Chinese priest calls for end to search for loved ones in debris

Published: 2008-05-16

DUJIANGYAN, China (CNS) -- Four days after the deadly earthquake shook his parish in the Diocese of Chengdu, a priest asked his parishioners to refrain from searching for their relatives and friends in the debris. "I'm afraid other dangers may emerge," such as an outbreak of disease and further collapse of buildings, said Father Francis Wang Fuxuan of the Dujiangyan parish. Father Wang told the Asian church news agency UCA News May 16 that the most urgent thing is to help the people living in tents outdoors because they lost homes or do not feel safe in them amid still-frequent aftershocks. Hygiene in the city has worsened due to the accumulation of corpses, he said, with flies, mosquitoes and rats rampant. But Father Wang thanked God that almost all of the rural Catholics in his parish survived the earthquake. Dujiangyan is only 15 miles from the epicenter of the magnitude 7.9 earthquake that shook Sichuan province in southwestern China May 12.

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