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Rome, Italy, Feb 20, 2017 / 02:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- There are about three million people without heath care in war-torn Syria, and the papal envoy to the country has launched a project to help some of them.

Cardinal Mario Zenari launched the Open Hospitals project to enhance and empower three Catholic hospitals in Syria. He visited Rome’s Gemelli Hospital to help promote the initiative.

“It is just a drop, albeit a very precious drop, in our sea of necessities,” the cardinal told CNA. “It is a sign of the solidarity of the Church toward so many poor people.”

“In the end, Catholic means 'universal,' that is, open to anyone who is in need. A Catholic hospital is, by its own nature, an open hospital,” he added.

Since March 2011, the Syrian Civil War has ravaged the country, killing hundreds of thousands and driving millions from their homes.

“A great number of health care facilities have been knocked out by warfare,” the cardinal said. “This is the moment to enhance and help three Catholic hospitals, managed by the religious congregation, that have been working in Syria for more than 100 years.”
 
Cardinal Zenari has been papal nuncio to Syria since 2008. Pope Francis made him a cardinal during the last consistory, an unusual honor for a residential nuncio that showed papal support for Syria.

The cardinal conceived the idea of the Open Hospitals effort with Msgr. Giampetro Dal Toso, secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, who visited Aleppo at the end of conflict in the city. The initiative is operated by the Catholic NGO AVSI, with the contribution of the Gemelli Foundation.
 
The project will collect and financially support three Catholic hospitals in Syria: the French Hospital in Damascus, owned by the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul; the Italian Hospital ANSMI, managed by the Daughters of Mary Auxiliatrix; and St. Louis Hospital in Aleppo, managed by the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition.
 
“These hospitals are held in great esteem for their professionalism, but they are also facing great economic difficulties because of the warfare,” Cardinal Zenari said. “As they are private institutes, they also need patients to pay for their care, even with a minimum amount of money. But these sick people cannot even give a minimum economic contribution, as 80 percent of the Syrian population is currently living in poverty.”
 
About 400,000 Syrians are estimated to have died in the war.
 
“However, the death toll for lack of health care and medicines is even larger,” the cardinal said. “Yes, it is necessary to repair and rebuild houses and infrastructure. But above all we should 'repair' the physical health of people.”
 
There are an estimated two million people without health care in Aleppo, and one million more in Damascus. Hence, the necessity to enhance and supply the three Catholic hospitals.

“Each of these hospitals is going to open new departments to face needs and urgencies that came out after the conflict: special departments for traumatized children, for women who were subjected to violence and rape during the conflict, and for those mutilated by war,” the cardinal said.

Reflecting further on the situation in Syria, he said that “suffering in Syria is universal, as every religious and ethnic group had its victims, its martyrs.” But, he added, “Christians are the minority group most at risk, as they have no weapons to defend themselves.”
 
The papal ambassador recounted that “Christian communities saw their villages and blocks invaded and there were churches damaged and destroyed.”
 
However, emigration represents the “biggest wound” to the community.

“For example, two-thirds of the Christian in Aleppo emigrated. This is an incalculable loss for the churches. Even if sacred buildings will be rebuilt, the question is whether Christian communities will be rebuilt the way they were before,” the cardinal said.
 
The churches are committed to charitable works for the whole community, an effort that is appreciated.

When Cardinal Zenari arrived in Syria eight years ago, he said, “there was a certain progress in the economic field, although not all society could benefit from that.”

“Yes, an improvement was needed in terms of respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, but in general Syria was a mosaic of good coexistence among the ethnic-religious groups.”
 
Now, Syria is “profoundly lacerated by grave external wounds and grave internal wounds.”
 
Thinking about the future, the papal nuncio saw a need for a Syria that could enjoy the support of all social sectors and avoid the risk of dividing society between winners and losers.

For Cardinal Zenari, the Christian community could act as a bridge in a post-war Syria.

The new Syria should be “reconciled, more respectful of human rights and fundamental freedoms, more democratic,” with a “guaranteed territorial unity and integrity,” he said. He lamented that external forces like the Islamic State group have entered the Syrian conflict, among other regional and international powers.

Cardinal Zenari said that the most urgent challenge for Syria is to stop the violence and guarantee access to humanitarian aid.

Citing United Nations data, there are 13.5 million people in need of humanitarian aid, including 4.9 million who live in hard-to-access places. There are 640,000 people living in 13 places under military siege.

There are 6.1 million internally displaced Syrians and 4.8 million Syrians who have become refugees in other countries.

