Pope prays for victims of massive earthquake that struck Iran, Iraq

November 13, 2017 CNA Daily News News Briefs 0 Print

Vatican City, Nov 13, 2017 / 06:41 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After an earthquake along the Iraqi-Iranian border left some 340 people dead and another 4,000 injured, Pope Francis voiced his sorrow for the loss of life and offered prayer for the dead and for rescue efforts.

In identical telegrams signed by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and sent to leaders in both Iran and Iraq, Pope Francis said he was “deeply saddened” by news of the quake, and assured all those affected of his “prayerful solidarity.”

Voicing sorrow to the families of the victims, the Pope offered prayer for the deceased and entrusted them to God’s mercy. He also prayed for the injured and the emergency personnel and civil authorities engaged in rescue efforts.

He closed the telegram asking God for the “divine blessings of consolation and strength.”

The Pope’s telegram came just one day after a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck the border region between Iran and Iraq, with aftershocks felt in Pakistan, Lebanon, Kuwait and Turkey.

According to CNN, most of the deaths are from Iran. The agency reports that so far 336 deaths have been confirmed in Iran, with another 3,950 injured, while in the northern Kurdish region of Iraq seven deaths have been reported along with 300 injuries.

Rescue operations are underway in both countries, and Iran has already declared a 3-day period of mourning.

The quake is the strongest to hit the region in recent years, though not the most deadly. Iran, which sits along a major fault line between the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates, has experienced a number of earthquakes, with the most deadly being a 6.6 quake in 2003 that struck the city of Bam and killed some 26,000 people.

A decade earlier, in June 1990, roughly 37,000 people were killed in a major quake that leveled the cities of Rudbar, Manjil and Lushan.

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Polish bishop at Synod: Practice can vary but doctrine has to be the ‘same for everyone’

October 26, 2023 Catholic News Agency 3
Catherine Clifford, a professor at St. Paul University in Ottawa, and Archbishop Stanisław Gadecki of Poland at the Synod on Synodality’s Oct. 26, 2023, press briefing. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/EWTN News

Vatican City, Oct 26, 2023 / 13:35 pm (CNA).

A Polish archbishop said Thursday one difficulty of synodality lies in distinguishing pastoral practice — which can be adapted to different cultural circumstances — from Church doctrine.

“In doctrine, the Church cannot bring to it the different viewpoints of those coming from the other continents or other parts of the world. Doctrine has to be ‘catholic’ [universal] and the same for everyone,” Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan said at a press briefing for the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 26.

This is in contrast, the president of the Polish bishops’ conference said, to “different pastoral expressions” of doctrine as appear in different cultures, languages, and historical situations.

Gadecki is one of three Polish bishops participating in the Vatican’s Oct. 4–29 assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality.

He said the method of this synod brings both differences and agreements, and participants are not hiding the challenges.

“It would be useless to get together for a month and hide difficulties that exist in different situations or in connection with different issues that require an answer,” he said.

On pastoral practice versus doctrine, Gadecki underlined that “countries have their own histories and they must also be in tune with that history” — including negative responses to the Church’s actions.

He said different pastoral expressions do not influence Christian doctrine, the magisterium, holy Scripture, and sacred tradition.

“As far as the essential things are concerned, there cannot be a development of Christian doctrine, but in the things that are not essential, there can always be a change as long as that change is a true development,” he said, referencing the theological concept of the development of doctrine.

A Romanian Orthodox bishop, who is taking part in the synod as a fraternal delegate, a participant without a vote, said one challenge in the Orthodox understanding of synodality is in reaching a consensus among bishops.

“In the Orthodox church, it’s not the majority that ‘decides’ as we often see in synodal processes,” Metropolitan Iosef of Western and Southern Europe said.

The good thing about synodality, he added, “is you’re never alone when you make decisions.”

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