Caritas Indonesia is coordinating with teams from the Catholic charity in three dioceses - Bogor, Bandung, and Jakarta - along with other Catholic organizations to provide assistance to victims across four districts.

Fredy Rante Taruk, executive director of Caritas Indonesia, said the coordination was under the control of the Caritas Bureau of Bogor diocese, which oversees the affected areas.Read more

A Wellington developer Richard Burrell, who has a reputation for restoring heritage buildings, is the likely purchaser.

Should he be successful, Burrell intends to turn the building into a hotel.

Pending due diligence into what is needed to strengthen the building against earthquakes, it is understood the sale price to be about $5m.

Currently, the buildings are 25% of the New Zealand building standard, and fall well below the 34% earthquake risk threshold.

Burrell estimates around $20m for steel and concrete is needed to spend on the building.

The building's rateable value is $16.9 million, of which $16.4m is in the value of the 2433m² of prime land it sits on.

Following City Council Rates increases and fewer priests, in 1988, the Redemptorists sold the church and monastery at a discounted rate to the International Catholic Programme of Evangelisation (ICPE).

ICPE tried to raise $11m for earthquake strengthening but came up well short.

Lambton Ward Wellington City councillor Nicola Young, whose father donated a baptismal font to the church in the 1960s, was "thrilled" to hear the building may get a second life.

"It's probably Wellington's most distinctive building. As soon as you see it you know it is Wellington," she said.

The historic church was closed after a final Mass on Pentecost Sunday, May 23, 2021, celebrated by Cardinal John Dew.

"St Gerard's is our most imposing landscape building," said Felicity Wong from Historic Places Wellington.

"It looks down on our small lives, reminding ... civilised human endeavours to care for each other. For some years, it has needed a contemporary purpose to secure its future.

"The ICPE have (sic) looked after that building and have made it open and welcoming to the people of Wellington," Wong commented in 2021.

Congregation gathers for Sunday Mass

The building is a Heritage NZ category one heritage-listed building.

Source

• DomPost
• DomPost

Beth Carroll, who is Haiti's head of programs for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) says there are funerals everywhere you go. It brings a sense of overwhelming grief when that many people pass away, she says.

Family members of at least two CRS staff are among the Magnitude 7.2 earthquake.

The earthquake disaster has piled another level of suffering on the already stressed population, Carroll says.

The stressors she is referring to concern the difficult political, economic and social crisis that has been making life in Haiti almost unbearable for the past two years.

Over 2,200 people died and another 12,000-plus were injured in the initial 14 August quake. In addition, government estimates say 130,000 homes were damaged, including 50,000 which were completely destroyed.

"It is very visible in the affected communities, where 90 percent of homes, schools and churches were flattened in the hot spots," says Carroll.

"There is also significant damage which is less visible: a lot of water systems are damaged and no longer functioning, or the water is dirty and not usable."

CRS staff have been headquartered under tarps at a parking lot near their operations center in Les Cayes because of damage to their offices.

Following the tragedy, CRS has focused on distributing emergency shelter and hygiene kits. They are working hand in hand with the Haiti government to help Haitians rebuild their lives at home and discourage them from relocating to tent cities or sleeping in the streets.

While CRS maintains a stockpile of emergency supplies in Haiti, additional resources have come from the U.S. military, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the United Nations and World Vision.

Les Cayes is Haiti's third-largest city. Carroll says local hospitals and health clinics are doing the best they can with their available resources and are moving toward normalcy. They have also moved many patients to other hospitals away from the disaster area.

A major concern in the region is damage to schools and the effect this has on children. Children are already losing classroom time due to a number of factors: the pandemic, Haiti's dysfunctional political situation and widespread food insecurity.

"We would really like to see how we can prevent a late start to the school year, and many schools aren't going to be able to accept children," Carroll says. "They really can't afford to miss further class time."

CRS is working closely with Les Cayes Catholic diocese and the regional office for Caritas Internationalis, which recently lost its regional director to COVID-19.

Caritas has "started a very rapid response program, and we are supporting them and doing training with them despite the upheaval of a new (Caritas regional) director, an earthquake and a recent tropical storm (Grace) — and yet they are still out there doing their project," Carroll says.

Source

• Catholic News Service
• Image: Reuters

An initial earthquake assessment has the building rated "Cathegory E", the worst possible rating and in the interests of public safety, the church decided to stop using the building.

Churchgoers will still be able to attend Mass, the Anglican vicar, Rev Ruth Dewdney has offered St John the Baptist Church on Saturday at 5pm and at 9am on a Thursday.

• Source: Te Puke Times

One of the churches is Martinborough's St Anthony of Padua.

The decision left the local Catholic community to sort out its immediate future including the Christmas Eve Vigil Mass and Carols celebration.

