Vatican officials, aid workers discuss new projects for Middle East

Published: 2007-01-29

ROME (CNS) -- Vatican officials and church aid workers discussed new projects and reconstruction efforts in Lebanon, Romania and Egypt. Participants at a Jan. 23-24 meeting of the Vatican coordinating body of church funding agencies for Eastern churches, known by its Italian acronym ROACO, reviewed proposals to fund projects for Christian communities in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Participants studied a report on Lebanese church properties which had been damaged severely during the war with Israel last summer. They discussed how to help Lebanese church communities repair the dozens of damaged churches. Archbishop Antonio Veglio, secretary of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, told participants there was "a constant hemorrhaging" of Christians out of Lebanon. Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, papal nuncio to Egypt and the Arab League, said Christians were subtly discriminated against in Egypt where Christians make up one percent of the population.

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