Pope urges international community to help the Sahel fight drought, desertification

(February 10, 2012) Pope Benedict XVI on Friday urged the International community to address the serious situation of the Sahel which has been gravely threatened again in recent months by a significant fall in food recourses and by drought due to lack of rain and the constant advance of the desert. “I urge the international community to seriously address the extreme poverty of these people whose living conditions are deteriorating,” the Pope told some 25 members of the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel, which was instituted by the late Pontiff 28 years ago in 1984 to fight the natural calamities seriously affecting the people of the region. The Sahel is a vast belt up to 1000 km wide, spanning Africa from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, south of the Sahara. The foundation’s administrative council is made up of bishops representing the bishops of the nine countries of the Sahel as well as representative from the German and Italian Bishops’ conferences, and it is overseen by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council ‘Cor Unum’. “Charity must prompt all our actions,” Pope Benedict insisted. Charity does not want to create a ‘custom-built’ world, but to love,” he said, adding that transforming the political order or change the social fabric is not the prime vocation of the Catholic Church. While praising the John Paul II Foundation for the Sahel for the numerous projects against desertification, he also urged that priority be given to the education and Christian training of those engaged in the schemes.