Day: May 29, 2022

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis named 21 new cardinals Sunday, most of them from continents other than Europe — which dominated Catholic hierarchy for most of the church’s history — and further putting his mark on the group of people who might someday elect the next pontiff.

Sixteen of those who will receive the prestigious red cardinal’s hat from Francis in a consistory ceremony at the Vatican on Aug. 27 are younger than 80 and thus would be eligible to vote for his successor if a conclave — in which pontiffs are secretly elected — were to be held.

Francis read out the names of his choices after delivering traditional Sunday remarks from an open window of the Apostolic Palace to the public in St. Peter’s Square.

Among those tapped by the pontiff for elevation will be two prelates from India and one each from Ghana, Nigeria, Singapore, East Timor, Paraguay, and Brazil, in keeping with Francis’ determination to have church leaders reflect the global face of the Catholic church.

With church growth largely stagnant or at best sluggish in much of Europe and North America, the Vatican has been attentive to its flock in developing countries, including Africa, where the number of faithful has been growing in recent decades. Only one new cardinal was named from the United States: Robert Walter McElroy, bishop of San Diego, California.

This is the eighth batch of cardinals that Francis has named since becoming pontiff in 2013. A sizable majority of those who are eligible to vote in a conclave were appointed by him, increasing the likelihood that they will choose as his successor someone who shares his papacy’s priorities, including attention to those living on society’s margins and to environmental crises.

A total of 131 cardinals would be young enough to elect a pope once the new batch are included, while the number of cardinals too old to vote will rise to 96.

Pontiffs traditionally have chosen their closest advisers and collaborators at the Vatican from among the ranks of cardinals, who have been dubbed the “princes of the church.”

These are the churchmen named by Francis:

— Jean-Marc Aveline, archbishop of Marseille, France; Peter Okpaleke, bishop of Ekwulobia, Nigeria; Leonardo Ulrich Steiner, archbishop of Manaus, Brazil; Filipe Neri Antonio Sebastao di Rosario Ferrao, archbishop of Goa and Damao, India; Robert Walter McElroy, bishop of San Diego, California; Virgilio Do Carmo Da Silva, archbishop of Dili, East Timor; Oscar Cantoni, bishop of Como, Italy; Anthony Poola. archbishop of Hyderabad, India; Paulo Cezar Costa, archbishop of Brasilia, Brazil; Richard Kuuia Baawobr, bishop of Wa, Ghana; William Goh Seng Chye, archbishop of Singapore; Adalberto Martinez Flores, archbishop of Asuncion, Paraguay; and Giorgio Marengo, apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

In addition to those churchmen, also under 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave are three prelates who work at the Vatican: Arthur Roche of Britain, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments; Lazzarro You Heung-sik of South Korea, prefect of the Congregation for the Clergy; and Fernando Vergez Alzaga of Spain, president of the Pontifical Commission for Vatican City State and president of the Vatican City State’s Governorate.

Francis in his choices kept up a tradition of naming some who are too old to vote in a conclave, but whose long decades of dedication to the Catholic church is honored by bestowing cardinal’s rank on them. In this latest batch of nominations, they are Jorge Enrique Jimenez Carvajal, emeritus archbishop of Cartagena, Colombia; Lucas Van Looy, emeritus archbishop of Ghent, Belgium; Arrigo Miglio, emeritus archbishop of Cagliari, Sardinia; the Rev. Gianfranco Ghirlanda, a Jesuit professor of theology; and Fortunato Frezza, canon of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Presiding over the consistory this summer adds to an already ambitious schedule in the months ahead for Francis, who has taken to using a wheelchair or a cane of late due to a knee ligament problem. On Saturday, the Vatican released details of the 85-year-old pontiff’s pilgrimage, from July 2 to 7, to Congo and South Sudan. He is also scheduled to make a pilgrimage to Canada later in July to apologize in person for abuse committed by churchmen and church institutions against Indigenous people in that country.

Almost as significant as those chosen to be cardinals are those who were not chosen, despite holding posts that in the past would have traditionally earned them the red hat.

In Francis’ selection Sunday, he passed over the prominent archbishop of San Francisco, Salvatore Cordileone. Earlier this month, Cordileone said he will no longer allow U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to receive Communion because of her support for abortion rights.

While Francis hasn’t publicly weighed in on the soon-expected U.S. Supreme Court ruling on abortion rights, in the past he has decried the political weaponizing of Communion.

