Lenten Charity Projects 2010

Help for Haiti earthquake victims (24th January)

Aid to the Church in Need has made an initial aid payment of £45,000 to help the victims of the earthquake which struck Haiti on Tuesday, 12th January. It is likely to be the first of a number of emergency aid payments to be paid out by the charity within the next month.

The earthquake, which measured 7.0 on the Richter scale, struck at around 5pm near Port-au-Prince, the capital of the Caribbean country – which is one of the poorest countries in the world. The charity’s project staff are endeavouring to reach bishops in Haiti to establish the full extent of the disaster and to offer funds to help provide essential emergency supplies such as drinking water, food, medical supplies and blankets.

A message from the nuncio in Haiti:
Monsignor Bernardito Auza, the apostolic nuncio to Haiti, sent a message to Aid to the Church in Need describing the dire situation facing the people of Haiti. He wrote:

“We are in big trouble for obvious logistical reasons... Here in Port-au-Prince [the island’s capital] things are difficult. We lack everything.”

“I appeal to everyone's generosity, so that these brothers and sisters of ours who are living through a time of need and pain receive our concrete solidarity and the effective help of the international community.”

Pope Benedict XVI

Report from Archbishop Auzas about the Haiti earthquake devastation (31st January)

The apostolic nuncio to Haiti, Archbishop Auzas, is reporting that amid extensive destruction in Port-au-Prince due to the recent earthquake, the nunciature managed to remain standing. “The cathedral, the archbishopric, all the important churches and all the seminaries (buildings), have been reduced to rubble,” he said.

He added that many seminarians and priests have died under the rubble, including Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot of the Port-au-Prince diocese. The president, whose palace and private home were destroyed, was unharmed as he was away at the time.

However, the parliament with senators, the schools full of children, the supermarkets, and the general headquarters of the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, have all been reduced to rubble. He added: I have found priests and nuns on the street, homeless. The rector and the dean of the seminary were saved, but many seminarians are trapped under the rubble. The Institute of Studies for Men and Women Religious also collapsed with several people inside, who were attending a conference at the time. Although the Nunciature resisted, many things were broken, including the tabernacle, and many relatives of the staff and their homes have been lost.

All are asking for help. Soon we will have water and food problems. We cannot go in or stay in a house long because the earth continues to shake, so we are camping in the garden.

Meanwhile, aid forces are being mobilised to help the estimated 3 million people who were affected by the earthquake. Agencies such as Caritas and Aid to the Church in Need are providing food, medicine and shelter to the survivors.

The Catholic Relief Services, an agency of the US bishops’ conference, was asked by the Pontifical Council Cor Unum to coordinate these efforts.

Some 50 countries have also sent support to the impoverished nation in the form of volunteer aid workers, pledges of money and material resources.

A Message from the Papal Nuncio in Hatai (7th February)

Monsignor Bernardito Auza, the Apostolic Nuncio to Haiti, sent a message to Aid to the Church in Need describing the dire situation facing the people of Haiti. He wrote: We are in big trouble for obvious logistical reasons... Here in Port-au-Prince [the island’s capital] things are difficult. We lack everything.

Aid to the Church in Need has made a long-term commitment to help the Church in Haiti recover and rebuild its pastoral work in the aftermath of the disaster. Thanks to parishes like St Joseph’s, ACN has helped many of the Priests, Sisters and faithful who have suffered in the disaster – including Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot of Portau-Prince who died when the diocesan offices came down, and seminarians at the Port-au-Prince seminary, which has collapsed trapping a number of the students.

A number of Church buildings, many of which ACN’s generosity helped to build, have also been damaged or destroyed, including the cathedral and a pastoral formation centre, where more people were trapped. Eighty percent of Haitians are Catholic and so – on your behalf – we are renewing our commitment and prayers to rebuild the hope of Christ. The task of distributing aid, consoling the bereaved and celebrating Christ’s presence – even in the midst of despair and suffering – will be undertaken by the priests and bishops who survived the earthquake. In this, the Year of Priests, we continue to rely on you to support them in their difficult ministry.

Neville Kyrke-Smith, National Director of Aid to the Church in Need UK, said

Aid to the Church in Need is committed to immediate and future support through the Catholic community to all those who are suffering. Haiti remains a priority country for the charity in the midst of natural disasters and conflicts. We are bound up in prayer and committed to action for those in need.

Read the full report from the Papal Nuncio in Haiti at www.acnuk.org.

Haiti Earthquake Update (28th February)

Our parish raised £3,284 in the first fortnight of February, and Richard Challoner Catholic Boys' School have just channelled their £2,777 via our parish to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) who have transferred our entire £6,061 to the Hatian Papal Nuncio in Port-au-Prince for immediate use for their devastated people.

To our dear Benefactors,
With this letter I express my deepest gratitude on behalf of the Episcopal Conference from Haiti and also the seminarians, given that many of them lost their lives, and other are receiving the medical or psycological attention they need further to the earthquake that has made Port-au-Prince a capital in ruins...

Your kind gesture gives us the strength, courage and hope to build and unite our efforts to carry on because God is with us.
With my apostolic blessing, In Domino, Mgr. Louis Kébreau

The $70,000 for general emergency help and the $100,000 for seminarians are received and the $100,000 cheque is ready for transit to the Bishops' Conference: I am using the $70,000 to buy equipment for the temporary chancery of the archdiocese, and another part to finance direct emergency help through the Diocesan Caritas. Thanks to donations like this from ACN, I have started ... to buy rice and beans, staple good for the Haitians, from the local market to help relaunch commercial activity. I will make a more formal report once the money is fully used (and as) we decide on how to go about the huge task of reconstruction.
+ Bernadito Auza, Apostolic Nuncio to Haiti.