Tsunami in South Asia
The fishing communities in South Asia need our help!
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The aim of this blog is to keep constant relations between worldwide AOS delegations and centers belonging to the ICMA Mediterranean, and also keep everybody updated with the latest news and events of our center.
4 Comments:
Fr. Pinto, Coordinator of the Apostleship of the Sea in South Asia wrote this e-mail to Cardinal Hamao and all the Regional Coordinators of AOS:
Subject: Tsunami in South Asia
> To:
> His E. Cardinal Stephen Fumio Hamao,
>
> And
> To:
> Archbishop Marchetto,
> To:
> Rev.Jacques Harel,with a request to Antonella to
> please redirect/fwd this to the AOS Regional and world
> addresses
> All the Members of the International AOS Fishing
> Coimmittee.
>
> Your Eminence,
>
> I beg to be excused to be writing a common letter to
> all others together with the one I write to you.
>
> Time and feelings do not permit me otherwise. In any
> case it has taken me 48 hours to get to writing this
> as I kept calling ( often in vain ) the Chaplians in
> Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and the most effected in India
> on the Tamil Nadu and Kerala Coast- both states of our
> Southern Peninsula- to get some details of the events
> other than those on the TV network ; and to assure
> them of my Solidarity with them.
>
> I cannot descibe the sorrow we feel and the trauma we
> are going through. I am sure you all have been in mind
> and heart with our Region. Entire Fishing Villages
> have been obliterated. Yesterday a Redemptorist priest
> friend of mine, Fr. Santiago in a coastal village of
> the Kottar Diocese buried 230 persons in a mass
> grave.In the National Shrine of Our Lady of
> Vailankanni, a popular Pilgrim Spot of the Christmas
> Season, the priests are busy burying/identyfying 500
> dead (all pilgrims and tourists) ... I am sure you
> have been following some of the news in your own
> countries.
>
> The first days in the new year will see things settled
> down to the reality of the massive traumatic situation
> and then we can put our thoughts and hearts in place
> for those who are alive. Right now the Dead are being
> buried and the lost are being found and the hungry are
> being fed and the naked being clothed.Thanks to those
> who in the local areas are alive and able. Thanks to
> Caritas India and others who have aready moved in to
> the area.
>
>
> Our previous Bishop Promoter in India Rt. Rev. Leon
> Tharmaraj , is visiting the camps daily and personally
> burying the dead in mass graves.His very crowded and
> 80% catholic diocese has been severly hit. Kottar
> diocese comprises of the civic district of Kanyakumari
> which you may heard of in the news. He has been
> wailing and crying publicly at the sorrow he feels.
> Together with him his flock weeps... and I too .
>
> I am about 1000 k.m. away from the area . I wanted
> very much to go and was ready to do so; but a national
> announcement on the TV of India has discouraged and
> urged us not to go; also my priest friends who are
> already in the area agreed with this stance and said
> that when things settle down then more volunteers from
> outside the villages will be needed.
>
> REBUILDING THE HOMES FO THE FISHING COMMUNITES WILLEB
> THE PRIORITY OF THE AOS SOUTH ASIA .This is why I
> write to you .
> I appeal to you for your generosioty and help in this
> very very grave situation of ours here in South Asia.
> I suggest that you do not rush to send in your
> contributions. The need of the hour as in any calamity
> in India is to see that the money contributed will
> reach the deserving people to its maximum. South Asia
> AOS has a good network with the National Fishworkers
> Forum who are already in the area visiting and being
> there personally in the camps. They will be there for
> many more days.
>
> I appeal to all our AOS Regional Directors to kindly
> help in this matter and stand by. Soon I will be able
> to share with you our specific needs and how you can
> help and how you can urge your friends and memebrs of
> the AOS in your own country to do so.
>
> Dear and Rev. Cardinal Hamao, I humbly request you to
> kindly consider this appeal of mine generously.
>
> asking your blessings,
>
> Fr. Xavier Pinto, C.Ss.R.
Fr. Jack Jones wrote the following:
Like you I have been deep in thought and prayer of how best we could help in this catastrophe in the Indian Ocean. I have come to the conclusion that in the short term, apart from donations of cash, I think the large NGO's and the aid organisations are much better equipped to handle the situation at this time. But in the long term we could with the help of the world shipping industry, provide positive long term help for the decimated Indian Ocean fishing fleets that have lost all that they have. First maybe we could set up a fund to repair of their fishing boats, but the thing that prompted me how best help is that in many parts of europe perfectly good fishing boats are being sold for scrap, because fishing quotas have been reduced, and so out of some of our fishermen's loss these ships could be put to good use. If we can ship these boats with the help of the shipping industry that would be wonderful. I would like to have your thoughts......
On the 4th of Jan I will ask the Fisherman's union if they can help, if they and others will back this sort of enterprise, and I will send out a request to ITF, ICMA, and ICSW if they would support this such an enterprise.
Many blessing to you for the New Year. Jack Jones
Rev Jack Jones. LIFE International Seafarers.
El Apostolado del Mar de Barcelona ha abierto una cuenta coriente para recaudar fondos de ayuda para los pescadores, víctimas del Tsunami:
Cuenta de La Caixa: 2100-0801-16-0200511931
(AOS Barcelona has open an account for helping fishers in South Asia)
Dr. Jürgen Kanz, General Secretary of ICMA wrote:
Dear colleagues and friends,
I would like to share my Tsunami meditation and ICMA statement with you directly. Both will be published on ICMA website these days.
Yours sincerely,
Juergen.
International Christian Maritime Association
ICMA Secretariat
Dr. Jürgen R.A. Kanz, General Secretary
icma@wanadoo.nl
s-Gravendijkwal 64
3014 EG Rotterdam
The Netherlands
tel: +31 10 225 1799
fax: +31 10 225 0692
mobile: +31 6 38068 222
Tsunami
A meditation in dark days
In my diary, there is one page reserved for WORDS OF THE YEAR – unusual words which have come into fashion temporarily, sometimes words to veil the brutality of events (like collateral damage), sometimes words which have sprang up in a compelling way forcing themselves into the mouth of almost everybody.
My last entry for 2004 was TSUNAMI. And it is the first entry for 2005 as well. In my mother tongue which attaches a gender to nouns TSUNAMI is male as war is male and attack and ambush and death.
But this TSUNAMI had no gender preference: men, women, children, old and young were slain alike. No consideration of family ties, of togetherness and belonging. And some of those spared by the Tsunami wished they would be dead if only a loved one could live.
Empty, sometimes despairing eyes ask for answers: Why? Why? The cry remains unanswered. Its echo does not relieve the pain. Where is God’s mercy or even his justice if the prayerful and the evil are hit without distinction?
There is no easy answer and I would be distrustful of anybody coming up with a quick answer. I imagine that my refuge in facing such death and destruction would be to cry out my grief at the height of my voice, shed all the tears I am capable of and then revert to prayer: “Our Father in heaven, your kingdom come, your will be done.” Yes, your will be done. What else could uphold me in such grief and pain if not the firm belief that God is in command? Despite all that is before my eyes: HE is in command.
ICMA
is in particular concerned about the fate of fishermen and their families on the East Coast of India, in Sri Lanka, in North Sumatra and in Thailand. We support the relief work for those who survived and now face the struggle of how to live and regain a basis for their existence.
ICMA does not set up a relief network of its own but encourages its members to join hands with those local, national and international relief agencies which are closest to them and have proven to be trustworthy.
Rotterdam, 11th January 2005/JRAK
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