September 13, 2008 • 9:08 pm 1
I ask that you please consider reading the US Catholic Bishops’ Statement on Political Responsibility to help inform any reflective conversation.
Filed under: Church-State, Culture, Economic Policy, Market Place, Official Statements, Papal Teachings, Personal Reflections, Politics, Social Doctrine, Social Justice, Uncategorized, US Bishops
September 12, 2008 • 2:30 pm 0
http://zenit.org/article-23598?l=english
ZE08091105 – 2008-09-11
Permalink: http://zenit.org/article-23598?l=english
Caritas Needs $4.3 Million for Haiti
ROME, SEPT. 11, 2008 (Zenit.org).- A Haitian bishop is appealing for help to keep more of his countrymen from dying in the wake of the four deadly storms that tore apart the Caribbean island.
Caritas Internationalis has launched an emergency appeal for $4.3 million to help the 600,000 who were left homeless by the four storms that hit Haiti over the last month.
Gonaives, on the west coast, is one of the hardest-hit cities, Caritas reported. Its bishop, Yves Marie Péan, said, “Already many people have succumbed. Many more will die if we can’t get them the immediate support they require. Help us provide for these many victims through the continued efforts of Caritas.”
The series of natural disasters affecting Haiti comes at a critical time, as the vast majority of the population is already struggling with rising living costs. Haiti was the scene of violent food riots in April.
Caritas reported that the 2008 hurricane season coupled with the increase in food prices have considerably impacted people’s ability to cope.
Benedict XVI appealed for help for the island nation during the address before praying the midday Angelus last Sunday.
“I am close to the whole nation and I hope that it will receive as soon as possible the necessary aid,” he said.
Filed under: Caritas, Papal Teachings
September 10, 2008 • 12:08 am 0
Benedict XVI Asks Help for Haiti
Island Plastered by Fourth Storm
CAGLIARI, Sardinia, ( Zenit.org ).- Benedict XVI is expressing his spiritual closeness to suffering Haitians, who have been plastered by four storms that have ravaged the island in a span of 25 days.
The Pope mentioned Haiti on Sunday before praying the midday Angelus during his pastoral visit to Sardinia, a semi-autonomous Italian island located in the Mediterranean Sea.
“Under Mary’s gaze,” he said, “I wish to remember the dear people of Haiti, harshly tried in past days in the wake of no less than three hurricanes. I pray for the victims, unfortunately numerous, and for the homeless. I am close to the whole nation and I hope that it will receive as soon as possible the necessary aid.”
Since the Pope spoke of the nation, Hurricane Ike blasted it today, taking at least another 61 lives.
Caritas Internationalis reported that 600,000 Haitians are in need of aid and the AFP news agency informed today that some 600 people have died on the island as the result of the four storms.
“The situation in Haiti is desperate,” Caritas Haiti Director-General Père Serge Chadic said. “These storms have left people with nothing. We need outside help.
“The people are in need of food, shelter and water. In a country already wracked by conflict and food riots, we’re appealing to the outside world for support.”
Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and the storms have left the destitute even more desperate. The island was the scene of food riots in April that resulted in the firing of the prime minister.
Filed under: Caritas, Papal Teachings
September 3, 2008 • 1:51 pm 0
ZE08090205 – 2008-09-02
Permalink: http://www.zenit.org/article-23534?l=english
Cardinal Says Economic Inequality a “Dramatic” Problem
DAR-ES-SALAAM, Tanzania, SEPT. 2, 2008 (Zenit.org).- The president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace announced the forthcoming publication by the Holy See of a document analyzing poverty in the context of globalization.
Cardinal Renato Martino revealed news of the publication during a 4-day congress on evangelization last week in Dar-Es-Salaam organized by the dicastery.
The theme of the conference was “Toward a New Evangelization of African Society in Accordance with the Social Doctrine of the Church.”
During the conference Cardinal Martino officially presented the Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church, which was published in October 2004, to the Church in Africa.
The cardinal stated that “since the Second Vatican Council, the preferential option for the poor is one of the points that most characterizes the social doctrine of the Church,” reported Vatican Radio.
“Poverty and, above all, the growing inequality between areas, continents and countries, including within the latter, constitutes the most dramatic problem facing the world today,” he added.
The cardinal explained that the new document of the dicastery will attempt to offer concrete answers to the problem of poverty in keeping with the Church’s social doctrine.
Evangelical approach
“The intention is to point out an evangelical approach to combat poverty, to identify — both at the national and the international level — those responsible for combating poverty, to sensitize the Church to greater and more articulated attention to and awareness of the problems of poverty and of the poor of the world,” he said.
“It must not be forgotten that today extreme poverty has, above all, the face of women and children, especially in Africa,” the cardinal added.
Cardinal Martino said that the dynamism of evangelization “must drive the Church to privilege the poor, to direct our strength to the poor, to consider the renewal of society from the needs of the poor.”
In regard to globalization, the cardinal pointed out that “an indispensable act of charity” is the “determination that has as its end the organization and structure of society so that a neighbor does not have to live in misery.”
He said this determination must be all the greater if one takes into account that poverty “is a situation facing a great number of people, including whole populations, a situation that today has acquired the proportions of a real worldwide social issue.”
Filed under: Cor Unum, Economic Policy, Papal Teachings, Social Doctrine, Social Justice
September 1, 2008 • 6:54 pm 0
70 Illegal Immigrants Die Off Maltese Coast
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy, AUG. 31, 2008 ( Zenit.org ).- Migration has become an emergency in our times, and one that demands solidarity and effective political solutions, says Benedict XVI.
The Pope said this today as he commented on the deaths this week of some 70 would-be immigrants off the coast of Malta, said to be one of the worst such incidents recorded in the country.
According to news reports, 78 would-be illegal African immigrants set sail from Libya on Aug. 21. The small boat found itself in the middle of a storm and capsized. Maltese fishermen rescued eight survivors on Tuesday.
Authorities have found only three bodies, but according to the survivors, four women are among the dead, including three who were pregnant.
After reciting the midday Angelus with several thousand people gathered in the courtyard of the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, the Holy Father said the tragedy “seemed to surpass previous incidents in terms of the number of victims.”
Emergency
“Migration is a phenomenon that has been present from the dawn of human history, and it has always, for this reason, characterized the relations between peoples and nations,” he said. “The emergency that migration has become in our times, nevertheless, calls out to us and, while it solicits our solidarity, demands, at the same time, effective political answers.”
The Pontiff applauded the humanitarian work of various regional, national and international institutions that are addressing the problem of irregular migration.
He also called on the countries of original to “show a sense of responsibility” and to work to “remove the causes of irregular migration and cut off at the root all of the forms of criminality that are linked to these causes.”
Benedict XVI continued: “For their part, European countries, and all other countries that are the destination of immigration, are called to, among other things, develop through consensus initiatives and structures that continue to adapt themselves to the needs of irregular migrants.
“The latter must be made aware, on the one hand, of the value of their own lives, which are a singular good, always precious, that should be safeguarded in the face of the grave risks that the pursuit of better situations exposes them to and, on the other hand, the duty of legality that is imposed on all.”
“As the [Pope],” he added, “I feel a profound obligation to recall everyone’s attention to this problem and to ask for the generous cooperation of individuals and institutions to deal with it and to find solutions.”
Filed under: Migration, Papal Teachings
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