform, social justice and peace in Latin America".

John Paul II founded the charity institution during the fifth centenary of the beginning of the evangelization of the American continent.

In his founding letter, he affirmed that charity "must be a gesture of the Church's loving solidarity towards the most abandoned and those most in need of protection, such as indigenous peoples, peoples of mixed racial origins and African Americans".

"The Foundation aims to collaborate with all those who, aware of the suffering conditions of the Latin American peoples, wish to contribute to their integral development, according to a just and appropriate application of the social teaching of the Church", wrote the pope in 1992.

The Dicastery for the promotion of integral human development oversees the foundation. Its president is Cardinal Peter Turkson. It receives substantial support from the Italian bishops.

The operational secretariat of the foundation is located in Bogota, Colombia.