The Martinborough Catholic community considered a number of suggestions including offers of alternative venues from other Christian denominations.

But given past attendance of about 170 and their desire to retain a presence in Martinborough, they decided to remain onsite for Christmas and beyond.

Taking a risk with the weather, they held their traditional Christmas Mass outdoors; alongside the church building and under the trees on the church property.

"We accessed 100 chairs from Chanel College to add to our local supply," said parishioner Margaret Bath.

"A conservative attendance was around 185 plus, with many standing or even sitting on the steps of the closed church.

"This made for a special and memorable celebration. The night started out balmy and chilled later……..but the rain held off.

"The evening had a "biblical" feel about it, the Holy Family were in temporary accommodation and amongst the cattle in the stable…..not to forget angels, wise men and shepherds," Bath said.

"We had horses in the paddock alongside that were interested in the proceedings and didn't smell or create health hazards."

Bath says they have approval for a second engineer to carry out a peer review of the church - they hope this will be carried out early this year.

"Interesting to note that the Government regulations allow for use of our building until 2033 while improvements are considered and carried out but the Church Administration went for automatic closure.

"We, the local Catholic community, had no input."

Source

• martinboroughstar.co.nz
• times-age.co.nz
• Image:martinboroughstar.co.nz

The 117-year-old cathedral has been evaluated by engineers in a verbal report and a brief written assessment.

Sacred Heart Cathedral's Reverend Father James Lyons said beams in the roof needed to be strengthened.

But everything else met the earthquake code.

Father Lyons said the cathedral could stay open while they were waiting for a full engineering report to be released.

A rating under 34 percent is classed as earthquake-prone under the code.

Sources

• Scoop
• Catholic Diocese of Bathurst

The flashbacks, the anxiety, my emotional numbness and poor sleep had long worried my wife, Mary.

I had played down the symptoms, denied I had a problem. Five months later I'd be in a psychiatric ward.

I covered some big stories as a Reuters journalist. The Bali nightclub bombings in 2002, the Boxing Day tsunami in Indonesia's Aceh province in 2004, three stints in Iraq from 2003 to 2004 and then a posting to Baghdad as bureau chief from 2007 to 2008.

From 2010 to 2012, based in Singapore, I oversaw coverage of the top stories across Asia each day.

Then, after 20 years working in Asia and the Middle East, it was time to settle down. I moved my family in early 2013 to the Tasmanian village of Evandale, population 1,000, to edit stories for Reuters from home.

Rather than relaxing in Tasmania, the beautiful Australian island where my wife was born, I unravelled.

In a letter that was painful for her to write, Mary, a former journalist, outlined her concerns to the psychiatrist ahead of that first session.

"When we came home to Tasmania three years ago it was a real 'tree change' for Dean and he spent much more time with the family.

"Very soon I began to notice changes - a loud-noise sensitivity, a quick temper, irritability, impatience, and an atmosphere of what seemed like misery that sat like a pall over the household," Mary wrote.

"I began to wonder if he had PTSD. He does say there are certain images that will remain with him for the rest of his life."

Dozens of sights, sounds and smells are indeed seared into my memory.

The severed hand I nearly trod on in the wreckage of the Sari nightclub in Bali. The more than 150 bloated bodies I counted in a mosque in Banda Aceh after the tsunami. The wailing that pierced the Baghdad office on the morning of July 12, 2007, when word reached our Iraqi staff that photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40, had been killed in an attack by a U.S. Apache helicopter.

Calm, Rational, Decisive

PTSD results from exposure to a single traumatic event or an accumulation of traumatic experiences.

The term is relatively new.

It first appeared in the benchmark of modern psychiatry, the U.S. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, in 1980.

That came after years of lobbying by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War organization and by psychiatrists who had treated soldiers with problems stemming from their service in Vietnam.

Psychological trauma has been around far longer, of course. The term shell shock was used to describe soldiers who broke down during the trench warfare of World War One.

PTSD doesn't just affect soldiers. Police and rescue workers are at risk. So are civilians caught in war zones or natural disasters, as well as victims of sexual assault and car crashes. Continue reading

• Dean Yates is a former Reuters reporter

Kaikoura is part of Father Pat's Te Whetu o Te Moana - Star of the Sea Marlborough Parish which covers all of the Marlborough region and part of North Canterbury.

He lives in Blenheim. Even before the earthquake, it was a 2 hour drive form Blenheim to Kaikoura. Now the earthquakes have cut off all road and rail access.

McIndoe is planning to stay in Kaikoura until next Monday.

To the south, Fr John O'Connor, who is the parish priest pf Good Shepherd Hurunui says "An overwhelmingly positive response to the clean-up of the church at Waiau before the 7.00pm Mass (on Saturday).

