Pope’s aid for Taiwan typhoon victims

(August 22, 2009) Pope Benedict XVI has donated a sum of $50,000 as a token of his solicitude for the people of Taiwan severely hit by Typhoon Morakot. Pope Benedict sent the money through the Vatican’s Pontifical Council Cor Unum that has directed the Apostolic Nunciature in Taiwan to distribute the aid to the needy through the local bishops. Taiwan on Saturday began a three-day mourning period to remember the victims of the typhoon, two weeks after the island's worst weather disaster in 50 years devastated its mountainous south. The storm took at least 500 lives and caused more than $2 billion in property damage. Msgr. Paul Russel, Charge d'Affaires of the Vatican Nunciature in Taipei told Vatican’s newspaper ‘L’Osservatore Romano’ that the Pontifical Council Cor Unum that oversees Catholic charity worldwide has exhorted that the needy in Taiwan be made to experience the Holy Father’s spiritual closeness and solicitude in their suffering. Caritas Taiwan has been working hard to bring immediate relief to the victims in the south, and Church schools and hospitals have been mobilized in this task. At a memorial Mass on Aug. 15 for the typhoon victims, Archbishop John Hung Shan-chuan of Taipei, president of the Chinese Regional Bishops' Conference (CRBC) spoke of the Pope’s solicitude for the homeless in Taiwan and exhorted all to set aside a dollar a day for 64 days for charity works. Last Sunday’s Mass collection was meant for humanitarian aid.