Pope sends medicine to earthquake victims in Turkey

By Carol Glatz, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis sent pharmaceuticals to earthquake victims in Turkey, where two deadly earthquakes in February killed at least 50,000 people and left more than 200,000 buildings severely damaged or razed to the ground.

Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, and Turkey's Embassy to the Holy See coordinated the latest round of aid from the pope, said the Dicastery for the Service of Charity in a communique March 28.

Some 10,000 units of unspecified medicines were to arrive by air in Turkey by March 28, it said.

Immediately after the earthquake, which displaced nearly 2 million people in Turkey, the Dicastery for the Service of Charity sent canned food, diapers and other supplies that were urgently needed, it said.

It also sent about 10,000 thermal shirts in mid-February to be distributed between Turkey and Syria, which was also affected by the quakes. Three pallets of medicines were shipped at the end of February, it added.

Two 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes devastated the region Feb. 6, killing more than 55,000 people.