VATICAN CITY, OCT. 9, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI appealed for solidarity for those affected by the deadly earthquake that hit Pakistan, India and Afghanistan, and assured his prayers for the victims and their dear ones.
"It was with deep sadness that I learned of yesterday's earthquake in South Asia, which caused such great damage and loss of life in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan," the Pope said in English after reciting the Angelus Sunday with crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square.
Benedict XVI commended "to God's loving mercy all those who have died" and expressed his "deepest sympathy to the many thousands who are injured or bereaved."
"I pray that the international community will be swift and generous in its response to the disaster and I ask the Lord to grant courage and strength to those involved in the task of rescue work and reconstruction," he concluded
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Rescue effort abandoned at Lake Atitlan town
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More Guatemala coverage
Storms, quakes: prophetic events?
By Michael Brown
I don't get to see television very often, but from I understand a state senator from Alabama, Henry E. "Hank" Erwin Jr., was pilloried the other night in one of those programs where the name of the game is pillorying.
In this case it was for Senator Erwin's view that Hurricane Katrina was God's response to the "gambling casinos, sin, and wickedness" of the Gulf and the senator was attacked by both "left" and "right" for that "radical" viewpoint.
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PANABAJ, Guatemala (Reuters) - Rescuers searching for up to 1,400 people buried when a landslide swept away a Maya Indian village finally gave up on Monday, leaving the victims to lie forever encased in a tomb of thick mud.
Five days after a river of mud wiped Panabaj off Guatemala's map, firefighters called off the gruesome and dangerous rescue effort.
"We're not going back tomorrow, it's just too contaminated in there," chief firefighter Mario Ramirez told Reuters late on Monday.
...
As the rescue efforts fizzled out, a fisherman in a dugout canoe found the body of a 3-month-old boy
in nearby Lake Atitlan. The baby was washed into the lake by the landslide last Wednesday as heavy rains from Hurricane Stan battered Central America.
Panabaj sat between a volcano and Lake Atitlan's turquoise waters in spectacular countryside that draws thousands of American and European backpackers every year. MORE
Pope asks faithful to help victims
LONDON, OCT. 10, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor spoke out against an assisted-dying bill being considered in Britain, warning that the "right to die can become a duty to die."
The archbishop of Westminster made that comment on the BBC One's "Sunday AM" program, in regard to the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill being debated today in the House of Lords.
He was asked by the interviewer whether the matter of death is "not an intensely personal thing which should be left to the individual and not to churches?"
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London cardinal warns of coming 'duty to die'
