Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper
(CNS PHOTO FROM REUTERS)
(CNS PHOTO BY STEPHEN STEELE)
An aerial view shows the Bredjing refugee camp for the Sudanese in eastern Chad. Millions of Sudanese have been driven from their homes by violence in western Sudan’s Darfur region. Inset, a Sudanese refugee and her child. Sudanese refugees have fled west into Chad to escape attacks by Arab militias and Sudanese government forces.
Refugee camps becoming permanent homes, Vatican official tells UNHCR By Sarah Delaney Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY — Refugee camps are increasingly becoming permanent homes for people fleeing war, extreme poverty or persecution, and wealthier nations must make a greater commitment to helping refugees return to their own countries, a Vatican official said. Some seven out of 12 million refugees worldwide have been kept from their homes for more than 10 years, a situation that leaves “masses of people without hope” and spawns “generations of children becoming adults with a lost childhood,” said Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi, a Vatican representative to U.N. and humanitarian organizations based in Geneva.
Archbishop Tomasi told the executive committee of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva that the rights that are supposed to be accorded to refugees “too often remain mere words.” A text of his remarks was released at the Vatican Oct. 9. Millions of people are denied the right to work, are dependent on food rations and often are allowed to move only within the strict confines of their camps, Archbishop Tomasi said. With many camps located in remote, poor regions, “refugees and local people are forced to compete for scarce resources,” a situation that can spur further conflict, he said. “The institutional capacity of the international community seems insufficient,” he said, adding that not only are greater economic resources needed, but also “political will” if the refugee population is to be helped. REFUGEE CAMPS, page 3
INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION Faith Formation Conference. 3 News-in-brief . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Princess at Notre Dame des Victoires ~ Page 9 ~
October 15, 2004
Peace Prize winner . . . . . . . 6 East Palo Alto Boys’ Club. . 7 Scripture and reflection . . . 14 ‘Therese’ opens . . . . . . . . . 17
‘Year of the Eucharist’
Faithful Citizenship
~ Pages 10-11 ~
~ Page 15 ~
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Datebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 VOLUME 6
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No. 33