"I arrived at 6.30 after the Hanmer Springs Mass to find the church and grounds abuzz with activity and by 6.45 the church was spotless with lawns mowed and the whole place looking even better than it did before the earthquakes."

He said the only sombre moment was when the statues of Our Lady and St Anthony, each in 1000 pieces, were carried from the church.

"Then we celebrated Mass with a great crowd of workers from all over the parish. Immediately after Mass one of the team appeared with cold beer and good wine and we stood around outside enjoying the great company."

He then went on Cheviot where "we will do the same at Cheviot with clean-up at 9 and Mass at 10," he said

The diocese of Christchurch is instigating an initiative to support those in the Hurunui area who have be affeted by the eathquakes.

People have been are invited to provide food parcels/care packages with home baking, chocolate, treats for families.

These packages will be distributed by the various churches.to those affaected by the earthquakes in the Hurunui area.

The food parcels/care packages can be dropped off at St Joseph's Parish, corner Main North Road and Vagues Road, Papanui or Cathedral House, Unit 2, 9 Washington Way from Tuesday 22nd to Thursday 24th November.

People have been asked to put items in supermarket bags for ease of distribution.

Any queries phone Cathedral House 366 9869.

Source

• Supplied
• catholicphilly.com
• facebook.com
• catholic.org.nz
• Image:indaily.com.au

In June, the Government tasked a working group with breaking deadlock on the earthquake-damaged building, which has been holding up the redevelopment of Cathedral Square in central Christchurch.

The working group will make a non-binding recommendation on the building to Government and church trustees by November 28 with a public announcement planned for December 7. Continue reading

The statue of Our Lady of Light was housed in a school that collapsed and was reduced to rubble in the April 16 quake, which left at least 600 people dead.

The sisters who run the school in Marta Canton are amazed at the statue's fate.

The occurrence has reportedly given hope to the local community and consolation to Equador's people.

Continue reading

Sr Clare Maria Crockett, 33, from Derry, worked at a school in Playa Prieta, where she taught alongside other sisters of the Home of the Mother order.

The missionary was teaching young children to play the guitar when the earthquake struck.

She tried to lead the children to safety, but died following the collapse of a stair-well.

Her body was discovered under the rubble on Monday by rescue teams.

The bodies of postulants identified by the order as Jazmina, Mayra, Maria Augusta, Valeria, and Catalina were also found.

Sr Clare had been a missionary for 15 years and had arrived in Ecuador in 2012.

She took her perpetual vows in 2010.

Sr Clare had been the voice of "Lucy" in the children's series "Hi Lucy" that screened on EWTN for many years.

The statement from her order noted: "As sisters who sincerely love each other in the Lord, we mourn the loss of our sisters. However, our faith assures us that ‘death is not the end of the path'.

"Sr Clare had spent nearly 15 years of her life in consecration to the Lord.

"She was a generous sister with a special gift for reaching out to children and young people.

"The postulants had entered the order just a year ago and were generously preparing themselves to become Servant Sisters. And the Lord found them all prepared."

The order stated that when the earthquake started, the superior of the community, Sr Estela, rushed to the chapel to retrieve the Blessed Sacrament.

As soon as she did so "everything around her collapsed and fell to the ground floor". She was later found alive but with injuries.

As of Wednesday, the death toll from the quake stood at 525 and this number was expected to rise with 200 people still missing.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• EWTN Facebook
• Statement from the Home of the Mother order
• The Guardian
• Image: News4jax.com

Philip Pavich, 55, and Gilbert Southworth, 46, apologised for their actions and gave money to the Anglican diocese.

On March 21, motion-activated cameras detected their entry into the building.

Police arrested the pair after they were caught leaving the cathedral carrying a lectern.

The two men, from the Waikato, had been in Christchurch on a golf trip.

The public prosecutor told the Christchurch District Court there was no public interest in the men being prosecuted.

Continue reading

A geotechnical assessment has confirmed that the former site will remain at risk of liquefaction, including subsidence and lateral spreading.

Repair and rebuild estimates are comparatively expensive because of the nature of the land.

Christchurch Bishop Barry Jones is undertaking a process of exploring potential sites for a new permanent site for Marian College.

A statement on the Christchurch Catholic diocese website noted that "Marian College will be rebuilt and will continue to provide quality single sex Catholic secondary school education".

Continue reading

They got another court win late last week and are now basically allowed to get on with the demolition, as in deed they should.

The cathedral has turned into one of those heated overly emotive debates that becomes counter-productive and saps energy time and money.

I don't doubt for one moment that those who oppose its demise aren't passionate or determined or indeed think they're right. But a couple of key things are at play.

Firstly, it's not their church. Secondly, the courts have failed to side with them.

Of course the church's role in Christchurch society goes well beyond its ownership.

