Vatican official says aid agencies show compassion, don't proselytize

Published: 2005-02-01

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNS) -- Catholic aid agencies are working in overwhelmingly Islamic Aceh province as a way to show the church's compassion for victims and survivors of the tsunami disaster, a Vatican official said. The church was not present in Aceh to proselytize or preach, but merely to help survivors heal emotionally and physically, Msgr. Giovanni Dal Toso, undersecretary of the Pontifical Council "Cor Unum," the Vatican's charity promotion and coordinating office, said Feb. 1 during a press conference in Jakarta. A day earlier, Msgr. Dal Toso toured Aceh province, met with Catholic aid officials and viewed the devastation. "It was important to be there and to see what has happened; but it is important also to see the positive response of so many people," he told Catholic News Service. He said church workers in Aceh told him that Catholic aid agencies were working with their Muslim counterparts and that "there were no tensions" between church agencies and Indonesian government and Islamic leaders.

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