The cardinal stressed the need for determination to reach a political solution to the conflict. After the conflict, will require restoring the social fabric and working for reconciliation. He emphasized the need to rebuild houses, villages, and infrastructure.

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Washington D.C., Feb 20, 2017 / 02:42 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- As the woman at the center of the case legalizing abortion in the U.S. passed away, pro-life leaders hailed her ultimate conversion on the issue and her ensuing struggles to promote life.

“Ultimately, Norma’s story after Roe was not one of bitterness but of forgiveness. She chose healing and reconciliation in her Christian faith,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, stated on Saturday after Norma McCorvey’s passing.

“She overcame the lies of the abortion industry and its advocates and spoke out against the horror that still oppresses so many,” Dannenfelser added. “In her memory and in her honor, we will carry on that work and we pray for her eternal peace.”

Norma McCorvey, the woman “Jane Roe” who was the plaintiff in the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that found a legal right to abortion, died on Saturday at the age of 69.

She had sued the state of Texas as she was pregnant with her third child and wanted an abortion which was illegal in the state. “Back in 1973, I was a very confused 21 year-old with one child and facing an unplanned pregnancy,” McCorvey described in a recent interview posted by VirtueMedia.

Her case was supposedly a rape pregnancy, but she later revealed she had lied about the situation.

“Many believe that she was very much coerced into that situation and was encouraged to lie about the situation being the result of a rape,” Jeanne Mancini, president of the March for Life commented on McCorvey’s case. There was “a lot of manipulation and lies and pressure” behind her case, she added.

McCorvey’s case went to the Supreme Court which issued the Roe decision, legalizing abortion in all 50 states. Since 1973 there have been over 50 million abortions in the U.S.

Yet as in the other abortion case Doe v. Bolton – decided the same day as Roe – neither plaintiff had an abortion, and both women eventually “had this radical conversion to the truth and dedicated their lives to really protecting the inherent dignity of the human person,” Mancini said.

Despite winning in court, McCorvey had never had the abortion she sought, instead carrying her child to term and giving her daughter up for adoption. She is the mother of three daughters.

While she worked at an abortion clinic and later revealed herself as the “Jane Roe” of the Supreme Court decision, she had a sudden turn in the 1990s, joining the pro-life movement and becoming a Christian.

“Norma suffered tremendously at the hands of those who cared more about the institution of abortion than this courageous woman’s life,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List, stated on Saturday.

She started the group Roe No More to overturn the Roe decision and reverse its cultural consequences, and was involved with the group Operation Rescue for a time before leaving.

McCorvey revealed that “upon knowing God, I realized that my case which legalized abortion on demand was the biggest mistake of my life,” adding that “abortion scars an untold number of post-abortive mothers, fathers, and families too.”

Yet baptized a Christian, McCorvey felt called to enter the Catholic Church. As she related in an article for the group Priests for Life, she had attended Catholic masses as a child with her mother who was Roman Catholic.

“I liked it so much and was often moved to tears. I felt the presence of God,” she wrote. “There was something very moving about the Catholic ritual and symbolism – the procession with the priest and altar boys, the incense, cross, and candles, the statues and the music. I knew God was everywhere, but in Catholic Churches I always felt especially close to Him.”

Tom Peterson, president and founder of VirtueMedia, recalled meeting Norma as he interviewed her on her conversion to Catholicism and her decision to become pro-life.

“Here is a woman who deeply regrets her decision, who had the courage and the faith to put her face on national television on this message,” he said, a message “to help heal those wounds, to help unknot a very complicated situation that she was a party to.”

Yet “she carried a great price for that,” he added.

“She said it was so heavy on her heart that 50 million babies had died because of her participation in this case. And she talked about the number of wounded women out there who took part in abortion because of her involvement.”

“She suffers great anxiety, and she suffered great physical and mental spiritual battles for many years,” he recalled.

VirtueMedia has launched JaneRoe.com, featuring McCorvey’s testimony and those of mothers who have had abortions and regret them.

When McCorvey decided to enter the Church, she received the sacraments of Holy Communion and Confirmation. After the mass, she recalled what she felt during the Liturgy of the Eucharist:

“I had been taught what this meant. Jesus was not dying again. Rather, He was drawing us all into His sacrifice, making it present to us, allowing us to join our lives, our sufferings, to His. This was and is the sacrifice that saves the world, that conquers the power of death and destroys the power of abortion. There and then I could place in the chalice all the tears I had ever shed over the aborted babies, all the shame I ever felt from having worked in an abortion clinic and having been a poster-girl for the pro-death movement. There and then, just as the bread and wine were being transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ, the former Jane Roe could once again rejoice in her own transformation into a new creature in Christ.”

