Faithful respond to needs of Katrina victims
July 29, 2019 at 12:37 p.m.
In the weeks since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, people in parishes across the country have raised money to help victims, sent volunteers to the hurricane-ravaged area and taken in storm evacuees at shelters, schools and homes.
In the Diocese of Trenton, Msgr. Gregory D. Vaughan, diocesan Vicar General, announced that as of Sept. 27, the diocese has collected $980,000 from 66 parishes for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The money will be forwarded to Catholic Charities USA.
Msgr. Vaughan said he hopes that more parishes in the diocese will respond to the collection in the coming weeks.
In Washington, the U.S. bishops’ Office for Priestly Life and Ministry announced it was coordinating offers by priests around the United States who volunteered to help address pastoral needs in areas hit by the hurricane.
Dioceses also are offering liturgical items such as chalices and processional crosses to replace those destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
In the Diocese of Spokane, Wash., for example, Bishop William S. Skylstad said he could assign one priest to work for four to six weeks in the stricken region. The Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, said it could assign two priests to work outside the archdiocese, and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee said it could assign up to 12 priests. The Diocese of Orange, Calif., already has been in contact with the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston particularly to work with the Vietnamese community there.
Priests in dioceses to which thousands of people have been evacuated, such as Salt Lake City and Phoenix, also have been released from regular assignments to help displaced people.
In Florida, all seven Catholic dioceses and their Catholic Charities offices have adopted the two Mississippi dioceses, Biloxi and Jackson, to help provide ongoing disaster relief efforts, a move Catholic Charities USA has described as unprecedented. Staff and volunteers from all seven agencies have been rotating in and out, to assess damages and help facilitate warehouses receiving supplies from around the country among other things.
A day after Katrina hit, Bishop Robert N. Lynch of St. Petersburg, Fla., told students at St. Petersburg Catholic School that he would give $10,000 to hurricane victims and match any money the students raised. He was at the school to dedicate its new arts center.
By mid-September the students had raised nearly $20,000 and planned to continue fundraising through their Sept. 24 homecoming to reach a goal of $25,000.
Michael Montroy, spokesman for the school, said the morning after the bishop issued his challenge, students jumped into action, hitting up parents and other students arriving for school in cars, asking them to give dollar bills or spare change. They also caught people as they picked up students and passed around collection buckets at lunchtime. Some of the admission money from a junior varsity football game was donated to the collection.
“Gosh, they had a list of things to do in a heartbeat,” Montroy said.
Catholic school students in the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese also came up with ideas for raising money, including holding a field-goal-kicking contest at St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights, Minn.
Like other U.S. Catholic colleges, the College of St. Catherine and the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and St. Mary’s University in Winona admitted students displaced from universities in the hurricane region. Four St. Catherine faculty members went to New Orleans to assist with relief efforts with financial assistance from the college.
In Texas, Dallas-area Catholics have raised nearly $1.2 million for hurricane victims in the largest relief effort in the history of the Dallas Diocese, Bishop Charles V. Grahmann announced Sept. 14.
“Our people have responded in a very generous way to the need for cash, supplies and volunteer workers,” he said.
As of Sept. 16, Catholics in the Diocese of Austin, Texas, gave a record $600,000 for a special collection taken up in parishes, and not all parishes had reported yet how much they raised. The San Antonio Archdiocese reported receiving more than $749,000 in one weekend of special collections at some parishes; figures were still to be reported from a Sept. 10-11 special collection in the rest of the parishes.
The Baltimore Archdiocese reported raising more than $1.5 million in relief funds. The Detroit Archdiocese announced that more than $600,000 so far had been collected from individuals and parishes there.
Among several relief efforts going on all over the Philadelphia Archdiocese, a benefit concert featuring a number of choirs from the black Catholic community was planned for Sept. 23.
“We’re doing this ... because as St. Paul says, ‘When one member of the body hurts, we all hurt,’“ said Father Stephen Thorne, director of the archdiocesan Office for Black Catholics.
“As brothers and sisters across our country, we offer our prayers, support -- our love. Also, our love must be action-oriented,” he told The Catholic Standard & Times, the archdiocesan newspaper. “The action is the prayers -- but also the financial support to help our brothers and sisters get back on their feet. It’s what we do as Catholics. It all flows from what God has done for us.”
For three couples in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., a relief effort that eventually involved hundreds of volunteers and three semitrailer loads of goods delivered to a warehouse in Winnie, Texas, started during a Sept. 3 college football game.
Matt and Julie Ungashick, Mike and Kim Effertz, and Kevin and Michele Schlitzer, and Effertz’s cousin, Joe Effertz, were uncomfortable enjoying a game while people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were losing their lives and possessions because of Katrina.
Matt Ungashick credited Mike Effertz with sparking the idea. Effertz said he could get an 18-wheeler and they could put it in a Church parking lot, collect goods and drive it down to help Katrina victims. By the game’s halftime, the relief wheels were in motion.
Announcements were made at weekend Masses. People volunteered to load two trailers, one at St. Thomas More Church in Kansas City, Mo., and the other across the state line at Ascension Church in Overland Park, Kan.
Donated items included packaged food, canned goods, clothing of all kinds, diapers, baby formula, toys, games, cleaning supplies, toiletries and personal care items. There were so many items that a third truck was needed. By Sept. 8 the trucks were headed for Texas.
“It was as close to a miracle as I have ever seen,” Mike Effertz told The Catholic Key, the diocesan newspaper.
