Fulfilling a promise

Beginning today, and until March 21, the President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, His Eminence, Robert Cardinal Sarah is visiting in Guatemala in order to inaugurate a housing complex which includes nineteen houses and a chapel, built to accommodate the needs of nineteen families, thanks to the gift of the Holy Father, offered after the natural disaster that it that country in the Autumn of 2011, in order to demonstrate concretely His Holiness' spiritual closeness to the population of Guatemala who must now face the daunting task of rebuilding their lives.

Tomorrow morning (March 19), Cardinal Sarah will meet with representatives from Caritas Guatemala and from Caritas Arcidiocesana, and in the afternoon,  he will visit the Villa de los Niños, a college for impoverished youth who have been granted bursaries and therefore are able to receive a formal education up to the age of 18 years.

On March 20, Cardinal Sarah will participate in the ceremony of inauguration of nineteen houses built in the area of Cuilapa, a part of the Diocese of Santa Rosa de Lima.  This project, which also includes a chapel within the complex of housing units, was made possible thanks to a gift from the Holy Father, and was brought about through the work of the local Church with the cooperation of the Nunciature in Guatemala which oversaw the various phases of implementation.

As is the case throughout Central America, Guatemala is subject to hurricanes as a result of its geographic location, and therefore is subject to natural disasters which threaten the socio economic stability and leave its population living in conditions of poverty.  Between the months of August and October 2011, as had also occurred in the previous year with typhoon Agatha, copious amounts of torrential rainfall, as well as seismic activity in Guatemala caused considerable damage to the area, and particularly affected the populations in Cuilapa, Chiquimulilla, Taxisco and Guazacapen, forcing thousands of families to abandon their homes.