Pope´s envoy visits typhoon survivors

Published Date: September 8, 2009

A Vatican official has visited survivors of Typhoon Morakot in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, where he conveyed Pope Benedict XVI´s concern for them.

Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes

Cardinal Paul Josef Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum” (one heart), is attending a conference of Church charity workers in Asia, which is being held Sept. 7-11 in Taipei.

In Taipei on Sept. 7, he told reporters at a press conference that he had visited typhoon survivors the day before and brought along Pope Benedict´s concern for them as well as aid donations. The pope also sent his condolences to those who lost loved ones in the Aug. 8 disaster, Cardinal Cordes said.

On a personal note, the 75-year-old German prelate said that even though it was not his first encounter with people struck by catastrophe, he felt “touched to see the faces of suffering people.”

Recalling a hug that a weeping, elderly woman in Kaohsiung gave him during the visit, Cardinal Cordes said it is not easy to put such an experience in words. He praised volunteers involved in rescue and relief work, noting that the catastrophe stirred in them the spirit of helping people selflessly.

Faith, the cardinal added, enables people to “look beyond the problem” and “leaves them trusting in God.” Even amid the typhoon´s devastation, they could see “the situation was not the end.”

Taiwan held three days of mourning Aug. 22-24 for hundreds of people killed or missing in the typhoon that ravaged the eastern and southern parts of the island, one of the deadliest storms to hit in half a century.

According to Taiwan´s Central News Agency, Cardinal Cordes celebrated Mass at Kaohsiung cathedral on Sept. 6 and visited a camp the military set up for people left homeless by flooding and mudslides.

Media reported that Cardinal Cordes told Massgoers the Pope had prayed for the typhoon victims in Taiwan during several Masses at the Vatican. The Pope expressed his sympathies and wanted to comfort those who lost friends and relatives, he said.

Monsignor Fitzpatrick Russell, the Holy See´s charge d´affaires in Taiwan, accompanied the cardinal on his visit.

Cardinal Cordes visits people affected
by Typhoon Morakot in Kaohsiung

On Sept. 7, President Ma Ying-jeou led senior government officials at an island-wide memorial service in Kaohsiung to mourn the dead. That same day, Prime Minister Liu Chao-shiuan resigned following widespread criticism of the government for responding slowly to the disaster.

About 5,000 people attended the service, including members of bereaved families, other survivors, and Catholic and other religious leaders. After putting bouquets at a tablet honoring the deceased, Ma said he grieved and was remorseful as floods and landslides took away hundreds of lives, causing “everlasting pain in our hearts.”

The Pontifical Council “Cor Unum,” the Vatican agency for relief and charitable work, helps coordinate Catholic aid and development services worldwide.

Cardinal Cordes is attending the “Spiritual Exercises for Responsibles of the Church´s Diakonia on the Asian Continent,” which the council organized on the theme, “… you did it to me (Mt 25:40).”

The first such gathering in Asia brought five cardinals, more than 80 archbishops and bishops, and 450 workers in Church charity services from 29 countries and regions to Taipei. Participants are praying daily for the victims.

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