The president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum and the Council's secretary will start their visit tomorrow until Thursday as part of the Caritas regional forum for the Middle East.

Rome (AsiaNews) - Card Robert Sarah, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, will visit Syrian refugees in Jordan tomorrow as part of the Caritas regional forum for the Middle East, the Horn of Africa and North scheduled for 19-21 February.

The Council's secretary, Mgr Giampietro Dal Toso, will also be part of the Vatican delegation.

During the forum, Caritas officials will discuss the work by Catholic aid agencies in the Middle East

For Card Sarah, this is his second visit to Syrian civil war victims after that of 12 November 2012 in Lebanon.

In a statement, Cor Unum said that after 20 months of civil war, "The situation on a humanitarian level in (Syria) and the region as a whole has become untenable."

Some estimates put the number of displaced people between 1 and 2.5 million people.

"The winter is adding to this terrible toll for the sufferings of a people whose weakest and most vulnerable are the worst affected," namely the poor, the elderly and children.

The prelates will also meet the Jordanian king.

 

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• syria
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