Iraq needs centralized committee for aid distribution, officials say

Published: 2005-06-28

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The church in Iraq needs a centralized committee that would help distribute aid from Catholic donor organizations more equitably, said the head of a papal agency and an Iraqi representative. Msgr. Robert L. Stern, secretary-general of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, and Father Philip Najim, the Rome-based representative of the Baghdad Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate, told Catholic News Service that a coordinating body in Iraq should be created to channel aid coming in from individual donor groups to areas in Iraq that need assistance most. The conflict in Iraq increased the churches' need for support and disrupted many of their organizational capacities on a national level. "What happened then is different donor agencies have established working relationships with different bishops" in Iraq, Msgr. Stern said. But that has resulted in bishops who have the resources to travel abroad and are fluent in other languages being the church leaders who end up securing funding for parish projects, Father Najim said.

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .