Chicagoans worry, pray, respond

By Michelle Martin • Staff writer

As reports of death and destruction from the tsunami rolled in, Claretian Father Callistus Joseph, sat glued to the television, the telephone and his computer, watching the casualty numbers rise.

Joseph, a Sri Lankan priest who lives at his order’s provincial house in Oak Park while he studies at Loyola University Chicago’s Institute of Pastoral Studies, said his immediate family lives in the island nation’s capital of Colombo and none of them was hurt. But he said his brother’s wife lost 12 members of her immediate family who lived near the coast—all but a 10-year-old boy, who escaped by climbing a tree.

In the aftermath of the devastating tsunami, Joseph was staying in touch with Claretian priests and seminarians in Sri Lanka who were trying to help people in inaccessible areas by carrying supplies on their backs.

In one camp, not reachable by road, Joseph said, they reported more than 1,000 people needing help.

They also asked not only for money, but for antibiotics and other medicines that were in short supply, Joseph said.

As terrible as the physical toll was, he said, the psychological, emotional and spiritual damage might be just as devastating to survivors.

“They don’t talk,” Joseph said more than a week after the tragedy. “They are in shock. They just sit and stare.”

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan community was scheduled to dedicate a Mass in honor of the feast of St. Sebastian Jan 16 to victims of the tsunami. The Mass, at St. Lambert Parish in Skokie, was to be celebrated by Bishop Francis Kane. The Indonesian community had a special Mass Jan. 9 at St. Therese Chinese Catholic Mission.

There were other responses throughout the archdiocese.

Parishes were asked to hold a special collection Dec. 28 which would be sent to Catholic Relief Services to aid victims of the disaster. In addition, members of the Syro-Malabarian Catholic parish of St. Thomas in Bellwood also watched news of the tsunami with great concern. The region of India from which most of the families come is on the southwest coast, which had some casualties, but not as many as the country’s southeast coast, according to the parish secretary.

Donations made through the parish are being sent to the Syro-Malabarian bishops conference in India to aid victims there, he said.

Holy Family Parish in Inverness will donate proceeds from the sale of bright orange “Pray Strong” bracelets to relief efforts for tsunami victims.

Proceeds will go to Catholic Relief Services, Save the Children and the Salvation Army, according to a press release.

The parish’s youth ministry has been selling the bracelets since early December for $3 for one and $5 for two. They are similar to the yellow “Live Strong” bracelets, popularized by Lance Armstrong, sold to raise funds for cancer research. Now Holy Family youth leaders hope to expand the distribution network for the “Pray Strong” bracelets to other churches, high schools and colleges.

For information, please call Rita Tresnowski at (847) 359-0042, Ext. 134.

Parishioners at St. Joseph Parish in Wilmette donated money directly to a Sri Lankan orphanage established by Jesuit Father Paul Satkunanatagam, who once served at Winnetka’s Sacred Heart Parish and as a chaplain at Regina Dominican High School in Wilmette. Satkunanatagam started the orphanage, called “Butterfly Garden,” to help children traumatized by the civil war in his native Sri Lanka. While the priest and nearly all his young charges survived, the orphanage was destroyed, leaving the children homeless and in desperate need, said Father John Pollard, St. Joseph pastor.

Pollard decided to donate roughly $1,000 in Christmas gifts he had received from parishioners as well as ask parishioners to contribute directly.

“We cannot undo all the damage done by this disaster, but we can do something for these orphans,” he said in a letter to parishioners. “Let us demonstrate that the human spirit is capable of just as large and powerful a wave of compassion as was the wave of destruction.”