(Photo: Damage in Aleppo | Aid to the Church in Need)
Pope Francis has today offered prayers for the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria that has killed at least 9,600 people, as Catholic aid agencies around the world mobilise to join the relief efforts.
The Pontiff concluded his general audience with an intercession of the Virgin Mary for the victims of the tragedy.
“With deep feeling I pray for them and express my closeness to these peoples, to the families of the victims, and to all those who suffer because of this devastating natural disaster,” said Pope Francis.
“I thank all those who are working to bring assistance and encouragement to them and solidarity to those areas in part already tormented by a long war.”
Earlier Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster wrote to Fr Andrawis Toma, Chaplain to the Chaldean Catholic community in London, to offer prayers and condolences.
“I am writing to offer my sincere condolences following the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and northern Syria,” wrote Cardinal Nichols, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales.
“Please do extend my sincere sympathy to your congregation in the Chaldean Catholic Church. May God grant strength and enduring faith to all who are bereaved, injured and traumatised. May God welcome into his merciful presence all those who have died.
“I assure you all, too, of the prayers and condolences of the Catholic Community in England and Wales. We, too, mourn this loss of life. We pray for the eternal repose of all who have died.”
The 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck south-eastern Turkey and north-western Syria on Monday, destroying tens of thousands of homes as well as killing thousands of people. Several churches also collapsed.
A second 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck central Turkey a few hours later, bringing buildings down.
The Turkish government has declared a level 4 state of emergency and has requested international assistance
The World Health Organisation has predicted a final death toll of about 20,000 people.
Cafod, the Catholic agency for overseas development of the bishops’ conference of England and Wales, has launched an emergency appeal to help the victims.
Bishop Declan Lang of Clifton urged Catholics to support the appeal.
He said: “I encourage Catholics throughout England and Wales to continue supporting our sisters and brothers who have been affected by this tragedy, through your prayers, and if possible through Cafod’s emergency appeal which is providing urgent food, water, and shelter to survivors.”
The Italian bishops have pledged 500,000 euros in aid for victims in both countries and noted that in Syria, “the earthquake afflicts a country already torn by war and where more than 80 per cent of the population lives in poverty”, according to Catholic News Agency.
Nikki Gamer, a spokesperson for the U.S.-based Catholic Relief Services, said the agency is supporting local church partners in Turkey and Syria, including Caritas Turkey and Caritas Syria, but coordination remains difficult.
“Many of our partner staff are personally affected by the destruction,” she told CNA.
“Telecommunications are disrupted and transportation is impaired, complicating relief efforts and attempts to identify and account for family members.
“Snow, sleet, and freezing temperatures are in the forecast, so priority needs include safe shelter, warm clothes, and hot meals. Our partners have begun to offer that support and will continue to assess and address the needs in the weeks to come.”
Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic charity, is preparing an emergency aid programme, focusing on the provision of blankets, milk for infants, and medical supplies.
In Syria, many cities and towns with a significant Christian population, such as Aleppo, Homs, Lattakia, and Hama, suffered major damage.
Sister Annie Demerjian, a Catholic religious sister who lives and works Aleppo, said: “If you ask the people of Aleppo about the war they lived through, they express their feelings of pain, fear, despair about the future, loss of safety, and so on.
“They use many different expressions to express the 12-year war. But if you ask them about the earthquake that they were exposed to, the answer is just one word: horror.”
Chaldean Catholic Bishop Antoine Audo said they are hosting at least 50 people at the bishop’s house, while Bishop Ephraim Maalouli, the Greek Orthodox metropolitan bishop of Aleppo, Alexandretta, and their Dependencies, said they had already sheltered nearly 1,600 people at various churches in the city since the disaster. The Franciscans in Aleppo are hosting and feeding some 2,000 people at their friary.
Among those killed in Aleppo was Fr Imad Daher, a priest of the Greek Melkite Catholic Parish of Our Lady who was crushed when the residence of the former archbishop of Aleppo, Jean-Clément Jeanbart, collapsed.
Archbishop Jeanbart narrowly escaped and is being treated for his wounds in a hospital where he is said to be stable.
In the United States, the Catholic Near East Welfare Association has launched an emergency campaign to shelter survivors and provide bedding, food, medicines, nursing formula, diapers and clothing to more than 2,000 families for three months in the Aleppo and Hama areas of northern Syria.
“This is a preliminary response,” said CNEWA’s president, Mg. Peter Vaccari, “focusing on the work of our partners on the ground who have come to us, asking for our prayers and support.”
Michel Constantin, the group’s regional director, who is based in Beirut, Lebanon, said: “Although our partners are already opening the doors to receive families who have lost everything, such as the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, survivors are still processing the shock of the earthquake, searching through the rubble and assisting in rescue efforts.
“There is a general state of panic, exacerbated by the harsh weather complicating rescue efforts and the capacity to collect and assess data and plan accordingly.”
The preliminary aid will assist the work of the Blue Marist Brothers, who are sheltering up to 1,000 families in Aleppo, collaborating with the Franciscan Friars and Salesian Fathers.
Brother Georges Sabe, a member of the Blue Marists, said: “The situation is tragic … we have opened our convent doors to hundreds of families who have lost their houses, and their number is increasing by the hour
“We are receiving the elderly, children and women who are now in urgent need of food, clothes, medications and most of all, comfort and warmth in this harsh winter.”
CNEWA’s efforts will also support the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which already supports more than 850 families in the Aleppo region devastated by civil war through the local churches’ vast network of parishes and schools.
In the Syrian city of Hama, about 153 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake, CNEWA will be supporting three emergency shelters for more than 150 families who have lost their homes and will provide bedding, kitchen utensils, food and medicines.
“We lived and survived the long years of war but never experienced this kind of fear,” said Bishop Abdo Abrash of the Melkite Greek Catholic Eparchy of Homs, Hama and Yabroud, which is running the shelters. “It is true misery … there is a lack of first aid equipment to tend to the survivors.”
Rescuers discovered that a statue of the Virgin Mary was untouched after the collapse of the Catholic Annunciation Cathedral in the city of Alexandretta in the Turkish province of Hatay. The cathedral was the main church of the Apostolic Vicariate of Anatolia.
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