The Vatican press reported that this sum is intended to be "an immediate expression of the feeling of spiritual closeness and fatherly encouragement from the Holy Father towards the people and territories affected and will be shared, in collaboration with the Apostolic Nunciature, among the areas most affected by the catastrophe."

The Dicastery's contribution to the disaster relief is part of the aid that is being activated throughout the Catholic Church.

In addition to various Episcopal Conferences, it involves numerous charitable organisations.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and Malteser International were among Catholic aid agencies sending emergency response teams to Indonesia.

The local CRS team is working closely with its Caritas partner and additional teams have been deployed from around the world to assist with pipeline logistics, temporary shelter and relief supplies.

CRS is supporting Caritas staff and volunteers to respond to people's most urgent needs with temporary shelter materials like tarps, blankets and sleeping mats, as well as sanitation kits, clean-up and other supplies.

"Because of the many injured survivors, the healthcare facilities need to be put back into service as soon as possible," says Nicole Müller, Mission Director of Malteser International in Indonesia.

"Therefore, we will equip the centres with medical equipment and medicines."

In addition, Malteser International is providing emergency funds to allow relief supplies to be distributed to surrounding communities.

Help has also come from the Catholic church in Korea and in Italy

Source

• press.vatican.va
• malteser-international.org
• crs.org
• Image: arabianbusiness.com

Clement said he had been informed by Father Johanis Salaki from the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Palu that there are reports of at least two churches damaged.

"Their walls are cracked. In some cases, heavy steel pillars have become detached from their brackets," he said.

He also reported that a number of priests suffered minor injuries in the earthquake.

Clement reported that at least 500 priests, nuns, seminarians and lay catholics have been forced to relocate to the compound of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish since the disaster.

A big number of teens attending a Bible camp are confirmed among the dead. "They are Catholic and Protestant students who were on a retreat in the location," said Albert Podung, a church worker who lives in Palu.

They were at the Pusdiklat GPID Patmos 'Jono Oge,' a church training centre in Sigi, located outside the provincial capital of Palu.

Officials say that another 52 young people are still missing from the camp. They expect the death toll at the Jono Oge to climb further as recovery continues.

The centre is affiliated with Palu's largest denomination, the Indonesian Protestant Church in Donggala (GPID), with around 40,000 members.

Source

• ucanews.com
• bangkokpost.com
• christianitytoday.com
• abcnews.go.com
• chvnradio.com
• ncronline.org
• Image: rollercoaster.ie

Yenni Suryani said with the airport damaged, getting access to Palu and Donggala is a huge problem. Responders and local aid groups have drive overland 10-12 hours.

That means a bottleneck for relief supplies in coming days. Landslides are hindering road travel in some places, she said.

"There's very limited electricity in Palu but power is out almost everywhere. Some mobile phone towers have been repaired allowing limited communication, but it's unreliable."

Sunyani said she was worried about people who might have been washed away.

Indonesia's Vice-President Jusuf Kalla has pointed out that when the Indian Ocean tsunami struck in 2004, the death toll recorded that night in Aceh, on the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, was around 40 people.

The eventual body count in Aceh exceeded 130,000.

The island of Sulawesi has been divided, at times bloodily, between Muslim and Christian populations.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, there was widespread communal violence in and around Poso, a port city not far from Palu that is mostly Christian.

More than 1,000 people were killed and tens of thousands dislocated from their homes as Christian and Muslim gangs battled on the streets, using machetes, bows and arrows and other crude weapons.

Source

• crs.org
• newstalkzb.co.nz
• wral.com
• nytimes.com
• wyomingpublicmedia.org
• Image: timescolonist.com (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

An earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 occurred 33km southwest of the Santa Cruz Islands at an ocean depth of 28.7km, generating tsunami waves that engulfed the Nende Island's western shores where the main provincial town of Lata is located.

Rachel Lano from Venga village said,"We're living under tarpaulins, but we have had lots of rain and the tarpaulins can leak," she said. "We have a problem with water and sanitation and we're just living on rice. We are too afraid to go down to our gardens and get vegetables."

According to World Vision, which has been on the ground assisting with relief work, the west coast of the island has been worst affected, many homes washed away. Elsewhere on the island, communities are suffering the effects of the earthquake and landslides which have destroyed food gardens and contaminated water sources.

