At the audience of 12 September 2004, granted to His Eminence Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Secretary of State, the Holy Father John Paul II established the ‘Good Samaritan’ Foundation, which is endowed with public, canonical and civil legal status. The registered office of this Foundation is in the Vatican City.

The purpose of the Foundation is to provide economic support to the sick who are most in need, and in particular those suffering from AIDS. The Church of Christ thus seeks to carry out the mandate received from Christ to ‘heal the sick’ (Lk 10:9; Mt 10:8), and wishes to engage in an action of solidarity-inspired love for the most abandoned.

The Foundation is entrusted to the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, which is responsible for this initiative which was positively received by the Holy Father, because, as the Pope himself has affirmed: ‘Now is the time for a new “creativity” in charity, not only by ensuring that help is effective but also by “getting close” to these who suffer, so that the hand that helps is seen not as a humiliating handout but as a sharing between brothers and sisters’ (Novo Millennio Ineunte, n. 50).

The Holy Father John Paul II invites all people of good will, and in a special way the most economically advanced countries, to contribute to the goals of this Foundation.

HIV/AIDS is one of the most devastating epidemics of our times; it is a human drama, which because of its gravity and enormity, is one of the greatest health care challenges that exist at a global level. The data presented by the report ‘The Impact of AIDS’ of the United Nations of 2004 are clear in their message: since the appearance of this epidemic (in about the 1980s) more than 22 million people in the world have died because of AIDS and at the present time 37,800,000 people live with HIV/AIDS. In 2003, 2.9 million people died from AIDS and 4.8 million people were infected by HIV. AIDS is the chief cause of death in people between the ages of 15 and 49.

Some of the important features of the present-day state of this pandemic are as follows. The countries with more than a million AIDS victims in Africa are: South Africa, 5,300,000; Nigeria, 3,600,000; Zimbabwe, 1,800,000; Tanzania, 1,600,000; Mozambique, 1,300,000; Ethiopia, 1,200,000; Kenya, 1,200,000; D.R. Congo, 1,100,000. The countries in America with more than 100,000 people infected are: the United States of America, 950,000; Brazil, 660,000; Haiti, 280,000; Colombia, 190,000; Mexico, 160,000; Argentina, 130,000; Venezuela, 110,000. In Asia such countries are: India, 5,100,000; Thailand, 570,000; Myanmar, 330,000; Vietnam, 220,000; China, 130,000. In Europe such countries are: Russia, 860,000; the Ukraine, 360,000; Italy, 140,000; France, 120,000. The countries in Oceania with more than 10,000 people infected are: Papua New Guinea, 16,000; Australia, 14,000. It is estimated that by 2025 AIDS will have caused the death of 31 million people in India and 18 million in China.

The situation is dramatic for children. Indeed, according to the data of the report ‘Children on the Brink’ of UNICEF, UNAIDS and USAID of 2004, between 2001 and 2003 the total number of children who were made orphans because of AIDS grew from 11.5 million to 15 million, in large part in Africa. It is estimated that by 2010, in Sub-Saharan Africa, there will be 18.4 million children who will have been made orphans by HIV/AIDS. In 2003 alone, because of this epidemic, 5.2 million children were made orphans. In addition, the increasing number of orphans is changing the traditional system of welcoming orphans into families because these last, which are already poor, find it difficult to take responsibility for these children, above all in Africa.

Responding to the sorrowful appeal of the Holy Father, the Catholic Church, since the appearance of this terrible scourge, has always made her own contribution, both in preventing the transmission of the HIV virus and in helping its victims and their families at the medical-assistance, social, spiritual and pastoral levels. At the present time, 26.7% of the centres for the treatment of HIV/AIDS in the world are Catholic.

The programmes that these centres are carrying out are concerned with four main areas: 1. Training: for health care workers, for priests, for families, and for young people. 2. Prevention: health care education, the drawing up of Church documents. 3. Treatment and assistance: for chaplains, for medical doctors, for men and women nurses, the practice of the Sacrament of Penitence, counselling, diagnosis, various projects, the activities of the international and diocesan Caritas organisations, centres for the sick. 4. Taking responsibility for and accompanying: patients themselves, orphans, widows and grandparents, in prisons, in homes for social reintegration.

Side by side with this inestimable and praiseworthy work, the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care has adopted the request of the Holy Father John Paul II, who, when addressing the Bishops of the Bishops’ Conferences of America, Australia and Europe, asked them to join the Pastors of Africa in tackling the AIDS emergency more effectively.

Specifically for this task, the Holy Father has established the above-mentioned ‘Good Samaritan’ Foundation. Our centres dedicated to AIDS victims, despite everything that they are doing, on the one hand, do not have enough resources for the medicines and drugs that are required, and, on the other, are not sufficient in number to meet the very urgent needs that exist.

In order to establish our Fund the Holy Father made over one hundred thousand euros, as an example of charity, to begin to endow it with resources and to offer an example that we ask all Catholics to follow.

Today we are near to Christmas, a very suitable time to receive the invitation of the Holy Father extended to all men of good will to contribute to the ‘Good Samaritan’ Fund and to save so many lives and alleviate so many others. This would be the most appreciated present that we could offer to the Baby Jesus.

We address this appeal above all to Bishops and their dioceses, to priests, to religious institutes, to foundations for charitable works, and to all men of good will: may you in a permanent way organise yourselves so as to respond generously to the invitation of the Holy Father and make over your various contributions, in particular, as has already been observed, during this Christmas period.

The ‘Good Samaritan’ Foundation is entrusted to the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, and the Holy Father has appointed the President of the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care the President of this Foundation.

Wishing you all a serene and generous Christmas, in order to implement the invitations that the Holy Father has extended to you in this period of the year, we hope to receive soon your help for our brothers and sisters who are sick with AIDS, as a sign of that ‘creativity in charity’ that leads all of us to be constantly close and provide solidarity to those who suffer, in order to give an authentic and urgent sign of our sharing between brothers and sisters. 

Your contributions and those of all people of good will can be sent:

A.     By ‘Banker’s Order’ to current accounts at the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (I.O.R.) of  the Holy See, in American dollars or Euros.

B.     By ‘International Banker’s Cheque’ made out to:

‘Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, President of the ‘Good Samaritan’ Foundation, Palazzo S. Paolo, Vatican City’.

The registered office of the Foundation is at the Pontifical Council for Health Pastoral Care, which would always be most happy to provide you with further information on the ‘Good Samaritan’ Foundation (tel: +39.06.69883138 - +39.06.69884720 - +39.06.69884799; fax: +39.06.69883139; e-mail: goodsamaritan@hlthwork.va).