Latest earthquakes hit heavily damaged region in Turkey

OSV News

A new round of earthquakes jolted the already heavily damaged region of Turkey’s Hatay province on Feb. 20.

The Associated Press reports a 6.4 magnitude earthquake was followed by a 5.8 magnitude quake and dozens of aftershocks.

The AP reported Turkey’s disaster management authority estimated six deaths and nearly 300 injuries as of early Feb. 21.

The latest damage comes after early February earthquakes that left hundreds of thousands dead, injured or homeless in Turkey and Syria. Humanitarian needs in those regions are desperate, especially in Syria, which continues to suffer from a civil war that began nearly 12 years ago.

Catholic organizations — including the U.S.-based Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS), Germanbased Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), and the Caritas network — are putting millions of dollars into aid efforts.

“We have had an incredibly generous response thus far from our donors, and we trust the drive will continue,” Inés San Martin of PMS told OSV News.

The Caritas network has started distributing supplies in cities and villages devastated by the earthquake. Mattresses, blankets,

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Rescuers hygiene kits and food baskets are among the items most needed by people whose houses were turned into ruins.

“I am close to you, and I pray for you,” Pope Francis wrote to the Turkish people reeling from the earthquakes. During a meeting with Ufuk Ulutas, Turkey’s new uSuspect arrested in murder of LA Auxiliary Bishop O’Connell. A 65-year-old Hispanic man was taken into custody the morning of Feb. 20 by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies as the prime suspect in the murder of Auxiliary Bishop David O’Connell of Los Angeles. LA County Sheriff Robert Luna announced at a news conference Feb. 20 at the Los Angeles County Hall of Justice in downtown LA that citizen tips led to the arrest of Carlos Medina, the husband of a housekeeper who had worked at Bishop O’Connell’s home in Hacienda Heights. Bishop O’Connell, a native of Ireland who spent most of his 43 years as a priest serving in LA’s inner city, was found dead in his home on the afternoon of Feb. 18. The next day, the LA Sheriff’s department announced that Bishop O’Connell’s death was being investigated as a homicide. In an emotional press conference, Luna said “my heart grieves” for the death of Bishop O’Connell, based on all the calls of support he received in the investigation over the last 48 hours. “This man, this bishop, made a huge difference in our community,” said Luna. “He was loved. It is very sad that we are gathered here today about this murder.” uThe Archdiocese of New York has announced that 12 of its Catholic schools will close at the end of the 2022-2023 academic year. Four other schools will be merged into two schools due to the financial outlook for these schools. “Shifting demographics and lower enrollment made worse by the pandemic” have had a “detrimental” impact on these schools’ “financial stability,” the archdiocese stated. “It is never a good day when we announce closures to any of our beloved schools, but the goal is always to strengthen the remaining institutions and preserve Catholic education in New York for decades to come,” New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan said in a Feb. 15 statement. Five schools in the New York borough of Manhattan will close, as will six in the Bronx borough and one in the Staten Island borough. The four schools that will be merged into two are in the Bronx. The Office of the Superintendent of Schools said it will work with families affected by the closures or mergers to help them find a neighboring Catholic school for their children for the fall. uChurch leaders upbeat after key synodal assembly for Europe. Catholic delegates have praised the conciliatory atmosphere of debates on the Church’s future direction at a continental assembly preparing Europe’s recommendations for October’s Rome Synod on Synodality. “With so many cultural and liturgical differences, particularly between East and West, we won’t achieve a complete consensus — but this very diversity gives Europe its distinctive voice within the universal Church,” Father Jan Nowotnik, mission director for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, told OSV News. Separately, a continental synod assembly for the Middle East wrapped up Feb. 17. Father Nowotnik spoke

ARCHBISHOP NASSAR PRAYS, ACTS

Powerful earthquakes struck parts of Turkey and Syria Feb. 6 and Feb. 20, leaving hundreds of thousands dead, injured or homeless. Thousands of buildings were destroyed.

Archbishop Samir Nassar — who leads the Maronite Archeparchy of Damascus in Syria and visited the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis Jan. 26-31 to celebrate and strengthen his archeparchy’s partnership with the archdiocese — said the need following the earthquakes is overwhelming.

“Forty seconds made 9 million refugees homeless again,” Archbishop Nassar wrote in an email to The Catholic Spirit Feb. 16 about the earthquakes. “Please pray for them.”

During his January visit, Archbishop Nassar talked about the fragmentation of families because of Syria’s ongoing civil war and other unrest in the region. He helps minister to refugees in his community who are deprived of resources and shelter.

