CCCB in solidarity with hurricane victims

By Canadian Catholic News
Ottawa

Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) president Brendan O'Brien has offered sympathy, prayers and solidarity after Hurricane Katrina forced the evacuation of the city of New Orleans and devastated the U.S. Gulf Coast.

The hurricane is being described as the worst natural disaster ever to strike the United States.

"It is with heavy heart that your brother bishops in Canada see the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina in the states along the Gulf Coast," O'Brien wrote Bishop William Skylstad, president of the U.S. bishops' conference, in a Sept. 1 letter.

"Please convey our thoughts and especially our prayers to our brother bishops, not only but particularly in the ecclesiastical provinces of New Orleans and Mobile."

"We remember them and their people, especially those who are victims of the hurricane and those involved in relief efforts," O'Brien wrote.

O'Brien highlighted Canada's links to the affected region.

"Much of the area affected was part of the original territory of the Diocese of Quebec from 1674; many of our Acadian people found refuge in that area in the time of their expulsion from their homeland in the mid-18th century; and many of the same French explorers and missionaries who traversed Canada also visited or worked in that area of your United States of America," O'Brien said.

In a CCCB news release Sept. 2, O'Brien invited Canadian Catholics to support relief efforts through either the Canadian Red Cross or the Catholic Church in the U.S. through Catholic Charities USA, 2005 Hurricane Relief Fund, PO Box 25168, Alexandria, VA 22313-9788, via the Internet at www.catholiccharitiesusa.org or by phone at 1-800-919-9338.

The news release pointed out that the Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, set up by the Canadian bishops to give emergency aid to the developing world, is set up to help the world's poorest countries.

The American bishops have announced a national collection for hurricane relief to take place in 195 U.S. dioceses in the early weeks of September.

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