US Bishops praise enactment
of Iraq & Syria Genocide Relief Act
 |
| Offices of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC.(Farragutful) |
The US Bishops Conference (USCCB) applaud US legislation
that directs humanitarian aid to genocide victims in Iraq and Syria, and will
hold perpetrators accountable.
By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp
In a statement released on Tuesday, the same day the
legislation was signed by President Trump, US Bishops Conference (USCCB)
“applaud” the enactment of the Iraq and Syria Genocide Relief and
Accountability Act. Through this legislation, genocide victims in Iraq and
Syria will receive humanitarian aid and perpetrators will be held accountable.
Sign of hope
In the statement, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, Chairman of the U.S.
Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace, said that the
legislation “is a signal of hope for the critically vulnerable of this region”.
He thanked the bill’s author, those who sponsored it, and President Trump for
signing it into law.
Statistics on Christians
According to Archbishop Broglio, only 14% of Christians have
remained in Iraq. Of these, many are displaced and in desperate need of
assistance in order to return home and remain in Iraq. The Yazidi population
has suffered a similar fate.
Form of genocide
The Archbishop concluded the statement, saying the Catholic
Church has consistently drawn attention to those in the Middle East and
throughout the world who face “persecution and displacement”. Pope Francis, he
said, has called “the persecution, torture and killing of Christians in the
Middle East…a ‘form of genocide’ that must end”.
US Bishops approve funds in Eastern Europe
In a statement released on Wednesday, the USCCB announced
that on 11 November its Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and
Eastern Europe had approved $4 million for 143 projects in Central and Eastern
Europe. These projects include: support for single mothers in Armenia,
construction of a rehabilitation centre in Georgia, funding for Latvian youth
going to World Youth Day in Panama, the translation into Ukrainian of Papal
encyclicals and other documents containing the Church’s social teaching,
support for the “most rapidly growing seminary in Eastern Europe in Kyiv,
Ukraine, where the number of seminarians has increased from 39 to 79 in the
last five years”. These funds are raised in an annual Collection for the Church
in Central and Eastern Europe on Ash Wednesday in the Churches in the US.
US Bishops approve funds for US mission dioceses
In a separate statement released
on Wednesday, the USCCB announced that $9.5 million had been approved in
October by its Subcommittee on Catholic Home Missions in order to assist 79 US
dioceses and eparchies. This money will help local churches “provide basic
pastoral services” that they would not otherwise be able to provide. These
funds are also collected in an annual collection called the “Catholic Home
Missions Appeal”, generally taken up on the fourth Sunday of April.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét