Pope Francis donates for Indonesia earthquake recovery

October 4, 2018 CNA Daily News News Briefs 1 Print

Vatican City, Oct 4, 2018 / 05:03 am (CNA).- Pope Francis donated to recovery efforts in Indonesia after an earthquake and tsunami devastated the Sulawesi coast, leaving at least 1,400 people dead.

The pope sent $100,000 in recovery aid through the Vatican Dicastery for Human Development Oct. 4 to assist with the first phase of emergency rescue and medical aid.

The 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck the island of Sulawesi on the evening of Sept. 28, causing a tsunami with 20 foot-high waves to hit the coastal city of Palu, which continues to be affected by landslides.

Nearly one week after the disaster, many people remain missing or injured, and tens of thousands of Indonesians have been displaced from their homes.

Among the missing are 52 Catholic and Protestant high school students who were attending a weekend retreat when the earthquake caused the church to collapse, reported UCA news on Oct. 3. Thirty-four of their classmates’ bodies were found among the rubble of the church earlier this week.

Catholic Relief Services, Caritas Italy, and Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund have also provided relief funds and teams to address Indonesia’s emergency situation.

“The images coming out of Palu are horrifying and bring back memories of the devastation caused by the region’s 2004 earthquake and tsunami,” said Yenni Suryani, Catholic Relief Services’ country manager in Indonesia.

“The streets are ruined and there’s no water or sanitation facilities for people gathered in shelters. Most families only have one tarp and one mat. It’s extremely hot and most people are sitting under tarps, just waiting,” described CRS staff member Fatwa Fadillah on Oct. 3.

Pope Francis also offered a public prayer for the people of Indonesia during his Angelus address on Sept. 30, praying for “the deceased, unfortunately numerous, for the injured and for those who have lost their homes and their jobs.”

“May the Lord console them and support the efforts of those who are trying to bring help,” he said.

 

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BREAKING: Pope Francis intervenes in German Synodal Way, expresses ‘concerns’ about threats to Church unity

November 21, 2023 Catholic News Agency 4
Pope Francis’ general audience of April 19, 2023. / Daniel Ibanez/CNA

Vatican City, Nov 21, 2023 / 04:55 am (CNA).

Pope Francis has expressed deep reservations about the direction of the Catholic Church in Germany, warning that concrete steps currently being taken “threaten” to undermine unity with the universal Church.

In a striking personal intervention, the pope wrote a letter to four German Catholic laywomen that was published in the German newspaper Welt on Nov. 21.

“I, too, share concerns about the numerous concrete steps that large parts of this local church are now taking that threaten to move further and further away from the common path of the universal Church,” the pope wrote in his letter, which was written in German and signed “Francis.”

Chief among the pope’s concerns is a push to establish a permanent “Synodal Council,” a mixed body of laity and bishops that would govern the Catholic Church in Germany. The pope underscored that this kind of “advisory and decision-making body … cannot be reconciled with the sacramental structure of the Catholic Church,” and referenced a previous prohibition the Vatican had issued on the topic.

Leadership of the controversial German Synodal Way recently met in Essen on November 10. They aim to establish a Synodal Council in Germany no later than 2026.

The pope proposed a different path forward for the Church in Germany.

“Instead of looking for ‘salvation’ in ever new committees and always discussing the same topic with a certain self-absorption,” the pope urged the Catholic Church in Germany to “open up and go out to meet our brothers and sisters, especially those who are … on the thresholds of our church doors, on the streets, in the prisons, in the hospitals, in the squares and in the cities.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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