Seoul (AsiaNews) - Fundraising , first launched March 18 by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Korea (CBCK) for the victims of the March 11earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan, continues. Caritas Internationalis and Caritas Korea will donate 100 thousand dollars in emergency aid to Japan, including 50 thousand dollars of the organization One body one spirit of the Seoul Archdiocese.
On March 18 the CBCK sent an official letter to the 16 dioceses in South Korea, inviting them to promote prayer and collections for the victims. In response, the bishops have also asked the faithful to participate in the prayers and generous donations, to show Christian love for the Japanese survivors, leaving behind past conflicts (there have been several conflicts between the two countries and Japan once occupied Korea).
Immediately after the disaster, March 14 the President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Korea, Mgr. Peter Kang U-il, sent a message of solidarity to Archbishop Peter Takeo Okada, president of the Bishops' Conference of Japan. "We bishops of Korea – wrote Msgr. Kang - wish to express our deepest condolences and sympathy for the tragic consequences of Japan's earthquake and subsequent tsunami, and pray for the victims and their families ... May God's mercy comfort them and support them to give them a new hope in these hours of untold suffering. "
"We - he concludes - also want to express our solidarity with concrete forms of help, all too modest compared to the magnitude of the disaster."
