Newspaper Page Text
. ——
Bangladesh Flood Victims
Given Catholic Relief Aid
PAGE 13 — The Georgia Bulletin, September 15, 1988
SURVIVORS — Flood victims in Bangladesh line up in knee-deep
water to wait for relief supplies. Soldiers stand by to keep order. (NC
Photo from Reuter)
a
is- NEW YORK (NC) -
in Catholic Relief Services
has pledged funds for
,11 Bangladesh, where flood-
|> I ing in over two-thirds of the
. country has left an esti-
S l s mated 30 million people
homeless.
CRS spokeswoman Beth
Griffin said Caritas Ban-
gledesh has asked for
$675,000 in aid and that, as
of Sept. 7, CRS had re
sponded with a pledge of
$300,000. The U.S. Catholic
overseas aid agency is
based in New York.
The country’s president,
Hussein Mohammed Er-
shad, called the disaster
“the worst flood in the
history of Bangladesh,” a
small, densely populated
country east of India set in
a low plain where three
major river systems — the
Ganges, the Brahmaputra
and the Meghna — meet
and flow into the Bay ot
Bengal. Bangladesh was
formerly East Pakistan but
broke from West Pakistan
in 1971.
The flooding began with
the June monsoon rains
and is estimated to have
destroyed 3 million tons of
rice and other crops worth
more than $800 million. As
of Sept. 6 the official death
toll was 490 but unofficial
estimates ranged up to
1,200.
Caritas Bangladesh, a
branch of Caritas Interna-
tionalis, a Vatican-based
association of Catholic aid
organizations, has joined
with other relief agencies
in rushing aid to areas that
remained under several
feet of water.
Dry food rations, in
cluding rice and vegetable
seeds, and daily essentials,
such as clothes, plates,
medicines, bandages,
candles and matchsticks,
are part of the packages
prepared by Caritas.
Relief officials reported
shortages of medicine,
cooked food and drinking
water.
The U.S. government
pledged $3.6 million in
disaster aid to Bangladesh,
State Department officials
announced.
A projected Caritas pro
gram not only provides for
the repair of houses, roads,
dykes and waterways, but
also envisions the need to
construct low-cost houses,
generate employment op
portunities for flood vic
tims and provide them with
seed for winter crops.
Caritas officials said the
country, which has one of
the world’s rainiest
climates and is hit
repeatedly by floods and
cyclones, needs much more
long-term accelerated
development. With a
population of more than 110
million, Bangladesh is one
of the world’s poorest and
most crowded countries.
Pope John Paul II asked
Catholics around the world
to make a “gesture of
charity” toward victims of
recent widespread flooding
in Bangladesh.
At the same time, the
pope encouraged those af
fected by the natural
disaster “not to lose faith in
the goodness of God.” The
pope’s appeal came at the
end of a general audience
Sept. 7 at the Vatican.
Editors: Contributions to
the Bangladesh aid effort
may be sent to Catholic
Relief Services, 1011 First
Avenue, New York, N.Y.
10022.
;> Religious Community
it
Started For Black Men
NORFOLK, Va. (NC) — The Brothers of St. Martin de
Porres, a new religious community specifically for black
men who will minister to black Catholics, has been
established on a trial basis in the Diocese of Richmond, Va.
Father Bruce Greening, who is establishing the new
order in Norfolk, said, “We see this as an integration of who
we are into the universal church. Pope Paul VI said, ‘Bring
into the whole church the gift of your blackness.’”
The attrition rate among black seminarians is high and
Father Greening blames this on the culture shock that
many experience. He believes formation programs reflect
a “white, middle-class approach to life.”
“Our men do not survive,” he said. “We must allow black
men to be who they are.” He sees the brotherhood order as
a sign that the church wants vocations from black men.
Father Greening, who is a member of the Society of the
Divine Savior, said he will remain a member of that order
until the new community is formally established and ap
proved as a religious order of priests and brothers.
To move to that goal, the community has been establish
ed on an experimental basis for three years under diocesan
authority, he said.
“It is going to succeed because the need is so great. You
can be authentically black, and truly Catholic,” Father
Greening said.
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