Pope sends Vatican aid to Katrina victims

CASTELGANDOLFO, Italy (Reuters) – Pope Benedict announced
on Saturday he had asked the Vatican’s central charity
organization, Cor Unum, to coordinate Roman Catholic aid for
the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

“We have all been pained in the last few days by the
disaster caused by the hurricane in the United States of
America, particularly in New Orleans,” Benedict said during his
Sunday address.

“I have asked the president of Cor Unum to give to those
hit evidence of my closeness to them,” he told hundreds of
people gathered outside his summer residence near Rome.

The pope also prayed for the hundreds of Iraqis killed in
Baghdad last week during a stampede in a huge crowd of Shi’ite
pilgrims caused by fears of a suicide bomber in their midst.

Cor Unum, which means “One Heart” in Latin, helps to
coordinate Vatican relief funds but tends to operate separately
from wealthy national churches and large dioceses.

The U.S. Catholic Church, the religion’s wealthiest, would
be organizing its own fundraising campaign.

The German-born pontiff gave no further details about the
Cor Unum aid.