The new U.S. cardinal, McElroy, holds very different views from Cordileone. He was among the relatively few U.S. bishops who several years ago called for U.S. church policy to better reflect Francis’ concerns for the global poor. He also signed a statement last year expressing support for LGBTQ youth and denouncing the bullying directed at them.

Source: Voice of America

NEW ORLEANS — “Typically, I feel prepared,” Susan Morley-Zender, a New Orleans, Louisiana, resident told VOA when asked about the upcoming start of hurricane season, “but this year I’m much more anxious.”

Hurricane season is a six-month window – from June 1 through the end of November – in which the U.S. states along the Gulf of Mexico and much of the Atlantic seaboard are at the greatest risk of being devastated by a tropical storm or hurricane.

Meteorologists poring over data and weather models agree 2022 could produce an especially treacherous season for Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and – historically one of America’s most storm-ravaged states – Louisiana.

“We’re predicting a 65% chance that the 2022 hurricane season will be above normal,” Matthew Rosencrans, lead hurricane outlook forecaster for the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told VOA. If Rosencrans is correct, this will be the seventh consecutive year above normal.

While unable to predict the exact number of storms that will make landfall, NOAA released an outlook this week that projects 14 to 21 named storms, six to 10 hurricanes and three to six major hurricanes will form in ocean waters around the region this year.

It’s frightening news for south Louisiana residents who, due to their proximity to the Gulf, are especially exposed.

“And the news is even worse because we’ve had a few difficult years in a row,” Morley-Zender noted.

Her home is still damaged from Hurricane Ida, which hit Louisiana last August as a Category 4 storm with 240 km/h winds.

The second-most intense hurricane in Louisiana history, Ida left hundreds of thousands of residents with damaged or destroyed homes and without electricity.

“We have $145,000 in damage, and we’re having an impossible time getting the insurance company to cover it,” Morley-Zender said. “Our roof is still damaged, and our home needs to be gutted, but here comes another hurricane season.”

A target for hurricanes

Morley-Zender said she’s not alone.

“I was flying home recently, and you could still see hundreds of blue tarps covering roofs,” she said. “We haven’t recovered yet.”

Louisiana’s propensity to take direct hits from hurricanes has been well documented since the first French settlers arrived and began keeping records. But experts note the problem has worsened in recent years.

“The past few years have been extremely busy for the Gulf Coast and especially for Louisiana,” said Phil Klotzbach, a research scientist with the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. “In the past two years Louisiana has had six landfalling named storms, four of which were hurricanes and three of which were major. By comparison, the state didn’t have a single major hurricane between 2006 and 2019.”

What’s to blame for the recent increase of hurricanes and tropical storms in the Gulf Coast region? According to experts, it’s a confluence of many factors.

Eighty-five percent of these storms develop in the Atlantic Ocean between western Africa and the Caribbean. In recent hurricane seasons, the expansive Bermuda-Azores high pressure feature has been positioned in such a way that it ushers more storm systems from the Atlantic Ocean into the Gulf of Mexico.

“Once there,” according to Xubin Zeng, director of the Climate Dynamics and Hydrometeorology Collaborative at the University of Arizona, “warmer-than-usual water in the Gulf of Mexico makes those storms stronger than they would be otherwise.”

Those warmer waters, Zeng said, are due to climate change, but also to a multi-decade cyclical pattern that sees the heating and cooling of the oceans. We are currently in the “warmer” portion of that cycle, increasing the likelihood of stronger storms.

Adding to the confluence of factors is the La Niña climate pattern in the Pacific Ocean that affects both Pacific and Atlantic storms.

“Whereas El Niño sends stronger winds to the eastern part of the United States, which can act to break up tropical storms and hurricanes,” Zeng explained, “La Niña produces less wind, allowing storms to continue to strengthen.

“And, on top of all that, there is something called the Loop Current positioned in recent years in a specific part of the Gulf of Mexico that supercharges hurricanes heading toward the Gulf Coast states,” he continued. “It’s more warm water, and it’s how Hurricane Katrina and – more recently – Hurricane Ida were able to get so strong. So far this season, the Loop Current seems positioned to do the same thing.”

Being prepared

Zeng said 2005, when Hurricane Katrina made landfall, and 2021, when Ida came ashore, were two of the most active hurricane seasons on record. Through his work at the University of Arizona, he believes this year will be more like last year than 2005.

While no one wants a repeat of 2005 when Katrina caused over 1,000 fatalities and more than $100 billion in damage, this year’s forecast is still bad news for Gulf Coast residents still recovering from past hurricanes.

