The situation in Mexico after the two recent earthquakes is extremely serious, and aid is desperately needed, a bishop has said.
Bishop Ramon Castro of Cuernavaca, in Morelos state, reported “many deaths” and “many churches damaged.” He said one colonial-era church collapsed but added, “Miraculously, the priests escaped safely.”
Bishop Castro said parishes in his diocese had been collecting items to send to victims of the September 7 earthquake in Chiapas and Oaxaca. Now those items — if they were not destroyed in the September 19 quake — will be used locally, the bishop said, adding, “but it will not be enough.”
He said one priest was taken to the hospital with serious injuries after his church collapsed; another was rescued from the rubble.
“There is a great deal of solidarity, thank God, but it is not enough. This is a serious disaster,” Bishop Castro said.
Economic aid is important for “people who have been left homeless, who have been left with nothing, absolutely nothing.”
“I am on my way now to visit the areas that have suffered the greatest damage, to try to convey a message of encouragement and hope,” he said.
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