The COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Eastern Churches distributes $ 11,7 million in aid

With a North American charity as its main contributor, the Congregation for Eastern Churches' COVID-19 Emergency Fund has distributed more than $ 11,7 million in aid, including food and hospital ventilators in 21 countries where church members live. Eastern Catholics.

The congregation released a dossier on December 22 on projects receiving aid since the emergency fund was announced in April. The lead agencies of the special fund are the Catholic Near East Welfare Association based in New York and the Pontifical Mission for Palestine.

The emergency fund has received money and assets from Catholic charities and episcopal conferences that regularly support projects identified by the congregation. These include the CNEWA, but also the Catholic Relief Services based in the United States, the Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States, the Italian Bishops' Conference, Caritas Internationalis, Aid to the Church in Need, the German Bishops Renovabis and other entities Catholic charities in Germany and Switzerland. .

Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the congregation, delivered the dossier to Pope Francis on 21 December.

"It is a sign of hope at this terrible time," the cardinal told Vatican News on December 22. “It was an effort of the congregation and all the agencies that are helping our churches right now. We are talking about an authentic harmony, a synergy, an exceptional unity on the part of these organizations with one certainty: together we can survive this situation “.

The largest sum of money, more than 3,4 million euros ($ 4,1 million) went to people and institutions in the Holy Land - Israel, the Palestinian territories, Gaza, Jordan and Cyprus - and included the supply of fans, COVID-19 tests and other supplies to Catholic hospitals, scholarships to help children attend Catholic schools and direct food aid to hundreds of families.

The next countries on the list were Syria, India, Ethiopia, Lebanon and Iraq. Aids distributed included rice, sugar, thermometers, face masks and other vital supplies. The fund has also helped some dioceses to purchase the equipment needed to broadcast or broadcast liturgies and spiritual programs.

Aid also went to Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Egypt, Eritrea, Georgia, Greece, Iran, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Turkey and Ukraine