According to the Center for Mission, which serves the archdiocese and facilitated Archbishop Nassar’s recent visit, collections have been organized by several Catholic institutions to help those in Syria and Turkey: uPontifical Mission Societies — This fund provides food, shelter and clothing to those in need. Donations can be made online: https://tinyurl com/5x82znpk ambassador to the Holy See, the pope wrote a message to the “noble Turkish people” and said his thoughts and prayers were with them “in this moment of so much pain.” uCatholic Relief Services — The U.S. Catholic Church’s overseas relief and development agency offers food, shelter, clean water and hygiene supplies. Donate online: support crs org/donate/earthquakes uThe Catholic Near East Welfare Association — Aid to families in Syria and Turkey through this organization consists of food, medicine, bedding and baby essentials — including formula and diapers. Donations can be made online: cnewa org/work/emergency-syria

— Rebecca Omastiak

Tcs Website

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE to OSV News after presenting a 22-page draft report on the European gathering to the assembly in Prague, attended in person or online Feb. 5-9 by 590 delegates representing 39 bishops’ conferences across the continent and including 44 guests from church organizations and non-Catholic denominations. u’Not another Love Canal,’ Ohio Catholic pastor prays for his town struck by toxic train. An Ohio Catholic priest told OSV News “it will be a long time” before he and his parishioners feel secure in their surroundings, following a Feb. 3 train derailment in East Palestine that dumped toxic chemicals into the environment. Numerous local, state and federal agencies have been working to address the wreck, but “despite all of the cleanup … we’re learning now how dangerous those chemicals were,” said Father David Misbrener, pastor of the Our Lady of Lourdes and St. Jude Parish Communities, located respectively in East Palestine and Columbiana. “I’m just hoping this is not going to be another Love Canal,” Father Misbrener said, referring to the New York state neighborhood that became the site of the U.S.’s worst chemical waste disaster after decades of stored toxins leached into the area’s soil and water. During a Feb. 14 news conference, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called on Congress to investigate a failure to flag the train for hazardous materials prior to the derailment. uPro-life groups, members of Congress weigh in on chemical abortion case. Pro-life groups, as well as several members of Congress and state attorneys general, filed 15 friend-of-the-court briefs Feb. 10 with a federal court involving the U.S. government’s approval of drugs for early abortion. Four medical associations and four doctors filed suit in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. U.S. Food and Drug Administration over the FDA’s approval of the use of chemical abortion drugs — sometimes referred to as a medical or medication abortion — which they say present adverse health and safety risks to women who use them. Marc Wheat, general counsel for Advancing American Freedom, a political advocacy group launched by former Vice President Mike Pence and one of the groups that filed a brief, told OSV News that “what we are seeing in a post-Roe world is a full-frontal attack from the left on the pro-life movement.” Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys, representing the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Pediatricians, the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, and doctors Shaun Jester, Regina FrostClark, Tyler Johnson and George Delgado in the case, argued that the FDA unlawfully approved the drugs without appropriately evaluating their potential risks for women.

Q There are many website development companies. Why did you take this task on yourself?

A Designing a website is something that I’ve wanted to do for some time. There were aspects of the former website that I always wanted to improve on over the years and I’ve had specific ideas that I wanted to implement myself. Development companies also come with costs that I wanted to avoid as a matter of prudent stewardship of our resources.

Q What if something on the site is not working well?

A Now if something happens that needs to be fixed, I know exactly how the whole thing was put together from start to finish and will be able to address it quickly.

Q How did you make this happen as you met other responsibilities at work?

A Doing it in-house required carving out time in my schedule and leaning on other Catholic Spirit team members to take up slack from time to time. The whole project took almost two years, which was much longer than I had anticipated.

Q Who can readers reach if they have questions or suggestions about the new site?

A I am available for any questions at spiritwebmaster@archspm org erhaps, in my case, a better title for this column is “Why I have stayed Catholic.”

I was baptized and raised in the Catholic Church. I was catechized from the Baltimore Catechism.

Early on, I sat on a fence. For fear of hell, I didn’t want to commit a mortal sin. My religious conviction didn’t care to go any deeper than that. In my high school years, I began to wrestle with: What is the meaning of life? What is fulfillment? Is it pleasure? Is it amassing things?

Through creation I do believe in God. Evolution didn’t bring this wonderous creation to everything that it is. It might have finetuned it.

A high school girlfriend introduced me to reading the New Testament. The Gospels especially are short and easy to read — and compelling. Lukewarm faith is not good enough. But Jesus’ Semitic hyperbole, e.g. “You must lose your life” (Mk 8:35) and “take up your cross” (Lk 9:23) presented a new fence for me to sit on. Do I go all the way with Jesus? The Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5) was downright scary. Life since then has been a gradual process in embracing Jesus.

The late 1960s and early ‘70s brought what I considered to be a “Spirit of Vatican II” free-for-all; religious education was dumbed down and moral theology of consequentialism was rampant.

I attended the College (now University) of St. Thomas in St. Paul. Fortunately for me, I attended theology classes, taught by Father Roy Lepak, that presented St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica, which went over the faith logically and credibly. I was grateful for the pontificate of Pope St. John Paul II. The Holy Father took part in the Vatican Council and provided faithful interpretation of it in continuity with the faith.

I still wrestled with the “groveling” of the saints who all seemed to believe that sainthood relied on God’s grace. I believed that I could be holy relying on my own willpower. Parenting five children with a wonderful Catholic wife and 40 years of career humbled my ambition.

Jesus said that the greatest commandment is to “Love God with all your heart, soul and mind” (Mt 22:37). How could I acquire that