Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Lima (Agenzia Fides) - In a statement issued yesterday 26 January at the end of their 89th plenary assembly the Catholic Bishops of Peru (see Fides 23/1/2007) say they are deeply saddened by situation of thousands of families in the departments of the San Martin, Huanuco and Junín in the Selva region seriously affected by the flood disaster in which human lives and animals were lost, crops homes and infrastructures were destroyed. “The situation of the local people is all the more acute with a shortage of food and clean water, which threatens the health of children and families", the Bishops affirm, calling on the people of Peru "to help these suffering brothers and sisters and contribute offerings to alleviate their needs".
A nation wide special collection in aid of Flood Victims and rebuilding will be taken in every parish on Sunday 25 February the first Sunday of Lent. The statement concludes: "Peru is everyone’s concern and the country’s needs are our needs”. During the assembly the Bishops elected archbishop Javier del Río Alba of Arequipa, first president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Peru, and Bishop Ángel Francisco Simón Piorno of the diocese of Chimbote, president of the Bishops’ Commission for the clergy and president of the Santa Rosa Sodality for Priests. (RG) (Agenzia Fides 27/1/2007; righe 18, parole 254)
