Pope Francis gives over $100K for earthquake relief in Croatia

By Hannah Brockhaus for CNA

January 27, 2021 CNA Daily News News Briefs 1 Print

Cardinal Josip Bozanić of Zagreb prays in front of a destroyed church in Žažina, Croatia, Jan. 4, 2021. Courtesy of the Archdiocese of Zagreb.

Vatican City, Jan 27, 2021 / 02:40 pm (CNA).- Pope Francis has given a Catholic charity in Croatia more than $121,000 for earthquake relief.

The money was given to Caritas, part of the local bishops’ conference, to aid families in the Banija region, which was struck by a 6.4-magnitude earthquake last month.

The quake and its foreshocks and aftershocks, which hit on Dec. 29, killed at least seven people, injured dozens, and destroyed homes and churches.

One victim was the organist at the parish church in the town of Žažina, Stanko Zec, who was found dead in the rubble of the church.

Many people have been left without shelter after their homes were damaged.

In March 2020, the capital Zagreb was also struck by a magnitude 5.3 earthquake which injured 27 people and killed a teenage girl.

The funds from Pope Francis were donated through the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.

“Caritas Croatia thanks the Holy Father Francis for his expression of proximity in prayer and material assistance that will provide warm and safe shelter to those left without roofs over their heads,” Bishop Bože Radoš of Varaždin, the president of Caritas Croatia, said Jan. 26.

The charity’s director, Msgr. Fabijan Svalina, said, “every day we bear witness to the active love of numerous volunteers, citizens and companies. We are especially pleased that Pope Francis has decided to act in a timely and concrete manner…”

Following the December earthquake, the Croatian bishops’ conference donated over $1 million in emergency aid to victims.

The bishops have also been setting up temporary housing for those whose homes were destroyed, in partnership with Caritas Croatia and the Order of Malta.

Last week, the bishops commended “victims of the coronavirus pandemic and destructive earthquakes” to the intercession of the Virgin Mary.

In a statement issued Jan. 19, at the end of their plenary meeting in Zagreb, the bishops mourned those who had died of the virus and natural disasters in the country.

“We commend the entire homeland and all its citizens, especially the Archdiocese of Zagreb and the Diocese of Sisak, wounded by earthquakes, and all the victims of the coronavirus pandemic and destructive earthquakes, to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Most Faithful Advocate,” the bishops said.

An estimated 86% of Croatia’s population of 4 million is Catholic.

If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.

Related Articles

No Picture
News Briefs

Pope Francis: I am suspicious of ongoing Medjugorje apparitions

May 13, 2017 CNA Daily News 0

Vatican City, May 13, 2017 / 01:06 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Asked by journalists about the alleged appearance of the Virgin Mary at Medjugorje, Pope Francis said the original apparitions more than three decades ago deserve further study, but voiced doubt in the supposed ongoing visions.

He stressed the need to distinguish between the two sets of apparitions, referencing a report submitted to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by a commission set to study the apparitions by Benedict XVI in 2010.

“The first apparitions, which were to children, the report more or less says that these need to continue being studied,” he said, but as for “presumed current apparitions, the report has its doubts.”

“I personally am more suspicious, I prefer the Madonna as Mother, our Mother, and not a woman who’s the head of an office, who every day sends a message at a certain hour. This is not the Mother of Jesus. And these presumed apparitions don’t have a lot of value.”

He clarified that this is his “personal opinion,” but added that the Madonna does not function by saying, “Come tomorrow at this time, and I will give a message to those people.”

However, Francis emphasized the need to differentiate between the initial

Pope Francis spoke to the 70 journalists on board with him during his May 13 flight from Fatima back to Rome. The presser followed a two-day trip to mark the centenary of the Marian apparitions that occurred in Fatima in 1917. During the visit, he also canonized two of the young visionaries, Francisco and Jacinta Marto.

While the Fatima apparitions have long been approved by the Vatican and local bishops, debate continues to cloud discussion over the authenticity of the alleged appearances in Medjugorje.

The apparitions allegedly started June 24, 1981, when six children in Medjugorje, a town in what is now Bosnia and Herzegovina, claimed to have witnessed apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

According to the alleged visionaries, the apparitions conveyed a message of peace for the world, a call to conversion, prayer and fasting, as well as certain secrets surrounding events to be fulfilled in the future.  

These apparitions are said to have continued almost daily since their first occurrence, with three of the original six visionaries claiming to have received apparitions every afternoon because not all of the “secrets” intended for them have been revealed.

In April 1991, the bishops of the former Yugoslavia determined that “on the basis of the research that has been done, it is not possible to state that there were apparitions or supernatural revelations.”

On the basis of those findings, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith directed in October 2013 that clerics and the faithful “are not permitted to participate in meetings, conferences or public celebrations during which the credibility of such ‘apparitions’ would be taken for granted.”

However, Benedict XVI established a commission, headed by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, to study the topic in further detail.

In January 2014, the commission completed their study on supposed apparitions’ doctrinal and disciplinary aspects, and was to have submitted its findings to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The congregation has yet to submit its final document to the Pope for a final decision.

Pope Francis told journalists that Ruini’s report was “very well done,” and that there are three main takeaways that must be kept in mind when thinking of the report.

First, he stressed the importance of studying the first apparitions of 1981 as their own entity, and attached to this was the second point on the need to be wary of the alleged ongoing appearances, always distinguishing between the two.

Third, he emphasized the need to also look at the pastoral and spiritual dimensions of Medjugorje, because “people go there and convert. People encounter God, change their lives.”

This isn’t a result of “magic,” he said, but is a valid spiritual and pastoral fact that “can’t be ignored.”

[…]

1 Comment

  1. Life is a precious gift. With timely help the earthquake affected people can relaunch and rebuild their lives. Good Samaritans are showing the way.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*