Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Populorum Progressio Foundation, 24 June 2019

PRESS RELEASE

Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Populorum Progressio Foundation for Latin America and the Caribbean

(Bogotá, Colombia June 24th-26th, 2019)

 

The annual meeting of the Board of Directors of the Populorum Progressio Foundation takes place in its headquarters in Bogota’ on June 24th -26th. The main purpose of this meeting is to discuss the funding of the organization. For this reason, the Board will examine 138 projects from 17 countries from Latin America and the Caribbean. To summon these projects, special emphasis will be given to the countries that belong to the Panamazonía, where the Foundation has developed 638 projects which have helped 40 indigenous communities as well as a significant number of peasants and afro-descendant communities. Special emphasis will be given to Venezuela and Central America.

In addition to Cardinal Peter K.A. Turkson,  Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and President of the Foundation, the members of the Board of Directors, the Apostolic Nuncio to Colombia Msgr. Luis Mariano Montemayor, Cardinal Rubén Salazar Gómez, Archbishop of Bogotá and  Bishop Juan Carlos Cárdenas Toro, New General  Secretary of CELAM will also attend  the meeting.

There will also be a Committee for Charitable Action in the Third World of the Italian Episcopal Conference, whose involvement helps to achieve the funding of most projects. For the first time a committee representing the organization Cross Catholic Outreach will participate in the event. This organization has been linked to the funding of the Populorum Progressio Foundation projects since 2018 with the purpose of improving integral human development of the poorest communities in Latin America and the Caribbean. Dr. Juan Gómez Martínez, former Ambassador of Colombia to the UN and the Holy See, will also attend the meeting.

50 years of the Populorum Progressio Fund

This fact is important for the Foundation, as after the Pope Paul VI visited Colombia in 1968, the Populorum Progressio Fund was established on March 26th, 1969, on the second anniversary of the Encyclical Populorum Progressio. The aim of this foundation was to help poor farmers, to promote an agrarian reform, social justice and peace in Latin America. In 1992, Pope John Paul II established the Populorum Progressio Foundation as a continuation to this fund. The Pope considered it as a demonstration of the Christian desire for fraternity and true solidarity, as indicated in the founding charter. For more information visit: www.populorumprogressio.org

The meeting of the Board of Directors in 2019 was made to renew its commitment, underlining what Pope Francis had previously said about this Institution: "The Foundation was established to be a sign of the closeness of the Pope and of the Church to all, especially those communities that are marginalized and considered disposable, deprived of basic human rights and sharing at the table of the common good, as happens unfortunately with the native peoples, mestizos and African-Americans in Latin America. The Church is called to be close and to touch in the neighbour the flesh of Christ, which is also the measure of Christ’s judgement (cf Mt 25)”.

24 June 2019