Catholics dig deep for victims of tsunami

Acting quickly and generously, Catholics in the Albany Diocese have raised $344,805 to help victims of the December tsunami in Asia.

Albany diocesan Catholic Charities issued the report on Jan. 18. Most of the amount -- more than $275,000 -- came from Catholics who donated to special collections in 68 parishes across the Diocese. The total is expected to grow; there are about 180 parishes in the Diocese, and the others will report their totals soon.

Other donors include The College of Saint Rose in Albany, which committed $3,000, and the Sisters of Mercy, who donated $1,500. Individual donors who sent contributions directly to Catholic Charities account for the remainder.

"I'm amazed," said Sister Maureen Joyce, executive director of Catholic Charities. "People were very generous."

The total broke a record for disaster-relief fundraising in the Diocese. Previously, that honor was held by $300,000 given by Catholics in response to vicious ice storms in the North Country in 1998 and a similar reaction to same year's Hurricane Mitch, which brought devastation to portions of Louisiana and Florida.

The funds will be passed on to Catholic Relief Services, the overseas aid agency of American Catholics. Catholic Charities will continue to forward weekly installments as more contributions are received.

In the Jan. 6 issue of The Evangelist, Bishop Howard J. Hubbard noted that CRS is "somewhat unique among aid organizations [because] it has longstanding, semi-permanent relief program sites throughout the world, unlike many other aid groups which tend to fly in planeloads of supplies once a disaster strikes an area."

CRS efforts are currently concentrated on affected areas in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India, which are considered among the countries hardest hit by the tsunami.

"People hear of a need -- and they ask what they can do about it," said Sister Maureen. "If you give people a channel through which to give, they will respond generously."

However, she cautioned that the need for assistance will not end soon. "If there's one thing that has been repeated over and over again, it's that this rebuilding will take years," she noted. "Let's not forget that."

(To aid tsunami victims, send checks payable to Catholic Charities to: Tsunami Relief, c/o Catholic Charities, 40 N. Main Ave., Albany, NY 12203. For more information, call Mary Olsen at diocesan Catholic Charities, 453-6650, or email [email protected].)

(1/20/05)