Hospital worker: China forces abortion, infanticide on Uyghurs

Washington D.C., Apr 24, 2020 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) covered up the spread of the new coronavirus within the country, suppressing the real rate of infection and violating the rights of its citizens as it did so, a Chinese … […]

Mataram, Indonesia, Aug 10, 2018 / 03:18 am (CNA/EWTN News).- With hundreds dead and thousands left homeless by a major earthquake in Indonesia last weekend, Catholic Relief Services is working to bring shelter and necessities to survivors.

“Our priority now is to get as much information from the field as possible for us to make decisions on what support we can provide to the affected population,” said Yenni Suryani, who is leading Catholic Relief Services’ emergency response in the country.

On Sunday, a 6.9-magnitude earthquake tore through the north of the country. Estimated death tolls have ranged from 250 with 350, with officials stressing that the numbers may continue to climb.

In addition, more than 1,400 were injured and some 270,000 were displaced, according to government officials.

A Red Cross representative told CNN that aid workers are having trouble reaching those in need of assistance in mountainous areas, due to landslides and debris blocking roads.

A search and relief official told state-run Antara news agency that survivors are dealing with trauma, and some are scared to be indoors following the earthquake.

Caroline Brennan, emergency communications director for Catholic Relief Services, told CNA that the agency’s humanitarian response efforts are already underway.

“CRS and its local Church partners are currently carrying out initial assessments in North Lombok District,” the area most affected by the earthquake, she explained.

So far, assessments into three villages in the region show that nearly 90 percent of houses are either severely damaged or totally destroyed, and more than 90 percent of the population is displaced or sleeping outside in tents, she said.

In addition, electricity and communications systems remain down.

“From the initial assessment in these three villages, the CRS team identified immediate needs that include food items, shelter kits, clean water,” Brennan said.

“The team also reported that people in these three villages are resorting to ready-to-eat and instant foods as they are not yet able to get fresh food from the markets, which are still closed.”

Suryani, who is based in Jakarta, said that as Catholic Relief Services continues conducting its initial assessments, it is reporting its findings to the local government.

The agency will then work with local partners to address the greatest needs, especially for those who have lost their homes and are sleeping out in the open.  

“CRS plans to support partners to provide emergency shelter kits,” which include tarps, blankets, and sleeping mats, for the affected population, she told CNA.

But while immediate relief efforts are already underway, full recovery for the people affected by the earthquake will be a slower process, Suryani said.

“Given the scale of the impacts of the disaster, the recovery will take time,” she said, and this will require not only rebuilding physical infrastructure, but “most importantly psychological recovery because people lost their loved ones, assets and livelihood.”

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Ranchi, India, Jul 13, 2018 / 10:27 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Three children who were allegedly sold by an employee of the Missionaries of Charity have been rescued, and a politician has accused a political party of unfairly targeting the religious order.

Last week two women affiliated with the Missionaries of Charity, one a religious sister and one an employee, were arrested after a couple complained that they were sold a baby boy, who was then taken back by the shelter.

Since then, three other children have been recovered by authorities, who are still on the lookout for a fourth baby. The children all came from the same Missionaries of Charity-operated home for pregnant women, Nirmal Hriday, in Ranchi, the capital of the state of Jharkhand. The women residing at the home were moved to a government-run shelter.

Initially, it was reported by Indian media that 280 children were missing from the Missionaries of Charity home in Ranchi. This number was eventually revised to four, and of the four, three have been located safely.

The Senior Superintendent of Police for Ranchi, Anis Gupta, said that they learned about the other children after questioning the initial two women arrested. The third child was rescued on Thursday from the city of Simdega, which is also in Jharkhand.

Gupta told Indian media that “a few people have been detained for questioning” after this latest rescue, but further details were not available.

Missionaries of Charity spokeswoman Sunita Kumar said last week in a statement that the order was “shocked” by the allegations, “which totally goes against the value and ethics espoused by the Missionaries of Charity, the nuns, and its founder.”

Kumar said that the order will be investigating the accused employees in Jharkhand “with all seriousness,” and that the Missionaries of Charity had stopped handling adoptions in India three years ago.

Church officials in India, along with a politician, have raised concerns that the Missionaries of Charity have been unfairly targeted by India’s ruling party, the Hindu-nationalist group the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, a member of the All India Trinamool Congress, tweeted Friday that “Mother Teresa herself set up Missionaries of Charity. And now they are not being spared.”

Banerjee called the accusations against the order “malicious attempts to malign their name,” and said the “The Sisters are being targeted” by the BJP, who “want to spare no one.”

“Let MOC continue to do their work for the poorest of the poor,” she tweeted.

Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi and secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, defended the Missionaries of Charity on Twitter.

“This is a deliberate attempt to malign one of the world’s and India’s most loved institutions, Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity,” said Bishop Mascarenhas on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India’s Twitter account.

“The truth will come out,” he tweeted.

In another tweet, the bishop accused the state of corruption, saying the Missionaries of Charity are “simple innocent sisters” who are unable to “match the manipulations of the crooked.”

Bishop Mascarenhas also posted a report from an official government visit to the shelter in Ranchi about a week before the baby-sale allegations. The conditions were described as an “excellent environment.”

The Missionaries of Charity were founded in 1950 in Kolkata, by Albanian Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu, who became known as Mother Teresa. In 2017, she was canonized as St.Teresa of Calcutta. There are about 3,000 Missionaries of Charity sisters worldwide.

In addition to the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, members of the Missionaries of Charity take a fourth vow pledging “wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor.”

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