According to the 1988 Apostolic Constitution "Pastor Bonus," these funds are distributed in the name of the Holy Father "to stimulate the witness to evangelical charity." Money is donated to Cor Unum for papal charity through the "spontaneous generosity of dioceses, religious institutes, parishes, schools and individual faithful."
The report also cited that relief sent to victims of the December tsunami totaled $460,000. Pope John Paul II sent Archbishop Paul Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, to Indonesia and Sri Lanka, the two nations struck the hardest by the tsunami, shortly after the disaster--from January 29 to February 4, 2005.
The archbishop also visited Darfur, Sudan in July 2004 to express the pope’s closeness to the populations struck by the internal conflict in that country and to bring aid for the neediest citizens, topping 100,000 euro.
In June, he had visited the people of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, hit hard by devastating floods.
The report noted that aid for other calamities and urgent situations such as earthquakes, typhoons, floods, wars and refugee situations totaled $992,530, and that, financial assistance to developing nations for non-urgent matters in areas like agriculture, education, health care, professional formation and home-building totaled $2,024,532.
The 2004 contribution to the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel, established in 1984, amounted to $2,296,336 and was earmarked for 169 projects in 9 African countries, while his Populorum Progressio Foundation, founded in 1992, distributed aid totaling $1,881,000 last year.