The Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, has donated some relief materials to Lagos State government in support of its efforts to provide assistance to the poor towards the fight to contain the spread of coronavirus pandemic.
Items donated include 500 bags of rice, beans, and 4000 hand sanitizers. In alignment with the CBCN, the church also announced the decision to make St Raphael Divine Mercy Hospital, Ijede available for use as an isolation centre if the need arises.
“We commend the hard work that has been done in ensuring that we are a model state in the effort to stem the spread of the virus. We also commend the effort that has been made to provide palliatives to support the most vulnerable among us,” said Alfred Adewale Martins, the Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, while presenting the relief materials to Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, wife of Lagos State governor, at the State House, Marina.
Represented by Anthony Obanla, the Chancellor of the Catholic Archdiocese of Lagos, Martins commended the proactive steps that have been taken by the state government since the first index case was identified in Lagos.
However, in recognising the challenges associated with providing for the generality of the people in a state like Lagos with over 20million people, Martins said providing palliative to Lagosians is a herculean task that must have created its own nightmare for the government. “So, as a Church, we hear the cry of the people as well as understand the challenges of Government,” Martins stated.
Archbishop Martins noted that the task of managing the pandemic and taking care of the less-privileged was enormous and so government should be supported, hence the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Lagos decided to show her support in order to ease the pain of the poor and vulnerable within the state.
While noting that it is the tradition of the Catholic Church all over the world, led by Pope Francis, to make her own contribution to social welfare especially in moments of difficulties such as this.
According to Martins, the support offered to Lagos State government was in addition to the provisions for the poor that he directed the over 180 parishes of the Archdiocese to make in their different localities across Lagos.
However, about 78 smaller parishes that could not afford to make the provisions without some support were assisted with various sums of money from the nearly 10million naira that was raised from the Archbishop’s appeal to the faithful at the beginning of the lockdown.
The Archbishop commended all those who took part in the 7days of Prayer and Fasting and the prayer of Divine Mercy before the Paschal Triduum. He then encouraged all the faithful to continue praying the rosary as well as the prayer for an end to the Coronavirus pandemic with the assurance that God would not fail to listen to our petitions.
Responding on behalf of the governor, Ibijoke Sanwo-Olu, thanked the Catholic Church for its kind gesture and assured that the donated items will be properly utilised for the purposes they were meant for.
SEYI JOHN SALAU
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