Despite risks, Iraqis want Pope Francis to go ahead with visit
- Mar 4, 2021
As the COVID-19 pandemic causes a health and economic crisis in countries around the world, a new report says governments should see the Catholic Church as a partner in delivering aid and promoting other humanitarian projects.
President Donald Trump’s decision to ask Congress to rescind billions of dollars in foreign aid spending is “extremely ill-advised,” said a senior Catholic Relief Services official.
New legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives could be a “triumph for the tens of millions of children overseas whose potential is yet to be realized,” according to the U.S. bishops’ international development agency.
Three dozen faith-based organizations, including Catholic Relief Services, have asked Congress to immediately fund efforts to respond to the coronavirus pandemic around the world.
In addition to spiritual loss, the Easter coronavirus lockdown meant another Irish tradition was missed: The return of the Trócaire box after Lent.
CAFOD and other humanitarian agencies warn that Yemen’s health care system, already ravaged by five years of civil war, is collapsing, while its people risk famine as the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country struggles with the coronavirus pandemic.
Catholic aid agencies in Britain have reacted with alarm and disappointment over Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s announcement that he will merge the Department for International Development (DFID) is to merge with the Foreign Office.
U.S.-based aid groups are devoting extra resources to refugees and migrant people globally who are vulnerable to the new coronavirus.