Catholic Relief Services pledges to rebuild, help victims of disasters

SALT LAKE CITY — Chile and Haiti, both recently struck by earthquakes that have international organizations scrambling to provide aid, are just two countries where funds raised by the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Collection on March 14 will go.

Good emergency workers are problem solvers. "Every day in Haiti Catholic Relief Services staff spend their time doing just that – finding quick, simple fixes to vexing problems," said CRS President Ken Hackett according to the Catholic New Service.

CRS is the international humanitarian agency of the Catholic Community in the United States. The CRS Collection will be held March 13-14 in the Diocese of Salt Lake City.

As a result of the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, U.S. bishops have pledged to help rebuild church institutions there. Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of San Antonio found it almost too much to comprehend as he walked around the massive tent city of Petionville Club March 2, witnessing thousands of Haitians left homeless, according to Catholic News Service. Archbishop Gomez is the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America. More than 300,000 people died as a result of the earthquake.

Following the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile two weeks ago, CRS will support the relief efforts of the local Catholic Church through Caritas Chile, the social service arm of the Catholic Church. "The magnitude and depth of the catastrophe which has affected the poorest regions of the country will require the support of Caritas members in Latin America and worldwide," Caritas Chile Director Lorenzo Figueroa told Catholic News Service. "Above all, hope is needed among our suffering people. Caritas Chile is collecting food that is being sent to the areas most affected by the earthquake."

"It must be remembered that Chile was one of the first countries to give help to the Haitians in their suffering," said Hackett.

CRS was initially founded as the War Relief Services, the agency’s original purpose was to aid the refugees of war-torn Europe. The continuing support of the American Catholic community and the availability of food and financial resources from the U.S. government helped CRS expand operations. Its name was officially changed to Catholic Relief Services in 1955. Over the next 10 years it opened 25 country programs in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Since its founding, CRS has assisted more than 100 million impoverished and disadvantaged people in more than 100 countries on five continents, according to crs.org.

The 1994 massacre in Rwanda, in which 800,000 people were killed, led CRS to reevaluate how they implemented relief, particularly in places experiencing or at high risk of ethnic conflict. CRS now embraces a vision of global solidarity and uses Catholic social justice as a guide, evaluating not just whether its interventions are effective and sustainable, but whether they might have a negative impact on social or economic relationships in a community.

As part of the worldwide humanitarian response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, CRS donated $190 million to fund a five-year relief and reconstruction effort to help 600,000 victims in the Indian Ocean earthquake. As of Jan. 13, 2010, CRS made an initial commitment of $5 million to relief efforts for victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

Nearly 12 million parishes, students and teachers participate in CRS’ Lenten Rice Bowl program, which emphasizes prayer, fasting learning and giving. Seventy-five percent of funds raised support development projects in Africa, Asia, and Latin America; the remaining 25 percent stays in the diocese for local poverty and hunger alleviation projects.