(Vatican Radio) In Haiti, over 2.1 million people were affected by Hurricane Matthew at the end of last month when torrential downpours and strong winds felled trees, swept away people and animals, and destroyed up to 90 percent of homes in some areas of the southwestern peninsula.Caritas Internationalis, the Catholic Church’s humanitarian agency is on the ground focusing on ensuring Haitians have food, clean water and hygiene items and shelter. It has launched an international appeal for 250,000 euros in the attempt to provide assistance to the most vulnerable and isolated who have been affected by the disaster. Clean water is in short supply and poor sanitation threatens to trigger another outbreak of cholera, a disease that has killed some 10,000 since the 2010 earthquake.Caritas Internationalis Secretary General, Michel Roy, has just returned from the stricken nation and spoke to Vatican Radio’s Marie Duhamel about the situation:Listen: Michel Roy describ...
(Vatican Radio) In Haiti, over 2.1 million people were affected by Hurricane Matthew at the end of last month when torrential downpours and strong winds felled trees, swept away people and animals, and destroyed up to 90 percent of homes in some areas of the southwestern peninsula.
Caritas Internationalis, the Catholic Church’s humanitarian agency is on the ground focusing on ensuring Haitians have food, clean water and hygiene items and shelter.
It has launched an international appeal for 250,000 euros in the attempt to provide assistance to the most vulnerable and isolated who have been affected by the disaster.
Clean water is in short supply and poor sanitation threatens to trigger another outbreak of cholera, a disease that has killed some 10,000 since the 2010 earthquake.
Caritas Internationalis Secretary General, Michel Roy, has just returned from the stricken nation and spoke to Vatican Radio’s Marie Duhamel about the situation:
Listen:
Michel Roy describes a scene of utter devastation: “The trees are destroyed, the crops are destroyed, the animals were killed, you don’t see any birds – that feels very strange – so there is silence, and the fact that the trees that are still standing have lost all their leaves means that when it is raining the water falls straight to the ground creating floods, and when the sun is burning, it directly burns onto the soil and this will create problems for the future”.
He says the devastation is greater than he expected and greater even than reported by the media or by the Haitian government.
Roy says the people of Haiti seem almost resigned. He says they are very resilient because they are accustomed to facing problems. He says they are people of great dignity and they are surviving.
He says they are in need of food but they are also asking for tarpaulins and for corrugated iron so they can rebuild their houses. He adds that it is necessary and urgent that the land be cleaned and sanitized and points out that there are pockets where cholera is affecting some areas.
“What Caritas is doing is bringing food, utensils, medicine to the existing health centers, and hygiene kits. But it is far from enough” he says.
Roy says people are also asking for seeds they will be able to plant once the land has been cleaned – and this he says – means they are looking to the future and want to rebuild their lives.
The Caritas Internationalis Secretary General says more help is needed from the international community and he says “we are going to raise the issue with the United Nations because there is a real big need”.
He says there are inhabitants in the areas in the southwest, where the cyclone hit hardest, who are suffering a real famine.
“There is a real need to refocus on the region, not to abandon the people there. Of course the media spoke about it and we could see pictures in the papers in the days that followed the cyclone, but now it is no more on the news” he says.
Finally, Roy says, people have told him the situation is as dire as the situation after the earthquake in 2010 “so you can imagine the depth of the tragedy for the people living there”.
Prayer house at San Simeone, Italy, September 2012. / Credit: Courtesy of Ricostruttori nella preghieraRome, Italy, Apr 28, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).Across Italy there are houses of prayer run by the Ricostruttori (Reconstructors) community, a Catholic movement dedicated to people who are far from the Church but attracted to spirituality, particularly Eastern meditation and Buddhist practices. The Reconstructors was founded in 1978 by Jesuit Father Gian Vittorio Cappelletto. "During the postconciliar period, the Church was faced with the need for new forms of evangelization and apostolate, to reach out to people who were drifting away," Don Roberto Rondanina, priest and superior of the Ricostruttori, explained to CNA. "It was a time when Eastern meditation, Hinduism, Buddhism, the New Age ... were beginning to spread in Europe." "Father Cappelletto, who lived in Turin, sought to understand the meaning of this 'flight to the East' and felt the need to find new forms of sp...
Members of the Provincial Episcopal Assembly of Bukavu (ASSEPB). / Credit: Radio MotoACI Africa, Apr 28, 2024 / 07:00 am (CNA).Catholic bishops of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have denounced the insecurity and violence in their dioceses.In their collective statement issued Sunday, April 14, the members of the Provincial Episcopal Assembly of Bukavu (ASSEPB) said: "Insecurity has become endemic, with its trail of killings even in the middle of the day, massacres and kidnappings of peaceful citizens in our towns and villages."ASSEPB members decried "the opening up of most of our territorial entities; the [rebel group] M23s surrounding of the town of Goma supported by Rwanda; and the strategy of paralyzing the economy by isolating and suffocating large and small towns.""Despite the holding of elections, the Congolese state remains weak and ineffective," they further lamented. The Catholic Church leaders faulted the President ...
Father Leo Riley, age 68, continued to serve as a priest for years after a 2020 sexual abuse lawsuit was filed against him and the Diocese of Venice in Florida. / Credit: Charlotte County Sheriff's OfficeCNA Staff, Apr 27, 2024 / 19:18 pm (CNA).A Florida priest who was recently arrested on sex abuse charges was permitted to continue in active ministry for nearly three years after a civil sex abuse lawsuit was filed against him and the diocese in which he serves.Father Leo Riley, age 68, continued to serve as a priest for years after a 2020 sexual abuse lawsuit was filed against him and the Diocese of Venice in Florida. The matter came to the forefront this week after Riley was arrested on several sex abuse charges dating back to his time serving as a priest in Iowa decades ago. The Charlotte County, Florida Sheriff's Office said in a press release that deputies arrested Riley in Port Charlotte on April 24 "on multiple counts of capital sexual battery stemmin...