Vatican City, Aug 25, 2014 / 12:08 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Though the Church and others are doing much to help Ebola victims, “extraordinary measures” are needed to halt the epidemic, a Vatican advisor on health issues has said. “For example, in a health care center with a capacity of 70 patients, there is need for at least 250 health workers, and now there is a lack of them,” Monsignor Robert Vitillo told CNA. “The countries and the NGOs in the region are now searching for international volunteers to strengthen the professional response to the outbreak in those countries.” Msgr. Vitillo is special advisor to the Rome-based Catholic relief organization confederation Caritas Internationalis on HIV/AIDS. He also heads Caritas' delegation to the United Nations in Geneva and collaborates with the Holy See. He stressed that religious congregations are “very active” in Africa, with many religious brothers and sisters hailing from different countries. However, at present there is no structured network of volunteers. “We simply try to get in touch with doctors who already now with Caritas. And there are doctors who have expressed to Caritas their wish to go to help respond to the outbreak, and we put these doctors in touch with directors of the hospital. “We still have to think about the possibility of organizing this kind of initiative,” Msgr. Vitillo explained. Amid the Ebola outbreak, the Church will exercise its moral suasion to encourage pharmaceutical companies to reduce medicine prices and make health care more accessible, the monsignor stressed. “The Catholic Church certainly has a moral strength, and it has always promoted the solidarity and equitable justice which encourages pharmaceutical companies to reduce the price of medicines and to ensure that there is no research in the Global South if these medicines are not shared when developed,” he explained. Msgr. Vitillo took part in an Aug. 12 meeting called by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva. The meeting included representatives of Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone as well as representatives of the World Health Organization and Doctors Without Borders to discuss the Ebola outbreak. During the meeting, Dr. Micaela Serafini, a physician of Doctor Without Borders Switzerland, stressed that the Ebola epidemic “has gone out of proportion.” “Today, we can say that it is completely outside of the capacity of the humanitarian aid; the international community must make a global effort,” he said. The death toll in the Ebola outbreak is still increasing. According to the World Health Organization, 142 new confirmed or suspected cases of infection were reported between Aug. 19 and Aug. 20. Of these, 77 died. Globally, 1,427 people have died since the surge of the epidemic due to confirmed or suspected Ebola infection. The news that two people arrived from Nigeria have been hospitalized in Voecklabruck, Austria, for suspected Ebola infection has raised the fear that the epidemic could spread in Europe, as well. Msgr. Vitillo said that the epidemic “has become very grave,” above all because “many of the health facilities of the involved countries are already poor, and it is difficult to immediately respond to this kind of emergency.” “The four countries involved in the infection need international solidarity. As Dr. Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, stressed in the Aug. 12 humanitarian affairs meeting, the outbreak is unprecedented for its size, severity and complexity,” he continued. “We need extraordinary measures to address this.” The Aug. 12 meeting emphasized that the border areas including Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are crucial. This “hot zone” has been isolated. Nearly one million people are affected in the border areas and they need daily support, including food. “There is always the danger that the infection should be spread in other countries, and this is the reason why we have talked about the needed preparation of the border countries to prevent the possibility,” Msgr. Vitillo maintained. However, Msgr. Vitillo is optimistic, since “at the moment, the cases of infection are limited to these four countries, and in Nigeria it is just limited to the federal state of Lagos, which is very positive.” There is a need of medicines, and especially of possible vaccines for the disease, but “at the moment there is not such a big supply of experimental medicines.” “There was a pharmaceutical company that had decided to send remaining doses to Liberia, and this is a step forward. But they don’t have other doses,” said Mgr. Vitillo. In the Aug. 12 humanitarian affairs meeting, World Health Organization officials pointed out that there is no approved treatment for Ebola. There are some experimental vaccines and there is an experimental treatment based on “mono-chromosomal antibodies.” The World Health Organization decided that the experimental therapy can be used, as long as the patient is fully informed about the risks and gives full consent. The procedure chosen is “very ethical and precise,” according to Msgr. Vitillo. Read more

Vatican City, Aug 25, 2014 / 07:25 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In a letter sent to the family of a U.S. journalist killed by ISIS last week, Pope Francis assured his closeness, and prayed for reconciliation and peace throughout the world. “The Holy Father, deeply saddened by the death of James Wright Foley, asks you kindly to convey his personal condolences and the assurance of his closeness in prayer to James’ loved ones,” the letter states. Signed by Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin, the letter was read aloud on Sunday during a memorial Mass for Foley, which was held at the family’s Catholic parish, Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Church in Rochester, N.H. Continuing, the letter states that Pope Francis “commends James to the loving mercy of God our Father, and joins all who mourn him in praying for an end to senseless violence and the dawn of reconciliation and peace among all the members of the human family.” “Upon the Foley family, and