“It’s exhausting,” Chris Sisk told VOA. Sisk is a bankruptcy and debt settlement lawyer in Louisiana. Many of his clients are struggling to make mortgage payments while also overseeing repairs on their hurricane-damaged homes. “You’re either dealing with the aftermath of a major hurricane or bracing for another, imagining the worst and how it will affect you and your family. For people with limited income, it’s only harder.”

In the south Louisiana communities of Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, for example, more than 5,000 families are still in – or waiting for – temporary FEMA housing while their hurricane-damaged homes sit unrepaired.

“It complicates preparing for the upcoming hurricane season when we still have so many who are vulnerable because of the previous one,” explained Anna Nguyen, NOLA Ready Communications Director for the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness.

Still, city, state and federal officials say they are working hard to ensure New Orleans is ready if storms make landfall this year.

Hurricane Ida, Nguyen said, showed the city government how important it was to prioritize the most vulnerable, including low-income residents, the elderly, the unhoused, those with no vehicles and residents who need uninterrupted medical assistance or depend on energy-powered medical devices.

But regardless of such efforts, challenges remain.

Experts say, for example, despite the region’s recent and tragic history with deadly storms, pleas for residents to prepare for hurricane season sometimes fall on deaf ears.

“There are many who take hurricane season seriously, especially after so many damaging storms in recent years,” AccuWeather lead hurricane forecaster Dan Kottlowski told VOA, “but there are others who become complacent – especially if their home escaped a storm unscathed.”

Hurricane Ida, Kottlowski said, is a good example, because New Orleans – the largest city in the region – missed the brunt of the storm. If the hurricane had drifted just 25 kilometers to the east, the damage could have been even more severe.

“You have a lot of old-time residents who can list all these storms they survived over the years,” he said, “but they’re missing a really important point. We’re not talking about the storms of 30 years ago anymore. Today’s hurricanes are traveling over warmer water. They’re more frequent, they’re stronger and you have to prepare for them now.”

That’s the annual process many Gulf Coast residents are engaged in now, with the start of hurricane season looming. They’re making sure generators are working, that they have evacuation plans in place and that they have emergency supplies of food and water at the ready.

It’s a scary time for many, and inconvenient for all. In recent years, some have chosen to move away rather than risk the uncertainty of another stormy season.

Most decide to stay, however.

“It’s my home,” explained New Orleanian Timothy Smith, an electrician. “This is one of the pains of living in the best city in the world.”

Source: Voice of America

DAKAR, SENEGAL — Senegal on Sunday buried 11 babies who died in a hospital blaze, the local mayor said, after the tragedy sparked fresh anger over the state of the health system.

The blaze late Wednesday in the western city of Tivaouane was just the latest in a series of hospital deaths that have exposed the weaknesses of Senegal’s health care system.

President Macky Sall on Thursday fired his health minister. But for many Senegalese, that is not enough, and they fear more tragedies in the future.

Last month, a heavily pregnant woman died in agony after her appeals for a caesarean at a public hospital in the northwestern town of Louga were denied.

The 11 babies who died in Wednesday’s fire in a neonatal ward were buried after a single ceremony at the Tivaouane cemetery, in accordance with the grieving families’ wishes.

The burial took place “behind closed doors,” Tivaouane mayor Demba Diop Sy told AFP. “We sympathize with the pain of the families,” he added. “Today is Mother’s Day (in Senegal) and there are 11 mothers who have lost their children.”

An electrical short-circuit has been cited as a possible cause of the blaze at the Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh hospital.

Serigne Cheikh Tidiane Sy Al Amine, a local religious figure, said the hospital had been plagued for 15 years by “donations of obsolete equipment and broken promises to build a new hospital.”

Private health services are expensive in Senegal, and many residents of Tivaouane and its surrounding areas must choose between the hospital or traditional medicine.

The mayor said the neonatal unit, which only opened late last year co-financed by a private company, was equipped with safety equipment and that staff had undergone fire alarm training.

The president has ordered an audit of Senegal’s neonatal services and acknowledged the “obsolescence” of the national health system.

Senegal, widely seen a stable democracy in a turbulent region, is considered to have superior health care to many other African countries.

But there is a significant gap in the quality of service between large towns, smaller settlements and rural areas.

The latest tragedy was the third time in just over a year that people have died in maternity units of public hospitals, leading to accusations of inaction by authorities.

In April 2021, four newborns died in a hospital fire in the northern town of Linguere.

Source: Voice of America