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In the weeks since Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast, people in parishes across the country have raised money to help victims, sent volunteers to the hurricane-ravaged area and taken in storm evacuees at shelters, schools and homes.
In the Diocese of Trenton, Msgr. Gregory D. Vaughan, diocesan Vicar General, announced that as of Sept. 27, the diocese has collected $980,000 from 66 parishes for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The money will be forwarded to Catholic Charities USA.
Msgr. Vaughan said he hopes that more parishes in the diocese will respond to the collection in the coming weeks.
In Washington, the U.S. bishops’ Office for Priestly Life and Ministry announced it was coordinating offers by priests around the United States who volunteered to help address pastoral needs in areas hit by the hurricane.
Dioceses also are offering liturgical items such as chalices and processional crosses to replace those destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
In the Diocese of Spokane, Wash., for example, Bishop William S. Skylstad said he could assign one priest to work for four to six weeks in the stricken region. The Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, said it could assign two priests to work outside the archdiocese, and the Archdiocese of Milwaukee said it could assign up to 12 priests. The Diocese of Orange, Calif., already has been in contact with the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston particularly to work with the Vietnamese community there.
Priests in dioceses to which thousands of people have been evacuated, such as Salt Lake City and Phoenix, also have been released from regular assignments to help displaced people.
In Florida, all seven Catholic dioceses and their Catholic Charities offices have adopted the two Mississippi dioceses, Biloxi and Jackson, to help provide ongoing disaster relief efforts, a move Catholic Charities USA has described as unprecedented. Staff and volunteers from all seven agencies have been rotating in and out, to assess damages and help facilitate warehouses receiving supplies from around the country among other things.
A day after Katrina hit, Bishop Robert N. Lynch of St. Petersburg, Fla., told students at St. Petersburg Catholic School that he would give $10,000 to hurricane victims and match any money the students raised. He was at the school to dedicate its new arts center.
By mid-September the students had raised nearly $20,000 and planned to continue fundraising through their Sept. 24 homecoming to reach a goal of $25,000.
Michael Montroy, spokesman for the school, said the morning after the bishop issued his challenge, students jumped into action, hitting up parents and other students arriving for school in cars, asking them to give dollar bills or spare change. They also caught people as they picked up students and passed around collection buckets at lunchtime. Some of the admission money from a junior varsity football game was donated to the collection.
“Gosh, they had a list of things to do in a heartbeat,” Montroy said.
Catholic school students in the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese also came up with ideas for raising money, including holding a field-goal-kicking contest at St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights, Minn.
Like other U.S. Catholic colleges, the College of St. Catherine and the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and St. Mary’s University in Winona admitted students displaced from universities in the hurricane region. Four St. Catherine faculty members went to New Orleans to assist with relief efforts with financial assistance from the college.
In Texas, Dallas-area Catholics have raised nearly $1.2 million for hurricane victims in the largest relief effort in the history of the Dallas Diocese, Bishop Charles V. Grahmann announced Sept. 14.
“Our people have responded in a very generous way to the need for cash, supplies and volunteer workers,” he said.
As of Sept. 16, Catholics in the Diocese of Austin, Texas, gave a record $600,000 for a special collection taken up in parishes, and not all parishes had reported yet how much they raised. The San Antonio Archdiocese reported receiving more than $749,000 in one weekend of special collections at some parishes; figures were still to be reported from a Sept. 10-11 special collection in the rest of the parishes.
The Baltimore Archdiocese reported raising more than $1.5 million in relief funds. The Detroit Archdiocese announced that more than $600,000 so far had been collected from individuals and parishes there.
Among several relief efforts going on all over the Philadelphia Archdiocese, a benefit concert featuring a number of choirs from the black Catholic community was planned for Sept. 23.
“We’re doing this ... because as St. Paul says, ‘When one member of the body hurts, we all hurt,’“ said Father Stephen Thorne, director of the archdiocesan Office for Black Catholics.
“As brothers and sisters across our country, we offer our prayers, support -- our love. Also, our love must be action-oriented,” he told The Catholic Standard & Times, the archdiocesan newspaper. “The action is the prayers -- but also the financial support to help our brothers and sisters get back on their feet. It’s what we do as Catholics. It all flows from what God has done for us.”
For three couples in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., a relief effort that eventually involved hundreds of volunteers and three semitrailer loads of goods delivered to a warehouse in Winnie, Texas, started during a Sept. 3 college football game.
Matt and Julie Ungashick, Mike and Kim Effertz, and Kevin and Michele Schlitzer, and Effertz’s cousin, Joe Effertz, were uncomfortable enjoying a game while people in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were losing their lives and possessions because of Katrina.
Matt Ungashick credited Mike Effertz with sparking the idea. Effertz said he could get an 18-wheeler and they could put it in a Church parking lot, collect goods and drive it down to help Katrina victims. By the game’s halftime, the relief wheels were in motion.
Announcements were made at weekend Masses. People volunteered to load two trailers, one at St. Thomas More Church in Kansas City, Mo., and the other across the state line at Ascension Church in Overland Park, Kan.
Donated items included packaged food, canned goods, clothing of all kinds, diapers, baby formula, toys, games, cleaning supplies, toiletries and personal care items. There were so many items that a third truck was needed. By Sept. 8 the trucks were headed for Texas.
“It was as close to a miracle as I have ever seen,” Mike Effertz told The Catholic Key, the diocesan newspaper.
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