Pope Francis Center to be done by December

CEBU, Philippines- The Pope Francis Center, an establishment that will have an orphanage, a home for the aged and a clinic, may be completed two weeks before Pope Francis' visit to the Philippines in January.

Palo Archbishop John Du said completion of the construction of the Center is targeted to be by the Christmas holidays, said the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines. "We're really on 100 percent preparation. The target is to finish it by December," Du said.

The Pope is due to visit the country on Jan. 15 to 19, next year and Leyte officials have been rushing works on roads and other infrastructures with the expectations that millions of people will be here for the papal visit.

Du said Tacloban City and provincial officials are working double time to ensure arrangements for the visit. "Even the repair of roads (damaged by typhoon Yolanda) (is) ongoing, so everywhere you can hear the machineries left and right," he said.

Leyte is one of the areas hit hard by Yolanda, which left at least 6,000 dead after it devastated the Visayas last November, and the pope is expected to visit some devastated communities in Tacloban and Palo.

Du said the Church is not releasing Pope Francis' itinerary yet "because the instruction to us is not to make the areas (to be visited by the pope) public for security reason."  — From the wires