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(Vatican Radio) As tens of thousands of people are displaced by violence in Juba, the capital city of South Sudan, the Catholic Church and other faith-based groups are doing their best to offer protection and aid despite a total lack of means.

Fighting erupted four days ago in Juba between followers of President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, the former rebel leader who became vice president under a deal to end a two-year civil war.

Speaking to Vatican Radio’s Linda Bordoni just moments after meeting with South Sudan’s Vice President and other top government officials, the Archbishop of Juba, Paulino Lukudu Loro said the humanitarian situation is so desperate “this is the moment, for anyone that can, to step in and save lives”.

Archbishop Lukudu also said that on a political level the cessation of hostilities agreed on Monday evening seems to be holding, and that now the government needs to  recompose and take decisions for the good of the nation which risks sliding back into all-out war:
    
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Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro says the Vice-President had just informed him of the situation confirming the cessation of hostilities across the nation and that all military personnel have been ordered to report back to their own garrisons.

The Archbishop confirmed that there has been no fighting since 6pm on Monday evening and he said the government will now have to re-gather, recompose and talk.

However he talks of a dramatic humanitarian situation in Juba where the UN has said there are some 36,000 people displaced by violence.

“In our Catholic Churches and communities we have more than 16,000 displaced people with many more in Mosques and in other faith based communities” he said.

Archbishop Lukudu said the people being sheltered are calm “but they are not going back home because they are not sure the decision taken will hold.”

Many, he pointed out, cannot go home because their houses have been shelled and looted and they are afraid to leave the Churches or places of displacement.

“The situation is calm, but on the ground the humanitarian situation is one of misery” and support is urgently needed, he said.

The Archbishop said he has no first hand evidence but he has heard the Red Cross is delivering some aid. The Church itself – he said – has no means.

“I do not know how I can make myself understood and comprehended very well, but our situation is very difficult” he said. 

And with a heartfelt appeal he continued: “if there is anyone at all that can help us, this is the moment to save lives”.

If the people of Juba and of South Sudan do not receive assistance “a lot of us will die”.

His appeal, the Archbishop said, is “to the whole world, to our own brothers and sisters in faith in our humanity, if they can at all help us in this particular moment” which has been imposed on us “we shall be very grateful and thankful to them that they will save lives”.

The Archbishop says the UN is present in Juba running refugee camps but UN personnel is  not able to travel freely in the city to help all the people sheltered in Churches, in Mosques and in other communities.

Archbishop Lukudu says all the faith-based organizations in the country are engaged in dialogue with the leaders. 

And he points out that the desperate people fleeing violence turn to faith-based groups without fear “and so we are doing our best, sharing what we have”.

Archbishop Lukudu concludes: “I know there are many sufferings in the world but ours – in this moment – was not expected and if we can be rescued and helped, we would be very grateful, and I want to thank anybody who will do that”.        

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Vatican City, Jul 12, 2016 / 11:07 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After the appointment of two laypersons as the new directors of the Holy See Press Office, Msgr. Dario Vigano said that while their roles haven’t yet been clearly defined amid ongoing reforms, the two will play a key role in Vatican communications.

Following the July 11 announcement of Greg Burke and Paloma Garcia Ovejero as director and vice director, respectively, of the Holy See Press Office, Msgr. Dario Viganò – prefect of the Secretariat for Communications – said the two could count on him to “lend a hand in the building of this great family of communications.”

He told journalists the new appointments are an occasion to “discuss some aspects” of what the role of director and vice director of the press office will be amid the ongoing reform of Vatican communications, adding that these roles “will be fully understood later.”

He pointed out that the Press Office is one of the five sections of the Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications, and as head of the department, assured Burke and Ovejero of his support.

On Monday the Vatican announced that after 10 years at the helm, Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, would be retiring from his position as Director of the Holy See Press Office and chief Vatican spokesperson.

Replacing him will be former American journalist and Vatican communications adviser Greg Burke, who in February took over as the number two official in the Holy See Press Office. Burke’s deputy will be Paloma Garcia Ovejero, the former Rome and Vatican correspondent for Spanish broadcaster COPE and the first woman ever to hold the position of Vice Director to the Press Office.

