Caritas is one of at least sixteen Catholic organizations that have responded to the Aug. 4 explosion at Beirut's port.

As victims in Beirut face an urgent need for shelter, medication, hygiene kits, and mental health services, these organizations have dispatched medical teams and relief groups to assist with basic necessities.

"Hospitals and doctors had already been reporting shortages of vital medical supplies such as anesthesia, medication and sutures before yesterday's explosion. Amidst these scenes of absolute devastation, we must act now.

Caritas will provide funding to help the Lebanese people in this hour of need," said Julianne Hickey, Director of Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand.

At least four hospitals were affected by the blast.

Medical staff who survived the blast were treating patients on street sidewalks using flashlights to work because there was no electricity.

Thousands of families who were already facing difficult circumstances due to ongoing conflict, economic instability and the COVID-19 pandemic were affected in yesterday's explosion.

"We need to show our solidarity with the poor and vulnerable in Beirut, who are facing so many urgent and severe challenges.

We must do what we can to ensure that they have the life-saving support they need," said Hickey.

Caritas Lebanon's youth volunteers and staff are actively assisting.

Although the blast damaged their offices, Caritas Lebanon remains committed to supporting vulnerable people in the aftermath of this tragic incident.

Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand is sending a solidarity grant from their Peace in the Middle East fund. Anyone interested in contributing to the support for Lebanon can donate online at caritas.org.nz or over the phone by calling 0800 22 10 22.

Source

• Supplied: Caritas Aotearoa
• catholicnewsagency.com
• Image: catholicnewsagency.com

Both disasters have raised questions over engineering, design and rescue management. Both situations reveal a sorry record of law and regulation that was in place to apparently ensure safety and manage difficulties.

Yet the requirements failed to overcome external financial pressures and ensure a readiness to act in ways that might have brought the best from such compliance expectations.

Governments are looked to for law and regulation enabling a society to function with a reasonable degree of certainty and safety. From criminal law to road code to the daily challenges of managing Occupational Safety and Health compliance, there is enough law and regulation to bury the average citizen in a field of paper and computer data.

While rules attempt to provide certainties, acts of good faith animate their purposes. Faith is the placing of trust in another, a belief or doctrine. Without faith, relationships or development of ideas or exploration of landscape or testing of theories would not occur.

Faith stands at the root of all a person does. Any action is expression of faith and faith is something the Church has always held central to its belief.

If, indeed, recent disasters are founded in a lack of faith between people to fulfil that which law and regulation may have intended, what might the Church have to offer in approaching the concerns? Simply, the Church organises itself around and proclaims a central tenet of faith. The faith has a lively character expressed in three distinct, interrelated dimensions.

The first dimension acknowledges an ultimate, spirit-related, point of reference. Naming God prevents the tendency for individual and community hubris having the last say in any perception or action. This might be seen as a vertical faith, directed and given to the worth of pursuing ideals of love, forgiveness, justice, compassion and peace.

The second dimension is that same 'vertical' faith becoming, as it were, horizontal. A practical expression of trust placed and reciprocated between individuals, communities and institutions. This is apparent, for example when someone recognises and cares for others, fulfils legal obligation or when a contract or treaty is adhered to for the benefit of all parties.

The third dimension is when a society structures and enacts shared belief in values evidenced in public policies enabling laws, services and the like to function for the well-being ofall within it.

The Church draws on a tradition, if, sadly, not consistent practice, of being the herald, bearer and promoter of such faith. It is the role of Church in the public domain to animate and articulate an approachable, critical faith in order to identify the values of love, forgiveness, justice, compassion and peace being worth acting on.

Without a ground of faith between people, within institutions and among communities, it will be near impossible for any law or regulation to gain a meaningful hold. Rules may govern transactions and ensure criteria for compliance, however, practical mutual faith between people about the context and quality of those same rules will determine their worth and the well-being of the society the rules are set for.

The Church is a long standing voluntary organisation that continues to find its reason for being in the faith that reminds of mortality, values relationships and supports the mutuality of life-giving values. The call has always been to keep the faith.

- John is married to Margaret with three adult children. Ordained in 1984 he is currently the Director of Vaughan Park Anglican Retreat Centre in the Auckland Diocese.

Image: Anglican Taonga

The pope on Sunday said he wanted to express his sympathy to those hit by the devastating hurricane that struck Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and the Bahamas "with particular violence."

Hurricane Sandy left nearly 60 dead in the Caribbean.

The pope called on followers to show their solidarity with those suffering, and to help relieve "the pain of the victims' relatives and offer help to the thousands of people who suffered damage."

In his address to pilgrims after the Angelus, the pope assured all those affected by the storm of his spiritual closeness, and promised to remember the victims in prayer.

Pope Benedict asked all the faithful to pray for those affected and issued a general call for concrete acts of solidarity.

"I wish to assure you of my closeness and my recollection of those who have been affected by this natural disaster, while I invite everyone to prayer and solidarity, in order to alleviate the pain of the families of the victims and offer support to the thousands of people who have been hurt in various ways by the storm," the pope said.

The hurricane strengthened on Monday after hundreds of thousands moved to higher ground, public transport shut down and the U.S. stock market in New York suffered its first weather-related closure in 27 years, Reuters reported.

About 50 million people from the Mid-Atlantic to Canada were in the path of the nearly 1,600-km-wide storm, which forecasters said could be the largest to hit the mainland in U.S. history.

It was expected to topple trees, damage buildings, cause power outages and trigger heavy flooding.

Nine U.S. states have declared states of emergency, and with the U.S. election eight days away President Barack Obama canceled a campaign event in Florida on Monday in order to return to Washington and monitor the U.S. government's response to the storm.

Sources

• AP/Montreal Gazette
• Independent Catholic News
• The Telegraph (video)
• Reuters
• Image: NASA