Catholics and pro-life leaders offered prayers for her, her family, and all the victims of abortion.

“Now with Norma’s passing, we certainly pray for the repose of her soul. We certainly pray for her and the aborted babies and the mothers who have passed away, and are now in heaven or purgatory to pray for our country during this pivotal time,” Peterson said.

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Vancouver, Canada, Feb 20, 2017 / 04:29 pm (Aid to the Church in Need).- After hundreds of lethal drug overdoses in British Columbia in the last year, the Archbishop of Vancouver has said Catholics must act to help those addicted to opioids and other drugs.

The “scourge” of drug overdoses is a chance for Catholics “to see the face of Jesus in those who suffer and are tragically claimed by lethal drug overdoses,” Archbishop J. Michael Miller of Vancouver said in a Feb. 16 letter to the faithful of his archdiocese.

The archbishop invited the Catholic Church in Vancouver to reach out to suffering men, women and young people. He said the Church must imitate Jesus’ words from the Gospel of Matthew: “Whatever you do to the least of my brothers and sisters, you do unto me.”

“In 2017 Vancouver, Jesus would also identify himself with those afflicted by mental illness and addiction,” he said. “As His disciples, we are called to do likewise.”

Over 900 people in British Columbia died from lethal drug overdoses, especially from fentanyl and other opioids. The number of deaths is more than double that from homicides and traffic accidents combined.

“This health emergency is widespread, cutting across every segment of society, devastating families and communities. It is claiming the lives of people on the street and those struggling with mental illness and trauma. It is killing our youth, students, workers, and elderly,” Archbishop Miller said. “Sadly, many of those of those who survive suffer brain damage and from other long-term consequences.”

Catholic hospitals are particularly affected. St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver alone treated 42 overdoses between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

The archbishop acknowledged the impact treating these cases have on medical center staff and personnel.

“The toll is especially brutal on first responders who find themselves physically and mentally exhausted by their exceptionally difficult job,” he said.

Archbishop Miller cited three contributions to the spike in drug abuse: the over-prescription of opioids, social isolation and mental illness.

North American prescription rates for opioids are six times higher than in Europe.

“Once addicted, a lifelong struggle to break the habit begins,” the archbishop said, calling for better ways to counter disproportionate use of opioids and better treatment for acute and chronic pain.

Over half of those who seek help from drug addiction suffer from mental disorders, while at least 20 percent of Canadians have some form of mental illness.

“People who suffer from mental illness need our help, our friendship, our outreach, our resources and our prayer,” said Archbishop Miller, adding that people have little control over diseases like substance dependence and addiction.

The archbishop cited Pope Francis’ words against treating drug addicts like “mere objects or broken machines.” Rather, they must be “valued and appreciated in his or her dignity in order to enable them to be healed” to help them avoid becoming victims of a “throwaway culture.”

“Imitating Christ the Healer, the Church is obliged to bring His compassion to everyone in pain, whether physical, emotional or spiritual,” Archbishop Miller said.

He suggested Catholics should invite those struggling with mental illness and addiction to be “fully integrated” into parish and school communities.

“Ask yourselves: do you include them and make them feel welcome, or do you shun them?” he asked. “Are you open to residential housing or community health centers in your own neighborhood?”

The archbishop noted the link between substance addiction and suicide in young people. He stressed the need for better psychiatric and psychological support for high risk and vulnerable age groups.

“Let us continue to reach beyond our pews and parish organizations, recognizing the face of Christ in the marginalized, the lonely, the homeless, the imprisoned, the mentally ill, and the addicted,” he said.

Those who are socially isolated are more likely to engage in substance abuse, which furthers their isolation.

“More Canadians now live alone than at any other time in history,” the archbishop said, blaming excessive individualism, a culture of instant gratification, as well as poverty, economic uncertainty and family disintegration.

“Drug use and abuse appeal to those seeking to escape suffering, loneliness and isolation,” he said, noting that communities that are welcoming and close-knit tend to suffer lower levels of substance abuse and other social problems.

To respond to drug addiction and abuse, the archbishop recommended advocacy for action from elected officials and bodies that regulate opioids, efforts to improve prescription practices and pain management, better education in schools, financial support for organizations that can respond to the problem, and parish support services for recovery methods like 12-step programs.

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