2014-11-05 10:34:00

Caritas Internationalis in the fight against Ebola


(Vatican Radio) A Press Conference was held in the Vatican yesterday to brief journalists on the work Caritas Internationalis is doing to respond to the Ebola crisis in West Africa.

As well as the experts present, there were link ups with Caritas and Catholic healthcare professionals working in the worst affected countries of Sierra Leone, and Guinea.

Listen to Lydia O'Kane's interview with Monsignor Robert Vitillo from Caritas Internationalis

The virus has killed more than 4,900 people in West Africa.

Monsignor Robert Vitillo is special advisor for health and HIV for Caritas Internationalis and has recently returned from a visit to Liberia, another country affected by the outbreak.

He stressed the importance of education and training in dealing with Ebola.

“There are a number of reasons why education and training is so important, first of all it’s the best means of prevention. Even in the local communities, if we could get the people in the local communities to understand basic facts about Ebola and then also know how to prevent it.”

Monsignor Vitillo also went on to underline the importance of training for the clergy.

“Priests are not really able to anoint people who are living with Ebola because they can’t, touch them, you know,  also many times in our blessings and things in the Church we touch people, you cannot do that,  so it’s trying to help the priests understand that that doesn’t mean they can’t do anything and that they certainly have an important role in accompanying people with counseling, with other sacraments.”

The Monsignor has recently returned from a visit to Liberia and he emphasized how important it was for him to go to the country and hear directly from the people in the field and learn from them.

 

 








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