More than 3000 people have been displaced and many remain under temporary shelter. Many villagers are hesitant to return to coastal areas in the middle of the cyclone season, fearing further damage before the wet season finishes.

George Baragamu, the National Distaster Management Office chief operations officer, told the Auckland's Weekend Herald the province was still an active disaster area, but with assessments done the Government was now planning for the recovery phase.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• Image:The Guardian

Hundreds of people and leaders attended the service, which coincided with the half-day public holiday the Government declared for Wednesday.

Speaking at the service, deputy prime minister and Minister for Homes Affairs Manasseh Maelanga said the remembrance service was a manifestation of the national solidarity that is enshrined in the national anthem.

He told relatives of those who lost their lives that they are not alone in this national tragedy.

School children lit candles for the deceased and a provincial representative told the story of one of the victims.

"(She) saw the fierce rolling ocean approaching in the form of a destructive wave," he said.

"It looked so dangerous but (she) could not bear to see her husband killed alone so she told the eyewitnesses to run for safety, while she went back to die with her husband."

Source

• SolomonStar
• Radio Australia
• Image: Static.stuff.nz

As we witnessed a disaster in video after video, shattering photos, and maps that put us on the spot, the first impressions were of chaos. Dark thoughts centered on the natural force that can destroy without warning or recourse. Threats of nuclear catastrophe sparked rumors that Japan's revered emperor had been secretly moved far from Tokyo, economic collapse seemed imminent, and political systems were jolted. Some called the events a punishment for a materialistic life, wages of sin. Visiting Japan a month later, I felt the somber mood and the eerie quiet of empty hotels and airports, and of streets where the few pedestrians walked with bowed shoulders.

But Japan has in the ensuing year won the world's admiration. Its response to catastrophe set new standards for courage, solidarity, compassion, and diligence. Cleaning and rebuilding began even as people mourned the dead and searched for thousands who never returned. Families and communities supported each other. Support poured in and it was used, and used well. Japan is testimony that life goes on, that there is hope even in the darkest hours. A Japanese tradition likens this tough endurance and core strength to wheat: wheat sprouts in cold, harsh winters, is trampled on, but with deep roots in the ground resists cold and wind and grows straight into productive and beautiful plants.

Japanese religion today defies simple descriptions and it is often ignored. Some 70 percent of Japanese say they belong to no religion. But after 3/11 the spiritual beliefs that are deeply embedded in Japanese culture came into play. The religious response to the 3/11 catastrophe is an important part of the story of recovery. Read more

Sources

• Katherine Marshall in The Huffington Post
• Image: CBS News

The Secretary General of the Samoa Council of Churches, the Reverend Ma'auga Motu, says a ceremony will be held on Sunday to commemorate the dead.

The Reverend Motu says the memorial service on Sunday will be held at the government's burial site at Tafaigata. Some villages conducted their own ceremonies on Thursday to remember the the dead.

"The victims of the tsunami will never be removed from the memories and from the minds of our people. And their death was a very sudden ache in my country, it was a very sudden suffering that came into the country. And to take a hundred and more people, it's too much for us," he said.

On 29 September 2009 a rare double earthquake occurred in the Pacific "Ring of Fire", where continental plates meet in the Earth's crust. Scientists believe the simultaneous earthquakes - measuring 8.0 and 7.9 - occurred under the ocean floor about 70km apart, with one "hiding" the other. 186 people died when the tsunami hit Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga.

Source

• Radio New Zealand
• The Queensland Times
• PINA
• Image the Guardian

Caritas Japan is in contact with one of the worst affected areas - the diocese of Sendai - providing relief with a focus on those with no access to public services. The church opened an aid center at the Sendai cathedral to serve victims in the Sendai diocese, which includes four devastated provinces. In his message on the center's opening, Sendai Bishop Martin Tetsuo Hiraga invited every Christian to become involved and recalled that in difficult times "it is important not to forget the infinite mercy of God," the church news service asianews.it reported.

Lack of such basic needs as water, electricity, fuel and medicine, and lack of immediate prospects for improvement, is causing great physical and mental fatigue among the displaced, the news agency said.

Caritas Japan will work closely with affected dioceses and other organisations to support the most vulnerable people affected by the disaster. It will also support rehabilitation and recovery needs as they emerge over the next 3-5 years.

Source

Scoop
Catholic San Farancisco

Photo
Hypehmagazine.co