Katrina Chronicle

Pope Benedict XVI has announced he will send Archbishop Paul Cordes to the United States to express solidarity with the victims of Hurricane Katrina which ravaged the Gulf Coast. Cordes is president of the Holy See’s global charities agency Cor Unum, which means one heart.

Pope Benedict, speaking at the midday Angelus on Sunday, Sept. 4, said in these days, we all feel saddened because of the disaster caused by the hurricane in the United States of America, especially in New Orleans.

The pope added that he is praying for the deceased and their relatives, for the injured and for the people who have lost their homes, for the sick, children and the elderly. He also extended his blessing to all those involved in the difficult operations of rescue and reconstruction.

Condolences and offers of help poured in from around the world. Cardinal Keith O’Brien of Scotland, speaking on behalf of his country’s Catholics, extended to the American people our deepest sympathies at the terrible loss of life your country has experienced in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Writing to Bishop William Skylstad, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop William O’Brien, president of the Canadian Catholic Bishops’ Conference, extended the sympathy of the Canadian bishops. Archbishop O’Brien recalled that much of the area affected was once part of the Diocese of Quebec and that many of our Acadian people found refuge in that area in time of their expulsion from their homeland in the mid-18th century.... For many Canadians, that part of your vast land evokes profound emotion.

In response to requests from the U.S. government for blankets, first aid kits, water trucks and food for the victims, Stavros Cimas, environment commissioner for the European Union, said the union was ready to contribute to U.S. efforts aimed at alleviating the humanitarian crisis caused by Katrina. In a press statement, NATO also announced it had received a similar U.S. request for emergency assistance, including a half million prepared meals.

Among other offers of assistance by foreign governments, Israel offered to send a field hospital and forensic experts, and it proposed Sabbath prayer for the victims. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dispatched a delegation of health and defense ministry officials to confer with their U.S. counterparts.

Out of recognition for the unprecedented cost of the disaster and the political burdens it places on President George W. Bush, the Israeli government had decided to postpone a formal request for development aid for the Negev and Galilee as part of the Gaza settlement withdrawal.

In Louisiana, Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes of New Orleans, gathering with other religious leaders and Governor Kathleen Blanco, offered prayers for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. We are so overwhelmed we do not know how to respond, Archbishop Hughes said. We know all things work together for good, the Times-Picayune reported the archbishop saying; If God is for us, who can be against us? The archbishop also visited evacuees housed in shelters in Baton Rouge, where he himself had to take refuge.

From Washington, D.C., Bishop Skylstad asked U.S. dioceses to take up a special collection for the victims of the hurricane. Most of the affected dioceses, Skylstad said, are Home Mission dioceses, which struggle to survive under the best of conditions.

Meanwhile Catholic Charities USA worked with Homeland Security and diocesan Catholic Charities agencies in the devastated area to move relief supplies and equipment. The mission of Catholic Charities USA, said a spokeswoman, Shelly Borysiewicz, is to rebuild lives: our niche is long-term disaster response. Typical C.C.U.S.A. disaster response programs include temporary housing or housing assistance and mental health counseling, she explained.

The U. S. bishops’ conference also announced that Catholic schools around the country were accepting students displaced by the massive storm.

Dioceses are offering tuition-free attendance, free books and backpacks and whatever else students need to begin their studies away from home. Relatives living thousands of miles away who are taking in nieces and nephews from the Gulf Coast area are finding their local Catholic schools have agreed to help the storm’s victims. Routine concerns about cost, paperwork and even class size have been put aside.

Sister Glenn Anne McPhee, the U.S. bishops’ secretary for education, said, Throughout the country there are efforts to bring stability to the students’ lives by providing them with educational opportunities so that their schooling will be as little interrupted as possible.

The National Religious Retirement Office announced it was attempting to help relocate elderly religious displaced by Katrina. Sister Janice Bader, coordinator of the effort, exlpained the office would serve as a clearinghouse to link religious in need of housing with communities offering hospitality for the displaced.

Readers wishing to learn more or to donate to the victims of Hurricane Katrina through Catholic Charities USA can do so on the World Wide Web at: www.catholiccharitiesusa.org/news/katrina.cfm.

America Extends Subscriptions Suspended by Katrina

Because of disruptions by Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. Postal Service has suspended service for all offices in some zip codes until further notice. Subscribers in these areas will therefore not be receiving America by mail for an indefinite period. Access to America on the Web (www.americamagazine.org) is not affected by this. When service is restored, these mail subscriptions will be extended by the length of the suspension. The zip codes currently affected are:

365xx-366xx Mobile, AL

My dear younger brothers and sisters: I write, as an older brother, to encourage you. Last month more than a million young Catholics gathered with Pope Benedict XVI in Cologne for World Youth Day. Twenty-five thousand of them were from the United States. The Lord entrusts the future of the church to young people like them and you. Our countryman Walt Whitman once wrote:

Youth,large, lusty, loving,

Legacy

James Ross should be commended for placing a spotlight on prison abuse in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantnamo Bay in Bush, Torture, and Lincoln’s Legacy (8/15). But he loses credibility when he extols our 16th president as a model of restraint and humanistic principles. Has he never heard of Sherman? Of Lincoln’s abolishing of habeas corpus? His issuing of an arrest warrant for Chief Justice Roger B. Taney (after the 84-year-old judge decided that Congress, but not the president, can suspend habeas corpus)? His instituting of the draft (followed by draft riots)? His jailing of tens of thousands of dissenters without due process for reasons of criticizing the Lincoln administration (including the mayor of Baltimore, a Maryland congressman, an Ohio congressman and scores of newspaper editors)? His belief in the inherent inequality between the black and white races?

Leading Catholic thinkers of the time were very troubled by the precedents set by Lincoln. Since then, whatever constitutional safeguards remain reflecting restraint and humanistic principles in government have been trampled to such an extent that presidents can no longer be bothered with requests for declarations of war. Today, the military serves as the sitting president’s private army, while actions taken in places like Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib are justified with the same logic that Lincoln used to circumvent constitutional (and moral) constraints of his day. The military doctrine of Shock and Awe has 19th-century roots.

A frank discussion of the restraint and humanistic principles of U.S. presidents would be fascinating. Unfortunately, I am still waiting to see one.

Christopher Westley