upon his friends and colleagues, he invokes the consolation and strength borne of our hope in Christ’s Resurrection.” On Aug. 19, the Islamic State (ISIS), a militant group that controls territory in Syria and Iraq, released a graphic video entitled “A Message to America,” that shows the beheading of Foley, who was abducted in Syria in 2012. U.S. officials have confirmed the authenticity of the video. Members of ISIS have stated that Foley’s execution was an act of retaliation for U.S. airstrikes against Islamic State forces in Iraq, and warned that they have another missing American journalist in captivity, Steven Joel Sotloff, saying that his life depends on U.S. President Barack Obama’s actions. Pope Francis also made a personal phone call to Foley’s family offering his condolences, which was confirmed by Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi in an Aug. 21 email to CNA. Previously detained for six weeks in Libya in 2011, James Foley wrote a letter to his alma mater, Marquette University, a Catholic university in Wisconsin, revealing how he turned to prayer, specifically the Rosary, during his captivity, and how the prayers of family and friends also gave him strength. “I began to pray the Rosary,” he wrote. “It was what my mother and grandmother would have prayed. I said 10 Hail Mary’s between each Our Father. It took a long time, almost an hour to count 100 Hail Mary’s off on my knuckles. And it helped to keep my mind focused.” When he was first allowed to call home after more than two weeks in captivity, Foley said his mother told him about the prayers others had offered up for him. This news made him wonder if instead of his own prayers, “it was others’ prayers strengthening me, keeping me afloat.” “If nothing else, prayer was the glue that enabled my freedom,” Foley said, “an inner freedom first and later the miracle of being released during a war in which the regime had no real incentive to free us.” According to the Daily Mail, Foley’s parents have voiced gratitude for the prayers offered for their son and the entire family. “We thank God for the gift of Jim. We are so, so proud of him,” said his mother, Diane, adding that they prayed to God for strength and were grateful that “God has given us so many prayers” throughout James’ captivity. “Jim would never want us to hate or be bitter. We’re praying for the strength to love like he did,” she said. “It's not difficult to find solace in this point in time,” added his father, John. “We know he is in God's hands, and we know he’s done God’s work.” “We need the courage and prayers now to continue without him.” Read more

Vatican City, Aug 24, 2014 / 08:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- During his Angelus address Sunday Pope Francis reflected on the Gospel account of Saint Peter's recognition of Jesus as the Lord, urging those present to honestly evaluate their own faith. “Brothers and sisters, what happened in a unique way in Saint Peter, also takes place in every Christian who develops a sincere faith in Jesus the Christ,” he told crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square on Aug. 24. “Today's Gospel challenges each of us: How is your faith? Let each of us answer in our heart. How is your faith? How is it? What does the Lord find in our hearts: a firm heart, like a rock? Or a heart like sand, that is, doubtful, mistrustful, unbelieving?” The Pope drew his remarks from Matthew 16:13-20, where St. Peter professes his faith by acknowledging Christ as the “Son of the Living God.” Jesus responds by calling the apostle blessed, and telling him “that upon this rock, I will build my Church.” “If the Lord finds in our hearts a faith – I won’t say perfect, but sincere, genuine, then he will see in us, too, the living rocks on which he builds his community,” Pope Francis said. “For this community, the foundation stone is Christ, the unique cornerstone.” “For his part, Peter is the rock, as the visible foundation of the unity of the Church; but every baptized person is called to offer to Jesus his or her own faith, poor but sincere, so that He can continue to build His Church, today, in every part of the world.” Pope Francis reflected on how in that exchange with Peter in the Bible, Christ bestows a new name on him since he was formerly called Simon. The pontiff invited those present to pause and consider how the name Peter meant “rock” in Jesus' language of Aramaic. He clarified that this term “rock” referred to God, and that Christ gives this name to Peter “not for his own personal qualities or his human merits, but on account of his genuine and firm faith, which comes from on high.” “Jesus feels a great joy in his heart, because he recognizes in Simon the hand of the father, the action of the Holy Spirit. He recognizes that God the father has given Simon a 'dependable' faith, upon which he, Jesus, can build his Church, that is, his community, that is, all of us. All of us.” Pope Francis noted that Jesus' Church is fundamentally based on our relationship with him, which should be one of love and trust. “Our relationship with Jesus builds the Church. And so to begin His Church Jesus needs to find in His disciples a solid faith, 'dependable' faith. This is what He must confirm at this point in the journey, and this is why he asks the question.” The Pope added that God “has in mind the image of building, the image of the community as an edifice.” “And so, when he hears Simon’s frank profession of faith, he calls him 'rock,' and makes clear his intention of building his Church on this faith.” “Even in our days, many people think that Jesus is a great prophet, a teacher of wisdom, a model of justice,” the Pope added. “And even today, Jesus asks His disciples – that is, us, all of us – 'But you, who do you say that I am?' A prophet? A teacher of wisdom? A model of justice? How will we answer?” “Let us think about it. But above all let us pray to God the Father, that He will give us the answer,” and let us ask “through the intercession of the Virgin Mary.” Pope Francis then lead the crowds present to repeat three times together with him: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Read more