Cardinal Turkson winds-up visit in Sierra Leone, heads to Liberia

The President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace was due to arrive in the Liberian capital Monrovia on Thursday after a two-day visit to neigbouring Sierra Leone.

Cardinal Peter Turkson left Rome on 16 December to bring a massage of solidarity and hope from Pope Francis to the Church, health workers and the citizens of two of the three nations worst hit by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. In just under 48 hours, the Cardinal covered all the dioceses in the country visiting the western area, the north and the south-east of the country. Speaking ahead of the visit, Cardinal Turkson also recognized “the need to help priests and other pastoral care workers attend to the spiritual needs of those living with the infection and of their loved ones.” He is accompanied by Monsignor Robert J. Vitillo, Special Advisor on Health for Caritas Internationalis.

Msgr. Vitillo told Vatican Radio recently that “The Church, including Caritas, religious congregations, and other organizations of Catholic inspiration have been in the ‘front lines’ of the Ebola response.” He said in addition to providing health care for other illnesses and establishing strict infection control procedures and screening areas to prevent transmission, the Church has mobilized a community response and community education in order to engage clergy and local parish groups in efforts to stop the spread of this deadly virus.

(Festus Tarawalie, e-mail: engafrica@vatiradio.va)

(Cardinal Turkson Photo in Sierra Leone, courtesy of Fr. Peter Konteh Director of Caritas Freetown)