Pope urges Catholics to help tsunami victims

Tony Hotland and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Pope John Paul II has urged all Catholics to assist tsunami- affected people and underlined the necessity for collaboration in relief efforts, says a spokesman for the Vatican.

Speaking after meeting with Hasyim Muzadi -- the leader of Indonesia's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama -- Vatican Ambassador to Indonesia and East Timor Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith said Catholic organizations had successfully collaborated with Muslim groups in relief work here.

"There are many Catholic organizations working in Aceh now, either independently or with Muslim organizations. This shows that humanity is more important than religious differences," he said on Tuesday.

Ranjith said he had visited Aceh along with the pope's special envoy Archbishop Paul Joseph Cordes and his secretary Mgr. Yan Pietro, who had flown in from the Vatican.

Cordes was absent from Tuesday's meeting due to illness, and was represented by his secretary.

Hasyim said the visit was a reciprocal one as a group of Muslim leaders and scholars had visited the pope in 2003 to seek support for the campaign against the United States' invasion of Iraq.

Ranjith said the Catholic Aid Agency, which groups together Catholic humanitarian groups all over the world, had collected up to US$150 million in tsunami aid.

"We're still collecting funds internationally as we plan to carry out various programs with local authorities, such as trauma counseling and the construction of clinics," he said.

Furthermore, Pietro said the pope's decision to send a special envoy was due to his shock over the scale of the tragedy, as well as his compassion for the tsunami survivors.

The death toll from the disaster has reached more than 300,000, with over 200,000 deaths recorded in Indonesia.

"Relief efforts can only be carried out in collaboration with other religious leaders ... for the common good of society," said Pietro.

Indonesian Archbishop Julius Cardinal Darmaatmadja reiterated that religion conversion was not on the agenda of Catholic organizations working in Aceh, who were there purely for humanitarian reasons.

"You can be sure that the Catholic side will not do anything bad ... We even prefer to channel aid through Muslim organizations. We reject any form of illegal adoption (of Acehnese children)," he said.

A dilemma over the presence of non-Muslim relief workers in the predominantly Muslim Aceh surfaced following a report on the adoption and religion conversion of 300 Acehnese children by World Vision, an international Christian organization.

Later in the day, the Vatican delegation met with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono before flying back to the Vatican.

Prior to Tuesday's meeting, the delegation had also met with representatives from Muhammadiyah and the Indonesian Council of Churches.