New Katrina relief effort sparked by woman's question

When Jeanne Schrempf, director of the Albany diocesan Office of Evangelization and Catechesis, raised her hand at a recent national meeting, she asked a question that could bring a different kind of relief to Catholics devastated by hurricanes.

"I asked what we were doing to help parishes" in the Gulf region, she said. "The whole room became animated."

Because of her initiative, Operation Catechesis was developed to provide financial assistance to parishes whose catechetical programs were curtailed or shut down by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. It is sponsored by the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership (NCCL), which Mrs. Schrempf serves on as the representative from the Diocese. She will co-chair Operation Catechesis.

Lost need

Because of the wide-ranging, complex needs in the Gulf states, Mrs. Schrempf explained, many of the needs of parish catechetical programs -- books, repairs and personnel -- are not being met.

As a result, religious education efforts have been shut down, diocesan directors are strapped for money and manpower, and some sacramental preparation programs no longer function, she said.

The program she helped create will fill some of those needs and also "show support and solidarity to our brothers and sisters who have suffered," she said. "They are really afraid that they're going to be forgotten, and it is important for us to keep their stories alive."

Body and soul

Mrs. Schrempf recognizes that repairing the physical devastation from the hurricanes is a priority.

"Certainly, when people have lost homes, lives and jobs," she said, restoring religious education programs "is not the first need. But this was [also] a disaster for the catechetical mission in the United States. The economic problems ahead are really massive."

Catechetical directors have told her that many buildings where classes and retreats took place are damaged or destroyed; in addition, many catechists, parish directors and children in the programs have been dislocated to other areas.

Furthermore, many churches lost piles of new textbooks purchased for the new school year but still owe publishing companies for them, she said.

Replacing losses

Money raised by the task force will be sent to the diocesan directors of five affected dioceses, where it will be earmarked for catechetical programs.

According to Mrs. Schrempf, the religious ed directors in those dioceses are compiling lists of needs, such as textbooks, computers, building repairs, Bibles and even carpet samples for children to sit on.

"We don't know all of the needs yet," she said. "In New Orleans, they don't even know who is going to come back. [The New Orleans diocesan director] used to have a staff of 14. Now, they have a staff of five. What's going to happen to them? People have lost their jobs because their parishes can't pay."

Helping out

Mrs. Schrempf is writing to catechists in the 14 counties of the Albany Diocese, exhorting them to encourage the 40,000 children in parish religious ed programs to save or earn $2.50 each to donate to Operation Catechesis as a Lenten project.

"That would be incredible," she said. "If every child [saved this], we could send $100,000.

"We feel that it is especially important for families and children [on the Gulf Coast] to have opportunities to grow in faith and know that God has not abandoned them."

(Mrs. Schrempf is heading up the task force with Rebecca Titford, diocesan director of catechesis for the Archdiocese of Mobile, and is in contact with the director from New Orleans, who is running the diocesan catechetical programs from her apartment. One parish in the Albany Diocese has already contributed to Operation Catechesis. Teens at Our Lady of the Assumption parish in Latham ran a school-supplies drive and raffled off a video game system donated by a parishioner. The proceeds from the raffle will pay to send the notebooks, pens and supplies collected by the teens.)

(1/19/06) [[In-content Ad]]