In response to the appeal of the Caritas Romania Confederation, on Sunday March 5^th the Catholic dioceses and eparchies of Romania will hold a fund-raising campaign for the victims of the earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria in early February. In a message in which he calls the devotees “to show Christian and evangelical solidarity”, card. Lucian Mureșan, president of the Episcopal Conference of Romania, recalls that dozens of thousands of people have lost their lives and that lots of families have been left homeless. “The time has come to offer a concrete sign of support and fraternal love – the cardinal says – by helping people in distress, regardless of their religion, ethnic group or geographical area, by showing mercy and solidarity with the victims of this natural catastrophe and with their families”. In his message, card. Mureșan calls on the memory of Rumanians, by reminding them that the fund-raising campaign takes place forty-six years after the earthquake of March 4^th 1977, which mainly hit the capital, Bucharest, destroyed about thirty-five thousand buildings and killed over 1,500 people. The funds raised by the Catholic church in Romania – a release from Caritas Romania states – will be allocated to emergency programmes right now and to rebuilding and rehabilitation programmes in the longer term. The Romanian Orthodox Church too has been engaged in a national fund-raising campaign for the victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, since February 12^th and until March 4^th.