Aid Appeal for Drought and Famine Victims in the Horn of Africa

(August 13.2011) Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and Bishop Gerald F. Kicanas, chairman of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), have asked the bishops of the United States to encourage pastors and parishioners to support emergency relief efforts in the Horn of Africa. “Every day we are seeing more and more heartbreaking news about the drought and famine in Somalia and the eastern parts of Africa. wrote Archbishop Dolan and Bishop Kicanas. The Holy Father, on several occasions, has asked Catholics to respond generously to the desperate needs of our brothers and sisters in East Africa.” More than 12 million people are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia because of what many are calling the worst drought in decades. The Bishops’ appeal concluded by asking the bishops of the United States to request that their pastors “bring the plights of these poor people to our faithful and generous parishioners and ask for their support, possibly through a second collection.”