MEETING OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL OF THE POPULORUM PROGRESSIO
FOUNDATION FOR LATIN AMERICA (GUAYAQUIL, ECUADOR, JUNE 22-25,
2015)
The annual meeting of the board of directors of the Populorum
Progressio Foundation for Latin America, which is entrusted to the
Pontifical Council Cor Unum since its inception in 1992 by St.
John Paul II, will be held from June 22nd to the 25th in Guayaquil,
Ecuardor. During the meeting, the board members will be called to assess
the funding of projects for the year 2015 in favor of the indigenous,
mestizo and African-American communities and farmers of Latin America
and the Caribbean. The projects that are already submitted for the
Foundation’s consideration will be more than 100.
The board members are: Archbishop Edmundo Luis Flavio Abastoflor Montero
of La Paz (Bolivia) and president of the administrative council;
Archbishop Antonio Arregui Yarza of Guayaquil (Ecuador), vice president
and host of the meeting; His Eminence Cardinal Nicolás de Jesús López
Rodríguez, Archbishop of Santo Domingo; Archbishop Óscar Urbina Ortega
of Villavicencio (Colombia); Archbishop Murilo Sebastião Ramos Krieger
of São Salvador de Bahia (Brazil); Archbishop Javier Augusto Del Río
Alba of Arequipa (Peru) and Mons. Segundo Tejado Muñoz, Under-Secretary
and representative of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum within the
board of directors.
The meeting will be an opportunity to reflect on the most effective ways
to carry out the mandate of the Foundation, especially in favor of the
indigenous, campesinos and African American communities. In fact, the
Encyclical Laudato Si wishes to promote a new awareness and
responsibility for the safeguard of creation, but also towards a model
of integral development of the person framed within the human ecology or
in relation to the environment in which the person lives. The Foundation
works in such direction and will evaluate particularly the projects that
are capable of combining human development and the natural environment
of the areas in which they will be implemented.
To date, the projects carried out by the Foundation are more than 4
thousands for a total of over 35 millions of allocated funds. The
projects are characterized by a participatory approach on the part of
the local communities and are addressed to different sectors:
agriculture and livestock; crafts and micro-enterprises; infrastructures
for drinking water; training and educational facilities; health;
construction, etc.
Among the greatest supporters of the Populorum Progressio
Foundation, in addition to individual investments, includes especially
the Italian Bishops’ Conference.
Bollettino della
Sala Stampa BO498, June 22, 2015
