Washington D.C., Mar 8, 2006 / 22:00 pm
Catholic agencies are urging Congress to support essential funding for urgent humanitarian and development activities around the world as it considers Fiscal Year 2006 emergency appropriations.
Bishop Thomas Wenski, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on International Policy, and Ken Hackett, president of Catholic Relief Services (CRS), addressed their requests to members of the House Appropriations Committee.
In their letter, dated March 7, they urged the committee to include critical funding requirements in the supplemental legislation pertaining to Sudan, migration and refugee assistance, Title II Food Aid, and Iraqi reconstruction.
The bishops and CRS support the President George Bush’s request for emergency funding for the refugee situation in Sudan, which they say is “crucial to alleviating the conflict and instability” in the African country. However, CRS staff in Darfur reports that there are still too many innocent lives that are being claimed by the genocide. Increased violence and insufficient humanitarian resources exacerbate the problems, and the U.S. must respond with more aid.