$300,000 given to help Oil-Spill victims

(June 16,2010) The anti-poverty program of the United States Bishops - the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, CCHD, is giving $300,000 in grants to aid victims of the recent oil spill disaster. The spill in the Gulf of Mexico resulted from an April 20 well blowout on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil drilling platform, that killed 11 and injured 17 others. It is estimated that the fishing industry will lose some $2.5 billion due to the disaster.
The U.S. bishops' conference reported on Tuesday that the Subcommittee for the CCHD approved the funds to aid low-income people affected by the oil spill. The subcommittee's chairman, Bishop Roger Morin of Biloxi, Mississippi, affirmed that this tragic oil spill has grave human, environmental and economic costs. The prelate explained that through these grants, the Church also offers concrete support to the work that must be done to help these communities help themselves. It's a powerful sign of the essential mission of the CCHD, he said. Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans expressed gratitude for the aid. "By providing our fishing communities with funds to support their efforts to recover, the campaign has enabled the Catholic Church to continue to be a sign of Christ's compassion and hope to the fishing communities," he affirmed
The oil company BP has been fingered as being primarily responsible for what has become the largest spill in U.S. history, though the multinational corporation objects to this accusation.