Catholic Charities, church will be there for long haul

    You spent the days after Hurricane Isaac visiting all affected areas of the archdiocese. It’s still early to know the full extent of the damage, but what were your impressions?
    I went with representatives of Catholic Charities to the Plaquemines Parish emergency operations center, the evacuation center in Lafitte, and also to Madisonville, Slidell and LaPlace. The primary purpose of these visits was to offer spiritual support, and we were able to meet and pray with many people in the shelters and with the emergency personnel. This also allowed us to assess the needs that Catholic Charities will be able to address in the coming weeks and months. We will be there for the long haul with counseling, and Second Harvest Food Bank will help provide the food and water that is needed.
    In talking to some of the storm survivors, did anything stand out?
    A lot of people had near-death experiences. There was a young man with his wife and child in Plaquemines Parish who were rescued from the rooftop of their home. Their lives were at risk, but they are full of faith. I met another lady in the evacuation center who was asleep and then woke up in the middle of the night, got out of bed and stepped into 2 feet of water. But she was able to be rescued after climbing up a utility pole. You hear stories like this over and over again, and each story of near-death and faith is unique and heart-wrenching. As we know, people of this area are resilient. You can take away a lot of things from them, but you can’t take away their faith.
    How do you put this natural disaster into the perspective of faith?
    I was listening to the radio the other day and a lady was saying how she should have evacuated because mother nature has its way and God has his way. I understand why she made that comment – and I have heard it before – but that’s really not the way God works. God does not will the suffering of people. He does allow nature to take its course, and that sometimes creates chaos and devastation. People ask, where is God in the midst of this? God was walking through the floodwaters, trying to send people to rescue others. We have to be careful when we speak of tragedies. God doesn’t delight in our misfortunes. He allows nature to take its course, and he also can use elements of tragedy to help us grow in greater dependence on him and grow in our desire to serve others.
    What can parishioners do to help?
    They can volunteer their time to help people clean up and get back to some sense of normalcy. They can offer their prayerful support. They also can contribute to the Catholic Charities emergency fund (www.ccano.org) which has been set up to help those who have lost their homes. Some people have not only lost their homes, but a lot of them also will be out of work. Father John Tran, who is the pastor at St. Joan of Arc in LaPlace, was in Shreveport visiting some of his parishioners who had evacuated there. Those people are going to need a great deal of spiritual support. We expect to receive some limited funding from Catholic Charities USA to help us. But in responding to this situation, we will simply be there for people and help them in any way that we can. In faith, I have confidence the finances to fund our efforts will be there.
    Questions for Archbishop Aymond may be sent to [email protected].