TC Yasa Media Brief
CATHOLIC CHURCH FIRST RESPONSE TO FAMILIES AFFECTED BY TC YASA
Christmas remembers and celebrates God becoming human through Jesus to save the world. In the spirit of Christmas the Archidiocèse of Suva expresses her solidarity with the families affected by TC Yasa.
On Friday 18th December, Caritas Fiji met at its Emergency Centre in Nicolas House and to plan it’s first response to families affected by TC Yasa. The meeting began with Mass presided by Archbishop to pray for victims of the cyclone.
The Caritas Fiji’s immediate response is to offer psycho-social assistance to help people deal with trauma. Caritas will also share our food rations and clothes.
The Caritas team will travel to Vanua Levu on Monday 21st December. They will conduct a one day training on psycho-social response to trauma in Labasa on 22nd December. The psycho-social team will then be dispatched to severely affected villages and communities. After the visits the team will have a debriefing process.
Pope Francis’ latest encyclical, ‘Fratelli Tutti’ calls Catholics to a universal fraternal and social friendship in building a more peaceful and just society. We must work together to care for each other. Pope Francis appeals to us to go “‘outside’ the self” in order to find “a fuller existence in another” (Par 88), opening ourselves up to the other according to the dynamism of charity which makes us tend toward “universal fulfilment”.
May the spirit of Christmas inspire us to love and care for those in need.
‘when I was hungry you gave me food, lacking clothes and you clothed me.’ (Mt25:35-36)
Peace on Earth
Archbishop Peter Chong
For further information and clarifications please contact:
Agatha Ferei Furivai on 7751308 or
executive.director@caritasfiji.com.fj