The appointments will officially go into effect Aug. 1, following Pope Francis’ July 27-31 visit to Poland for World Youth Day.

Both Burke and Garcia Ovejero will wade into their new positions amid the ongoing process of streamlining Vatican communications, which is currently being carried out according to a 4-year plan overseen by the Secretariat for Communications.

Established June 27, 2015, the Secretariat for Communications oversees all of the Vatican’s communications offices, including Vatican Radio, L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican Television Center, the Holy See Press Office, the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Vatican Internet Service, the Vatican Typography, the Photograph Service, and the Vatican publishing house.

With the reform barely a year underway, the full extent of the responsibilities Burke and Ovejero will inherit remains unclear; however, with Fr. Lombardi’s long tenure as a foundation and with Vigano’s guidance, it likely won’t take long for them to jump into action.

In his brief speech after the announcement of Burke and Ovejero’s appointment, Msgr. Vigano noted how the news coincided with the exact day of Fr. Lombardi’s 10 year anniversary as press office director.

Lombardi’s tenure, he said, is “a long period of time” which has been marked by significant events such as the resignation of Benedict XVI and the encounter between Pope Francis and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill in Havana.

In comments to journalists after the announcement of his appointment as director of the press office, Burke said the decision wasn’t entirely “out of the blue” given his previous position as vice director, but that he was “honored and moved” by the trust that placed him in the new role.

He voiced his thanks to Fr. Lombardi, whom he called “an old style Jesuit, a scholar and a gentleman.”

Burke said that for him, the purpose of his new role is clear: “to serve the Pope.” After meeting with Francis July 11 before the official announcement was made, Burke said the encounter was both moving and very personal, and that the Pope told them he had prayed a lot about the appointment.

For her part, Garcia Ovejero believes the Pope’s choice to nominate her and Burke to fill the slots is “coherent with what he preached from the beginning.”

“A man and a woman, two laypersons, one North American, one from the Spanish language,” she observed, explaining that the decision is “a logical choice … it’s natural.”

Pope Francis, she said, “is coherent with his words and with his vision of the Church. A Church that goes out, a Church that’s not clerical, which all of us feel a part of and feel responsible in announcing the Gospel. The mission is to announce the Gospel.”

Speaking of their meeting with the Pope, Garcia Ovejero said that Francis was “tender,” but also “serious and firm. He said clearly that fidelity, loyalty, and transparency are the most important things in communications.”

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Vatican City, Jul 12, 2016 / 12:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- After a head-on train collision killed 20 people in the southern Italian region of Puglia, Pope Francis voiced his grief over the incident and offered prayers for the victims and their families.

“His Holiness Pope Francis expresses his heartfelt and genuine participation in the sorrow striking so many families,” Vatican secretary of state Archbishop Pietro Parolin wrote on the Pope's behalf.

“He assures his fervent prayers of repose for those who tragically died and, while invoking the Lord for a swift recovery for the injured, entrusts to the maternal protection of the Virgin Mary the many who are affected by dramatic grief, and sends the comfort of his Apostolic Blessing.”

Dozens were injured – some critically – and at least 20 people killed when two trains crashed while apparently traveling towards each other on the same track. The collision happened around 11:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday while the trains were moving through an olive grove between the towns of Corato and Ruvo di Puglia, the New York Times reported.

Rescue teams worked throughout the day in sweltering heat to pull survivors from the wreckage. One passenger extracted from the mangled cars was a small child, who was airlifted to a hospital, the BBC reported.

Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was in Milan during the accident, telling local media that he would be returning to Rome as soon as possible and that he had ordered an investigation.

“We won't stop until we clarify what happened,” he told Milan reporters, according to the New York Times. “There is an absolute need to understand who is responsible and to shed total light” on the incident.

