c. 2005 Religion News Service
VATICAN CITY _ Concern for tsunami victims left destitute in Southeast Asia has dominated the start of the new year in the Vatican.
Pope John Paul II and his aides normally begin the year with prayers for world peace, and 2005 was no exception, but the 84-year-old Roman Catholic pontiff made clear his thoughts also were on the devastation caused by the tsunami of Dec. 26.
Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said that on New Year’s Eve, John Paul celebrated a midnight Mass, in his private chapel, for the dead, their families, those who suffer as a consequence of the disaster and those trying to relieve “the tremendous suffering of the stricken peoples.”
Presiding over a New Year’s Day Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica to mark the Catholic Church’s observance of World Day of Peace, John Paul offered a special greeting to ambassadors of countries hit by the “enormous cataclysm.”
Then, leading some 40,000 pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square in the midday Angelus prayer, he looked ahead to a brighter new year. “The hope of better days in the course of the year that opened today is founded on this sense of human solidarity along with the aid of God,” he said.
At the Sunday (Jan. 2) Angelus prayer, the pope offered reassurance to those dismayed by the disaster.
Faith teaches, he said, that “even in the most difficult and painful trials _ like the calamities that struck Southeast Asia in recent days _ God never abandons us; in the mystery of Christmas he came to share our existence.”
The Pontifical Council Cor Unum is working with Caritas International, Jesuit Refugee Services and local Catholic charities to coordinate relief operations. It reported that the first Catholic aid arrived in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Somalia last Tuesday (Dec. 28), two days after the tsunami.
Caritas said it had received $2 million in early donations. The Italian Bishops Conference pledged another 3 million euros ($4.08 million), and Italian Senate President Marcello Pero donated the entire 35 million euros ($47.6 million) in box office receipts from the Senate’s Christmas concert.
The Basilica of St. Mary Major announced a benefit concert Wednesday (Jan. 5) to collect funds for the disaster victims. Cardinal Bernard Law, former archbishop of Boston, is archpriest, or rector, of the church.
Cor Unum said that additional contributions could be made to Italian Post Office account No. 603035, naming “Consiglio Cor Unum, 00120 Citta del Vaticano” as beneficiary and “emergenza Asia” as the reason for the donation.
MO/PH RNS END
