(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has given €500,000 to provide humanitarian assistance to those affected by the Ebola crisis in West Africa, especially Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea.
The Fund is being distributed by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
Cardinal Peter Turkson, the President of the Council, said the Fund has many objectives, including improving existing health care structures, offering psychological help for families affected by the Ebola crisis, and to aid local dioceses and parishes to develop sacramental practices which minimize the risk of transmitting the virus.
Listen to the interview by Vatican Radio with Cardinal Peter Turkson:
The Council is currently seeking additional donors to add to the fund, and has doubled the amount of the original papal donation, but Cardinal Turkson said he hopes to have 2 or 3 million euros before distributing funds to Catholic organizations battling the crisis.
“ The applications [for grants] have started coming already, but want to reach a decent level before we start treating applications,” Cardinal Turkson told Vatican Radio.
The Council has limited initial grants to €30,000, and is encouraging larger projects to get matching funds before applying.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis today turned his thoughts to the countless children across the world who live in poverty and need.
Addressing the crowds in St. Peter’s Square gathered for the weekly General Audience, the Pope continued in his catechesis on the family, focusing this time on children.
Pope Francis said that children are a great gift for humanity and for the Church. Recalling the many happy children he met during his recent journey to Asia brimming with life and enthusiasm, he said that on the other hand he thinks of the countless children throughout our world who are living in poverty and need.
“A society can be judged by the way it treats its children” he said.
The Pope said that children remind us that from our earliest years we are dependent on others. We see this in Jesus himself, who was born a child in Bethlehem. This – he said – is a precious reminder of the fact the necessary condition to enter the reign of God is to never consider ourselves self-sufficient, but in need of help, love and forgiveness.
He said that children also remind us that we are always sons and daughters. This identity – he said – reminds us that we have been given the gift of life, that we never cease to be radically dependent.
And speaking of the many gifts that children bring to humanity, Francis said they challenge us to see things with a simple, pure and trusting heart.
They have the capacity to receive and to offer warmth and “tenderness”, to laugh and cry freely in response to the world around us.
And he pointed to a child’s spontaneous trust in his mother and father, in God, Jesus and in Our Lady and said Jesus urges us to become like children, since God’s Kingdom belongs to such as these (cf. Mt 18:3).
Pope Francis concluded inviting all to “welcome and treasure our children, who bring so much life, joy and hope to the world”.
“How sad and bleak would our world be without them!” he said.
(from Vatican Radio)…
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis today turned his thoughts to the countless children across the world who live in poverty and need. Addressing the crowds in St. Peter’s Square gathered for the weekly General Audience, the Pope continued in his catechesis on the family, focusing this time on children. Pope Francis said that children are a…
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Peace “not only the absence of conflict or the result of political compromise or fatalistic resignation”. It entails “is a daily endeavour, a courageous and authentic effort to favour reconciliation, to promote experiences of sharing, to extend bridges of dialogue, to serve the weakest and the excluded”. In a word, it consists in “building up…
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Peace “not
only the absence of conflict or the result of political compromise or
fatalistic resignation”. It entails “is
a daily endeavour, a courageous and authentic effort to favour reconciliation, to promote
experiences of sharing, to extend bridges of dialogue, to serve the weakest and
the excluded”. In a word, it consists in
“building up a ‘culture of encounter’”. The Pope wrote this in letter he sent
to Bishops of Nigeria, the densely-populated African nation now in the grips of
an increasingly ruthless and ferocious terrorism, fed by “new and violent forms of extremism
and fundamentalism on ethnic, social and religious grounds”. The following is
the English text of the Pope’s message. Dear Brother Bishops, While
we walk this Lenten journey towards the Resurrection of the Lord united with
the whole Church, I wish to extend to you, dear Archbishops and Bishops of
Nigeria, a fraternal greeting, which I extend to the beloved Christian
communities entrusted to your pastoral care.
I would also like to share some thoughts with you on the current situation
in your country. Nigeria,
known as the “African giant”, with its more than 160 million inhabitants, is
set to play a primary role, not only in Africa but in the world at large. In recent years, it has experienced robust
growth in the economic sphere and has again reasserted itself on the world
stage as an attractive market, on account of its natural resources as well as
its commercial potential. It is now
considered officially the single largest African economy. It has also distinguished itself as a
political player widely committed to the resolution of crisis situations in the
continent. At
the same time, your nation has had to confront considerable problems, among
them new and violent forms of extremism and fundamentalism on ethnic, social
and religious grounds. Many Nigerians
have been killed, wounded or mutilated, kidnapped and deprived of everything:
their loved ones, their land, their means of subsistence, their dignity and
their rights. Many have not been able to
return to their homes. Believers, both
Christian and Muslim, have experienced a common tragic outcome, at the hands of
people who claim to be religious, but who instead abuse religion, to make of it
an ideology for their own distorted interests of exploitation and murder. I
would like to assure you and all who suffer of my closeness. Every day I remember you in my prayers and I
repeat here, for your encouragement and comfort, the consoling words of the
Lord Jesus, which must always resound in our hearts: “Peace I leave with you;
my peace I give to you” ( Jn 14:27).
Peace
– as you know so well – is not only the absence of conflict or the result of
political compromise or fatalistic resignation.
Peace is for us a gift which comes from on high; it is Jesus Christ
himself, the Prince of Peace, who has made of two peoples one (cf. Eph 2:14). And only the man or woman who treasures the
peace of Christ as a guiding light and way of life can become a peacemaker (cf.
Mt 5:9). At
the same time, peace is a daily endeavour, a courageous and authentic
effort to favour reconciliation, to
promote experiences of sharing, to extend bridges of dialogue, to serve the
weakest and the excluded. In a word,
peace consists in building up a “culture of encounter”. And
so I wish here to express my heartfelt thanks to you, because in the midst of
so many trials and sufferings the Church in Nigeria does not cease to witness
to hospitality, mercy and forgiveness.
How can we fail to remember the priests, religious men and women,
missionaries and catechists who, despite untold sacrifices, never abandoned
their flock, but remained at their service as good and faithful heralds of the
Gospel? To them, most particularly, I
would like to express my solidarity, and to say: do not grow tired of doing what
is right! We
give thanks to the Lord for them, as for so many men and women of every social,
cultural and religious background, who with great willingness stand up in
concrete ways to every form of violence, and whose efforts are directed at
favouring a more secure and just future for all. They offer us moving testimonies, which, as
Pope Benedict XVI recalled at the end of the Synod for Africa, show “the power
of the Spirit to transform the hearts of victims and their persecutors and thus
to re-establish fraternity” ( Africae
Munus , 20). Dear
Brother Bishops, in perseverance and without becoming discouraged, go forward
on the way of peace (cf. Lk
1:79). Accompany the victims! Come to the aid of the poor! Teach the youth! Become promoters of a more just and fraternal
society! I
gladly impart to you my Apostolic Blessing, which I ask you to extend to
priests, religious, missionaries, catechists, lay faithful and above all to
those suffering members of the Body of Christ. May
the Resurrection of the Lord bring conversion, reconciliation and peace to all
the people of Nigeria! I commend you to
Mary, Queen of Africa, and I ask you also to pray for me. FRANCISCUS PP….