(Vatican Radio) Back in the Vatican after a mission to visit Syrian refugees in Iraq, Bishop Segundo Tejado Munoz brings the witness of hope and despair of millions on the run from war and persecution.
Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni :
Bishop Tejado Munoz, Undersecretary of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, told Vatican Radio of his journey together with a delegation from Cor Unum and with the Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis, to the heart of refugee camps in the Kurdistan province of Duhok, where huge numbers of Syrian refugees have fled for their lives.
Amongst the 250,000 registered refugees in the area are many Iraqi Christians from Mosul and villages in Ninive province whose exodus has been caused by the offensive of so-called Islamic State jihadist militants.
Bishop Tehado Munoz explains that the aim of his mission was to meet with the displaced families, and above all – in his role as Undersecretary of Cor Unum whose mission it is to care for the needy – to bring concrete solidarity and help to the aid agencies and humanitarian workers who are responding to the needs of the refugees…
They are the ones doing the work – says Tehado Munoz – but they are often forgotten. As Church – he says – we bring our contribution but they are our hands and our arms… so often they work in extremely difficult situations
Bishop Tehado Munoz says that the Church manages to reach out to these people thanks to the presence of the local Church and the local Caritas; in this case – he explains – Caritas Iraq that coordinates the entire operation,
He speaks of his journey from Erbil towards the village of Duhok, of his visits to some of the refugee camps and of his meetings with aid workers and operators, including the UN representative to the area who expressed deep preoccupation for diminishing funds and the consequent risk of having to cut some vital humanitarian programmes.
Tehado Munoz describes a scenario which is complicated from an organizational point of view and very very serious from a humanitarian one.
Bringing with him the gifts of two icons of Our Lady blessed by Pope Francis, Bishop Tehado Munoz says “we were bringing the Easter message of Christ’s resurrection and the certainty that even in such a difficult and dramatic situation, there is the light of the Risen Christ” and the hope it brings.
The figures – he says – speak of over two and a half million Syrian refugees: but it is persons we are talking about: we touched them with hand, he said, we touched the suffering of these people, these families…
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Back in the Vatican after a mission to visit Syrian refugees in Iraq, Bishop Segundo Tejado Munoz brings the witness of hope and despair of millions on the run from war and persecution. Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni: Bishop Tejado Munoz, Undersecretary of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum, told Vatican…
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Vatican City, 31 March 2015 (VIS) – Following the first announcement of the next extraordinary Holy Year by Pope Francis on 13 March, the Holy Father will proceed with the official indiction of the Jubilee of Mercy with the publication of the Bull of Indiction on Saturday 11 April, at 5.30 pm in St. Peter’s Basilica. The rite of publication will involve the reading of various passages of the Bull before the Holy Door of the Vatican Basilica. Pope Francis will subsequently preside at the celebration of First Vespers of Divine Mercy Sunday, thus underlining in a particular way the fundamental theme of the extraordinary Holy Year: God’s Mercy. The term bull (from the Latin bulla = bubble or, more generally, a rounded object) originally indicated the metal capsule used to protect the wax seal attached with a cord to a document of particular importance, to attest to its authenticity and, as a consequence, its authority. Over time, the term began to be used first to indicate the seal, then the document itself, so that nowadays it is used for all papal documents of special importance that bear, or at least traditionally would have borne, the Pontiff’s seal. The bull for the indiction of a jubilee, for instance in the case of an extraordinary Holy Year, aside from indicating its time, with the opening and closing dates and the main ways in which it will be implemented, constitutes the fundamental document for recognising the spirit in which it is announced, and the intentions and the outcomes hoped for by the Pontiff, who invokes it for the Church. In the case of the last two extraordinary Holy Years, 1933 and 1983, the Bull of Indiction was published on the occasion of the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord. For the next extraordinary Holy Year, the choice of the occasion on which the publication of the Bull will take place clearly demonstrates the Holy Father’s particular attention to the theme of Mercy….
Vatican City, 31 March 2015 (VIS) – Following the first announcement of the next extraordinary Holy Year by Pope Francis on 13 March, the Holy Father will proceed with the official indiction of the Jubilee of Mercy with the publication of the Bull of Indiction on Saturday 11 April, at 5.30 pm in St. Peter’s…
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(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has named the former President of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See, Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, the new Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education.
The Congregation for Catholic Education is responsible for houses of formation of religious and secular institutes; universities, faculties, institutes and higher schools of study, either ecclesial or civil dependent on ecclesial persons; and schools and educational institutes depending on ecclesiastical authorities.
In addition, the Holy Father named Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki , Archbishop of Cologne, Germany as a new Member of APSA , the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See.
APSA is the office of the Roman Curia that administers “the properties owned by the Holy See in order to provide the funds necessary for the Roman Curia to function” ( Pastor Bonus , 172 as revised by the 8 July 2014 motu proprio of Pope Francis on the transfer of what had been the Administration’s Ordinary Section to the Secretariat for the Economy).
(from Vatican Radio)…