Bishop Gerald Kicanas of Tucson, Arizona, said he and Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York had spoken to Madagascar's Archbishop Odon Razanakolona of Antananarivo and Archbishop Désiré Tsarahazana of Toamasina about allegations that the CRS was involved in contraception and abortifacient distribution.

"They assured us clearly that they did not feel that this was something that CRS was doing, that they had great respect for CRS and great regard for the work that was being done," Bishop Kicanas told the Catholic News Service.

The prelate's comments counter a report from the Population Research Institute which contended Madagascar's Catholic Church was alienated from the US-based Catholic relief agency and believed its work to be violating Catholic teaching.

The Washington, D.C.-based institute on July 26 charged that the relief agency was "using funding from American Catholics to distribute contraceptive and abortifacient drugs and devices in concert with some of the world's biggest population control / family planning organizations."

Sources

CNS/St Louis Review

Catholic News Agency

LifeSite News

Image: CNS/USA Today

D'Sousa and Borthwick spent several days travelling in Bamyan visiting villages to observe the activities and understand the communities' perspective of the benefits gained from the programmes being sponsored by Caritas. D'Sousa said the province is mostly peaceful and they were able to walk to the market and around the streets of the Bamyan township without incident.

"There is a real desire among the people to actively participate in the processes that define their development," she said.

D'Sousa said Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is one many actors for peace in Afghanistan: the PRT; Catholic Relief Services from the United States (CRS - Caritas USA) and the hundreds of national staff that form their organisation; a robust civil society, representatives of whom they were able to meet with in Bamyan and Kabul; an unrestrained press and "most of all the ordinary people who work for the common good and who are so obviously proud of their country and their achievements."

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is working, in partnership with CRS, with communities in Bamyan Province, improving watershed management and rangeland development through soil and water conservation technologies.

The programme also works with savings groups of farmers and women, to provide a collective model for improving farming techniques, marketing and producing goods for sale (wheat, potatoes, vegetables, sewing and handicrafts). Community-based schools are supported to provide children in remote rural areas access to education.

The funding for this programme has been secured through successful application to the NZ Aid Programme's Sustainable Development Fund and will continue to support the work over three years from 2012 - 2014.

Source

• Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand
• Image: Azaranica

"As of Thursday we received the news that we would be allowed to resume operations," Catholic Relief Services spokeswoman Sara Fajardo said.

"We are working with the local government to ensure that food distributions begin immediately."

Fajardo said the Government had asked CRS to leave because they said they couldn't guarantee their security.

One of the Government's claims was also that we were distributing bibles. "This is completely wrong. It is against all our operating principles', Fajardo said.

Fajardo clarified that CRS was a humanitarian organisation and the majority of the staff in Dafur were Muslim.

"Our work is based on need and not creed".

The United Nations has warned that a growing list of NGOs are being forced out of Darfur at a time when humanitarian work is already failing to meet local needs.

Last month, French aid agency Medecins du Monde was expelled from the eastern part of Jebel Marra, Darfur's fertile central highlands, after it was accused of supporting a rebel group active in the area.

Sources

• Reuters
• AFP
• ucanews.com
• ucanews.com
• Image: Caritas