Catholics Urged To Help, Pray For People In China And Myanmar

Posted: 28th May 2008

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (UCAN) -- Cardinal Jean Baptiste Pham Minh Man of Ho Chi Minh City has asked local Catholics to reduce their expenses to save money they can donate to survivors of the disasters in Myanmar and China.

According to United Nations estimates, Cyclone Nargis, which swept in from the Bay of Bengal on May 2, killed more than 100,000 people in Myanmar's Irrawaddy River delta and on up to Yangon.

The May 12 earthquake centered in Sichuan province affected nine provinces and one municipality. On May 27, China's State Council announced the quake had killed 67,183 people and injured 361,822, with another 20,790 still missing. It has given a round figure of 11 million people made homeless.

"In communion and fraternal solidarity with the disaster victims, I would like to call on all priests, Religious and Catholics in the archdiocese's 200 parishes to reduce your expenses and donate money to our brothers and sisters who have been living in deep sorrow and lacking basic needs, so they can return to their normal life," Cardinal Man said in his May 15 letter to the Catholics of the archdiocese.

The Church leader asked them to donate money at their parishes or congregation houses on Sundays May 18 and 25. Priests read out his letter during Sunday Masses at local churches, and special donation boxes were set up. The donations, however, have not yet been tallied.

"Let us be happy with those who are happy and cry when others cry," Cardinal Man said, urging people to donate as much as they can to the survivors.

"When we do such things for others, we respond to the overwhelming love of God who is our Father," the cardinal said, quoting verses from Saint Paul's second letter to the Corinthians.

Cardinal Man, 74, who visited Church leaders in Beijing and Shanghai in 2007, said local donations would be sent to people in need through the Catholic bishops' conferences in China and Myanmar.

Around 800 Catholics attended a candlelight prayer on the evening of May 15 at Redemptorist-run Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Ho Chi Minh City, 1,710 kilometers south of Ha Noi.

During the special prayer, people saw photos of the death and destruction the cyclone and earthquake caused, as well as photos of rescue and relief efforts, all shown on a big screen in the church.

After the Mass, led by eight Redemptorist priests, people holding candles prayed in front of the Marian grotto in the church compound and sang the song Peace Prayer, based on the famous prayer attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi.

"We want to pray for the victims because all people are children of the Father in heaven," Redemptorist Father Joseph Le Quang Uy, an organizer, told UCA News.

Father Uy, 50, said that when people in his country suffered disasters, people from other countries including China and Myanmar prayed for them and sent assistance.

Some Catholics told UCA News they appreciated the prayer and call for donations. They said they felt the need to "do something" for the people in need.

Michael Nguyen Ba Loc commented, "We must pray for the survivors because only God can give them relief." Loc, 46, who lost the use of his legs when he was a child, said he prayed for the affected people in China and Myanmar, some of whom might have been benefactors who had given him humanitarian aid in the past.

Anna Nguyen Thi Lien from St. Dominic Parish said she was urging her husband and children to reduce their daily expenses so they could donate money to the survivors, who face hunger and epidemics.

Lien, a retired teacher, said she also asked Father Uy for photos of the cyclone and quake, and sent these to relatives in neighboring Dong Nai province so they too could express solidarity with and pray for the survivors.

Father Antoine Nguyen Ngoc Son, secretary general of the Episcopal Commission for Charitable and Social Actions of the Vietnam Bishops' Conference, told UCA News on May 27 that his commission plans to send relief efforts in China and Myanmar US$20,000 each, independent of donations in response to Cardinal Man's appeal.

Article Source: UCAN