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Tragedy:
Residents and rescue workers search for survivors
in Regent, Sierra Leone on August 14.
Photo: CNS
POPE Francis offered his condolences and his prayers to the people of Sierra Leone after ooding and a major mudslide on August 14 led to the deaths of hundreds of people and displaced thousands.
“Deeply saddened by the devastating consequences of the mudslide on the outskirts of Freetown, His Holiness Pope Francis assures those who have lost loved ones of his closeness at this dif cult time,” a message sent to Archbishop Edward Tamba Charles of Freetown by secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin said.
Pope Francis “prays for all who have died, and upon their grieving families and friends he invokes the divine blessings of strength and consolation,” the message said.
The Pope also “expresses his prayerful solidarity with the rescue workers and all involved in providing the much-needed relief and support to the victims of this disaster”.
Ishmeal Alfred Charles, who is managing Caritas’ emergency response, said “there is so much agony and pain here.”
“The burials start today,” he said, noting that he was on his way to a mortuary to help people identify the bodies of their loved ones.
Caritas’ emergency team of 10 medics and about 30 volun- tary helpers “needs more resources”, he said.
“We have exhausted all that we have, and the needs are overwhelming.”
The team got to the scene of the mudslide early on August 15 and “in the rst 10 minutes we were there, 11 corpses” includ- ing six children, were brought into the tent they had set up to
World
For 20 million people, conflict combined with drought means no food to eat
VATICAn nEwS
Pope prays for victims of mudslide in Sierra Leone
‘horrific’ yemen famine
register victims, he said.
CNS
CONFLICT and drought are threatening more than 20 mil- lion people in four countries with the prospect of famine, and the United Nations has called this food crisis the largest hu- manitarian crisis since the world body was formed more than 70 years ago.
Additional resources and funding were needed “to pull people back from the brink of famine” in Yemen, South Sudan, Soma- lia and northeast Nigeria, the UN Security Council said in a statement commending efforts by international donors to provide humanitarian assistance for the crises in these countries.
Church of cials and representatives of Catholic aid agencies spoke about the enormous efforts being channelled into meeting the needs of those most vulner- able.
Governments “are reducing aid, while needs are skyrocketing,” Elizabeth Ca- rosella, who works for the US bishops’
Catholic Relief Services in Abuja, Nigeria, said.
Humans cannot control the weather pat- terns, such as drought.
But increasingly, aid of cials nd ac- cess to areas of need blocked by ongoing con icts or inaccessible because of poor infrastructure.
Jerry Farrell, country representative
in South Sudan for CRS, was Save the Children’s country director in Yemen until mid-2014.
He called the situation in Yemen “hor- ri c,” a famine that is entirely man-made.
Seventy percent of the country’s 14 mil- lion people need some form of humanitar- ian aid.
Yemen has relied entirely on imported food since 1991 and “now it is sealed off from the rest of the world,” Mr Farrell said.
Yemen has been embroiled in civil war since 2015, which includes a Saudi-led blockade of the country.
Yemen’s food system has collapsed, he said, noting that even hospitals had been bombed, and it was “as dif cult to get
Starving: A 2-year-old girl eats a meal in an internally dis- placed camp in Riimenze, South Sudan. Up to 20 million people
in South Sudan, Yemen, Somalia and northeast Nigeria face the prospect of fam- ine this year.
Photo: CNS
medical supplies into the country as it is to get food in.”
The World Health Organisation reports 436,000 cases of cholera in Yemen.
Bishop Paul Hinder, who heads the Ap- ostolic Vicariate of Southern Arabia from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, said the blockade of Yemen hindered the recon- struction of the destroyed sanitary system.
“As long as the minimal infrastructure in many parts of the country is not function- ing, we cannot expect that the cholera can be stopped” or that “the starving people” can be properly fed, Bishop Hinder said.
“Without bringing people again around the table” to agree on a cease- re, “there will be only killing and destruction with disastrous consequences for the civilian population,” he said.
In South Sudan, nearly 2 million people are on the cusp of famine.
In northeastern Nigeria, the effects
of violent con ict as well as changing weather patterns have exacerbated poverty and led to 5 million people in need of emergency food aid.
CNS
Church envoy says Vietnam must respect freedoms
THE Church envoy to Vietnam called on the Southeast Asian nation’s communist government to respect religious freedom. Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli, the non-resident representative of the Holy See to Vietnam, celebrated an August 13 opening Mass of the Marian Congress, held at the national shrine of Our Lady of La Vang in central Vietnam’s Quang Tri province.
In his homily, Archbishop Girelli spoke of the state of reli- gious freedom in the country, ucanews.com reported.
“In some provinces, civil authorities are anxious and com- plain about the Catholics and their deeds,” the archbishop said during Mass, where he was joined by Vietnamese bishops and some 200 priests.
Archbishop Girelli advised the gathering on the wisdom of St. Peter’s words: “We must obey God rather than men” and of Jesus’ “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s. I would like to tell the Vietnamese Caesars to give
to God what is God’s,” he said, to which the congregation re- sponded with a large round of applause. CNS
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Iceland’s Down syndrome population ‘disappearing’
ICELAND is on its way to “eliminate” people with Down syndrome, a report from CBS News said, causing uproar in the pro- life community over the high numbers of abortions following prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome.
With only one or two people, on aver- age, born with Down syndrome each year, Iceland’s population exempli es what pro-life leaders say is the tragic reality of an abortion-driven society.
CBS news correspondent Elaine Qui- jano spoke with Icelandic geneticist Kari Stefansson, the founder of a genetic group named deCODE Genetics, which looks at the people of Iceland’s genomes.
He told Ms Quijano, “We have basically eradicated, almost, Down syndrome from our society.”
After being asked what it means for Ice- land as a “society” that nearly all women choose abortion after Down syndrome diagnosis, Dr Stefansson responded that it was a result of genetic counselling.
“And I don’t think that heavy-handed genetic counselling is desirable,” Dr Ste-
fansson said.
“You’re having impact on decisions that
are not medical, in a way.” The head of the Prenatal
Diagnosis Unit and Landspi- tali University Hospital in Iceland, Hulda Hjartardottir, said in her interview with Ms Quijano that by suggesting women get tested for genetic abnormalities, like Down syn- drome, they could be directing people toward abortion.
“We try to do as neutral counselling as possible, but some people would say that just offering the test is pointing you towards a certain direction,” she said.
With the spread of these diagnostic tests in Iceland, as well as the increase in ac- curacy since their introduction in the early 2000s, nearly 100 per cent of women in Iceland choose abortion following a posi- tive prenatal testing for Down syndrome.
In the United States, more than 67 per cent of women who are told that their unborn child may have Down syndrome
choose an abortion, with some organisa- tions reporting a higher number, 85 to 90
per cent.
However, states are starting to
enact laws that prohibit abor- tions due to genetic abnormal-
ities, race, sex, or ethnicity. Through a social media campaign, the March for Life organisation is asking CBS to
“air a segment about the happi- ness and bene ts Down syndrome
children bring to families,” according to a tweet by March for Life president Jeanne Mancini.
Ms Mancini said that while the CBS story said that Iceland was “eliminating” people with Down syndrome, it is far worse.
“We would say that they are eradicating people with Down syndrome,” she said.
She pointed out that while approximate- ly 20 per cent of the US population was aborted, the number of people with Down syndrome who are aborted is frighteningly disproportionate. CNS
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The Catholic Leader, August 27, 2017