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IMAGE: CNS photo/Catholic Advance

By Christopher M. Riggs

WICHITA, Kan. (CNS) -- Brian Bergkamp, a seminarian from the Diocese of Wichita who was studying at a Maryland seminary, is believed dead after saving the life of a woman who fell into the Arkansas River July 9.

By mid-day July 12, he remained missing. Friends and family members remember were holding vigils to pray for the recovery of his body.

Bergkamp, 24, was among five people traveling in separate kayaks when all got caught in turbulent waters. According to The Wichita Eagle newspaper, Bergkamp jumped from his kayak to save the woman before getting pulled under himself. He was not wearing a life jacket. The other kayakers made it to shore.

"I knew Brian to be an exceptional seminarian, well on his way to demonstrating so many of the qualities needed to be a good and faithful priest," Wichita Bishop Carl A. Kemme wrote in an email to The Catholic Advance, the diocesan newspaper. "I personally looked forward to the day when I might be able to ordain him."

Bishop Kemme said Bergkamp was quiet, dedicated, diligent in his work and studies, and presented himself always with a sense of decorum and maturity, well beyond his years. "I was looking forward to how God would use him as a priest in the Diocese of Wichita. Now, we must all mourn his much anticipated ministry and the many fruits we all knew would be abundant by his priestly life and ministry."

Life on this side of heaven is full of mysteries, contradictions and ironies, Bishop Kemme said. "Brian's untimely death is full of these mysteries, which must wait until heaven to be solved."

Bergkamp had just finished his second year at Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, which is in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. He is the son of Ned and Theresa Bergkamp of Garden Plain and would have been ordained to the transitional diaconate at the end of the upcoming school year. His brother, Andy, was ordained to the transitional diaconate in May. He is preparing for the priesthood for the Diocese of Wichita at Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Illinois.

"Brian's death is a great tragedy and a great loss, not only for his family and friends," said Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori, "but to all who knew him and to the church he was so generously seeking to serve."

In an email to the Catholic Review, Baltimore's archdiocesan news outlet, Archbishop Lori said Bergkamp's "heroic and brave actions" speak to the "great character and to the wonderful priest I'm sure he would have become."

"Though his dream of serving others as a priest is no longer possible," Archbishop Lori said, "Brian continues to bless others through his selfless example and legacy."

Msgr. Andrew Baker, rector of the seminary, remembered Bergkamp as a "quiet, but very effective leader."

"He was a thoughtful and prayerful young man," Msgr. Baker told the Catholic Review. "He was extremely reliable and hardworking."

Bergkamp had served as a sacristan at Mount St. Mary's, the priest said.

The circumstances of Bergkamp's death show that he knew the depth of what it meant to be a Christian and a priest, Msgr. Baker said.

"It was self-giving love," he explained. "He didn't have to think twice before he acted (to save another's life)."

Seminarians and the entire Mount St. Mary's community were taking Bergkamp's death "very hard," the priest added.

Derek Thome, a seminarian at Mount St. Mary's Seminary from Viola, Kansas, said Bergkamp was a man of dedication with a big heart who would do just about anything for anyone -- as long as it would help them.

"It didn't matter what he had going on, his life was spent thinking of others first," he told The Catholic Advance. "Brian died doing what he went to seminary for, to save souls."

Bergkamp did so many things around the seminary, Thome said, adding that he was always keeping busy fixing things. "The joke goes that Brian was the only reason the seminary building still stands!"

Bergkamp showed a true priestly quality in his last moments, Bishop Kemme said, apparently saving the life of another while risking his own. "This all took place on the weekend when we heard the parable of the good Samaritan. Brian was living that parable in his last moments. No one could ever hope for or expect a greater homily than this!"

In addition to keeping Bergkamp's family in prayer, Bishop Kemme asked the faithful to keep all of the diocese's seminarians and priests in their prayers. "Pray fervently for more seminarians like Brian, so that others will come to take his place. More than likely, Brian's heavenly service will help to make this happen, according to God's providence."

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Riggs is editor of The Catholic Advance, newspaper of the Diocese of Wichita. Contributing to this story was George M. Matysek in Baltimore.

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