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Vatican Radio report: The donation of the Catholic Church of Sri Lanka that Pope Francis declined during his visit to the island nation in January, will be used for the poor in the country. The Pope declined to accept 8.7 million Sri Lankan rupees the country’s bishops collected from their people for papal charities. Now, the Island nation’s bishops’ conference has decided to distribute the money among its 12 dioceses to meet the needs of the poor, reported The Island newspaper on Wednesday. Father Cyril Gamini Fernando, the Church’s spokesperson, said the money would be allocated, depending on the requirements. Asked whether the money would be distributed equally among the 12 dioceses, the priest said that no such decision had been made. A country-wide collection was conducted at the request of Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, the Archbishop of Colombo and president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCSL). Cardinal Ranjith handed over a check of 8,760,690.25 rupees to Pope Francis when he left Sri Lanka on Jan.15 following a three-day official visit. However, the Pontiff declined to accept it.
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