Caritas Iraq Reports No Damage

FIDES, April 11—According to April 11 reports from the Amman, Jordan, office of Caritas, a Catholic aid agency, there has been no damage so far to Caritas centers or Church buildings.

Fides, the Vatican missionary news agency, said no Church personnel or clergy have been hurt in the American-led war and subsequent social disorder.

However, Hanno Schafer, head of Caritas in Baghdad, said unrest and looting continue, and many Iraqis are holing up at Caritas Centers and parish buildings for safety.

Schafer called the humanitarian situation critical. Household food stocks are running low and will last between 15 to 25 days, he said. Due to the increasing number of wounded, basic assistance is not always guaranteed. Caritas continues to supply antibiotics and anesthetics from its stores in Amman.

According to Bishop Jean Benjamin Sleiman in Basra, southern Iraq, there is an ongoing need for chlorine to purify water. More supplies of chlorine are being sent from Caritas in Amman, he said. Water sanitation facilities are operating at minimum capacities owing to absence of operators and because of intermittent power supply.

According to U.N. Office Project Services, there are some 266,018 new displaced persons in the three northern territories—188,924 in Dohuk; 50,036 in Erbil; and 27,058 in Sulaymaniyah. Some 89% of the new internally displaced persons are currently staying in host families, just fewer than 10% are in public buildings and approximately 1% are out in the open.

Caritas supplies blankets and kerosene because temperatures in this mountainous region are still cold.

Slovakia's Professionals Get the Rigth to Say No

THE GUARDIAN, April 21—The Republic of Slovakia will soon ratify a pact with the Holy See that will advance Catholic values in that country, the U.K. daily reported.

A law on freedom of conscience—the first of its kind in Europe—would permit doctors to refuse to perform abortions, judges to refuse to hear divorce applications and teachers to opt out of leading sex-education classes, plus conscientious objection to military service, the paper noted.

The law should pass in May, well before a visit by Pope John Paul II that is set for September.

The Guardian called the treaty part of a Vatican strategy to “reevangelize” a largely secularized Europe beginning from the East, where the Church often led resistance to communists.

Delegation Takes Pakistan Complaints to U.N.

UNION OF CATHOLIC ASIA NEWS, April 17—An international delegation of Christians acting on behalf of various denominations in mostly Islamic Pakistan have complained of religious intolerance to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, the Union of Catholic Asia News reported.

Delegation members presented their statement at the 59th session of the commission, urging the Pakistani government to eliminate “unjust laws” aimed at native Christians and to sign on to human-rights treaties that protect religious freedom.

Father James Channan, a representative from Pakistan, said it was valuable to take their concerns “to the highest-level world body.”