Accommodate the poor -Priests urge FCTA
The Catholic archdiocesan clergy made this appeal through their Vicar General, Very Rev Fr Innocent Jooji, the Parish Priest of Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Maitama, Abuja. In an interview with Sunday Trust before their monthly meeting in SS Peter and Paul Parish, Nyanya, Abuja Jooji said: “We appeal to the authorities to provide infrastructure […]
The Catholic archdiocesan clergy made this appeal through their Vicar General, Very Rev Fr Innocent Jooji, the Parish Priest of Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Maitama, Abuja.
In an interview with Sunday Trust before their monthly meeting in SS Peter and Paul Parish, Nyanya, Abuja Jooji said: “We appeal to the authorities to provide infrastructure in the satellite towns and there should be housing models for different categories of people.
“The satellite towns should be able to accommodate low income earners, otherwise there is too much pressure on the FCT. The suffering is too much for the people and the pressure comes back to the church because these poor people cannot go and start knocking on the doors of ministers or go to Aso Villa, but our churches are open and they come looking for transport fares, food and accommodation.”
He lamented that the church has made its position known to government but it appears response has been poor, stressing that Abuja was meant for all classes of citizens so government should have considered providing affordable accommodation its responsibility and not what is seen today.
“If you are talking about dividends of democracy or good governance, accommodation should not be too difficult, food should not be too expensive, and clothing should not be too expensive because these are the basic necessities of life and everybody should be able to afford them,” he said.
Pope greets Rome’s Jewish community, plans to visit synagogue
By Sarah Delaney, Catholic News Service
Pope Benedict XVI has told the Jewish community of Rome that he plans to visit its synagogue in the near future, the Vatican has confirmed.
In a good will telegram to Chief Rabbi Riccardo di Segni marking the upcoming Jewish holidays, the pope said he would visit “with joy” the Rome synagogue sometime in October, after the end of the High Holy Days.
The telegram was made public by the Jewish Community of Rome and confirmed by Father Ciro Benedettini, vice director of the Vatican press office.
In the telegram, the pope offered his “heartfelt best wishes” for the holidays of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and Sukkot.
“I renew my cordial friendship while I wait to make, with joy, the visit to your community and synagogue at the end of your holidays,” the pope said in the telegram. Such a visit, he said, “is animated by a real desire to show you that I and the whole Catholic Church are close to you.”
Pope Benedict’s predecessor, Pope John Paul II, made history when he became the first pope to visit the Roman synagogue in 1986.
Pope Benedict has made Catholic-Jewish relations a priority and has visited synagogues in New York and Cologne, Germany; he also visited Auschwitz, the Nazi death camp. During his trip to the Holy Land in May, he met with Holocaust survivors at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial.
In his message, the pope said he hoped the Jewish holidays would prove to be “an occasion for a common and blessed gladness” and promised blessings and “constant encouragement” in the promotion of justice and peace.
Rabbi di Segni thanked the pope for “such a significant and important message” and said that plans were under way to organize the papal visit.