Having grown up in the place, I am not Anglican but I always felt the cathedral was the city's.

I've been in it many times, I've climbed to the top of it many times. But despite that, I have never felt as though I owned it or that I had any more say than anyone else, and certainly not as much say as those who do own it - i.e. the church.

Christchurch has a lot of big fish to fry and they'll be doing that for many years to come.

And part of that scenario working out requires people to be reasonable in their approach to any given major decision.

Decisions like the city centre, the convention centres, the sports facilities, the general design - all of those big calls require input but not to the point where it becomes a fight and a delay.

The cathedral debate falls smack into the middle of that category. Continue reading.

Mike Hosking presents the breakfast show on NewsTalkZB, and has lived and worked in Christchurch, Wellington, currently based in Auckland.

Source: NewsTalkZB

Image: Joshua Drummond

That's because the Anglicans and Presbyterians had their St Andrew's Awatere Christian Joint Venture Church, in Seddon, destroyed by the jolt.

And, in the spirit of Christianity, the Catholic community opened their doors to their wandering neighbours.

Awatere Christian Joint Venture committee chairman Rob Cameron said the two religions had always been comfortable together in the Awatere.

"Out there, community is stronger than denomination," he said. "It's been really helpful for us, if we didn't have that place, we would be moving around every week. The Catholics worship at 8am and have a cup of tea after their service. We join them for that and when they go home, we have our worship."

The committee was still waiting on an engineer's report to see if their church would be salvaged or demolished, Dr Cameron said.

"It's [still] out of bounds but that's how we came to worship with the Catholics. It's very harmonious and celebrated on both sides."

Dr Cameron was speaking at a church service for former Awatere and Flaxbourne residents in Blenheim last week.

They hold an annual service to keep up-to-date with life in the region.

Dr Cameron showed the group a slideshow of quake-damaged buildings, including the Awatere Christian Joint Venture church.

Former vicar Miriam Taylor held the service at the Church of Nativity and said the new relationship between Catholics and Protestants was a wonderful outcome of the earthquake.

"There has always been a wonderful unity of spirit between the churches anyway but this has been particularly special," Reverend Taylor said. "It's sad to see the church like that but it reminds people that the church is not the building, the church is the people."

Source:

• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: Stuff.co.nz

The initial earthquake was a vicious, violent one, she said.

Even though the statues and other items were tied down, "the statue of Our Lady came down and was damaged at the back, and all the crosses were thrown about 12 feet around", Mrs Costello said.

As well, a large cross on the roof at the rear end of the church came down.

David Mullins Catholic Archdiocese of Wellington's Director of support services says they are waiting for "assessments on church buildings. There are reports of structural damage to the Ward Church. There has been minor damage to other buildings in the wider region, the extent of this is still to be confirmed.Source."

"The Archdiocese will contact all parishes to ask them to look for any signs of damage to assess the need for a check by a structural engineer," Mullins says.
Source

• New Zealand Catholic
• Archdiocese of Wellington
• Image: Geoplocation

However, parishes are being asked to ensure buildings are safe and to check them again if there are further earthquakes.

The Archbishop of the New Zealand dioceses, the Most Reverend Philip Richardson, says people are builders of community and this is a time when the church across the province can respond by supporting the communities of Marlborough and Wellington in prayer.

"With the ongoing earthquakes there can be feelings of uncertainty and tired nerves, so the message is one of love, support and prayer, as communities face possible further earthquakes in their day-to-day living." Continue reading

Research into how couples were affected by the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes found that while some couples experienced increased marital distress, others would have felt their relationship grew stronger.

University of Canterbury PhD student and Fulbright scholar Emma Marshall said many researchers had considered the psychological impact of traumatic events on individuals but little was known about how couples were affected.

"We do not live in isolation. Not only do individuals need to manage their own distress or reactions following an event such as the earthquakes, they are mindful of their partner's reaction and how to help them . . . so, overall, when you look at the individual only, you do not get the entire picture of the impact of the traumatic event." Continue reading

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

The strong stand that the GCBT has taken towards saving and restoring the Cathedral is not being done because of some vague sense of nostalgia for past glories, but a fierce commitment towards the history and heritage of Christchurch, which, as a result of a natural catastrophe, lies in ruins all around us.

We have lost so many of our iconic heritage buildings that it is critical that we strenuously defend those few that are left, and the Cathedral stands as a stark and almost lone reminder of what was, and what could still be, an exceptional part of this city's, and indeed New Zealand's, cultural, religious and historic heritage. Its constant presence throws doubt on the quality of the opinion of those who said that the Cathedral was in imminent danger of collapse and shows that taking time over some demolition decisions can lead to more constructive alternatives being available. Continue reading

Sources

• Great Christchurch Building Trust in Scoop
• Image: The Guardian