Zenit.org<\/font><\/a>).- When an earthquake destroyed the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, Catholic Relief Services was in place to be the first and largest responder to the devastation that followed. <\/p>\nArchbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, head of the international humanitarian agency of the U.S. bishops' conference, Catholic Relief Services, told Catholic News Service in an interview Wednesday that this is because the Church doesn't "parachute in for a disaster."<\/p>\n
"We're there anyway. We're on the scene. We know the terrain. We've got the trucks. We've got the supplies," he added in the video interview released today by the bishops' conference.<\/p>\n
The archbishop added that the U.S. government even called the agency and said, "How can we help?"<\/p>\n
"There is no organization on the face of the earth that is closer to the people than the Catholic Church," he affirmed. "We're in place. We're ready to go."<\/p>\n
Coordinator<\/p>\n
The agency was asked by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum to coordinate aid for the estimated 3.5 million quake victims.<\/p>\n
A Vatican communiqu\u00e9 affirmed Thursday, "The 300 plus on-the-ground personnel, who have long been active in Haiti, and the past experience, expertise and resources of [Catholic Relief Services] will enable prompt and effective coordination of the Church's efforts, which, in the words of Pope Benedict, must be generous and concrete to meet the pressing needs of our Haitian brothers and sisters."<\/p>\n
Archbishop Joseph Serge-Miot of the Port-au-Prince Archdiocese was among those killed by the collapsed buildings. The cathedral and the seminary were destroyed, killing numerous priests and seminarians as well.<\/p>\n
The apostolic nuncio to Haiti, Archbishop Bernardito Auzas, survived the quake and has been sending information to the Pope's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, which goes immediately to the Holy Father, Archbishop Dolan affirmed.<\/p>\n
"Rome itself has been very moved," led by Benedict XVI, the prelate added.<\/p>\n
>>>>>><\/p>\n
He affirmed that the "Catholic Church will not fail to move immediately, through her charitable institutions, to meet the most immediate needs of the population."<\/p>\n
Urgent<\/p>\n
"There is a special urgency, and a special gravity here," stated Archbishop Dolan. "We're talking about a population that we know and love because there are so many Haitian Catholics in the United States."<\/p>\n
The archbishop of New York added that this natural disaster "is aggravated of course because Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere."<\/p>\n
He said that he has been in contact with Catholic Relief Services from Rome, where he is gathered with other bishops for the 150th anniversary of the North American College.<\/p>\n
The relief agency's building is standing amid the rubble, and the aid workers are responding with "characteristic effectiveness and generosity," the prelate reported.<\/p>\n
Many of the hospitals and clinics have been destroyed, Archbishop Dolan said, so the people are "counting on us more than ever."<\/p>\n
"We've got to come through," he added.<\/p>\n
The archbishop urged: "We can't give up. We can't quit praying. We can't quit responding as generously as we can."<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From the Catholic news services ZENIT.org. In 1980 I attended the Christmas Vigil Mass at the Port au Prince Cathedral – now completely destroyed Archbishop: Church "On the Scene" in Haiti US, Irish Prelates Send Appeal for Aid ROME, JAN. 15, 2010 (Zenit.org).- When an earthquake destroyed the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, Catholic Relief […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5558,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3526\/revisions\/5558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomfarandasfolly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}