Mass for Sydney Chileans
Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
3 Mar 2010
St Benedict's Catholic Church at Smithfield will be packed on Monday, March 8 when Sydney's Chilean and Latin American communities turn out in force to pray for the victims of the 8.8 earthquake which devastated Chile's second largest city and villages along its coast.
"Praying is not the only thing we can do but we are believers, and prayer is very important," says Father Jose Maria Enedaguila, the Archdiocese of Sydney's Chaplain to the city's Catholic Spanish-speaking communities.
Fr Jose Maria, who will celebrate the Mass at St Benedict's on Monday at 7.30 pm, says the earthquake has been a national catastrophe for Chile and a time of anguish for Sydney's Latin American community, many of whom have family, relatives and friends in Concepcion and the surrounding villages.
"News is only coming out of the area very very slowly and frequently it is news none of us want to hear," he says.
Currently the death toll stands at 800 with more than 1000 people missing, with the number of dead expected to rise over the next few days.
"It is a cataclysm on such an enormous scale that our individual pain has become universal. The Chilean people have become our brothers and sisters," says Fr Jose Maria, explaining that in the wake of such a disaster the differences between cultures and people of Latin America have dissolved and the various communities have banded together to help those affected by the quake and to raise money for the thousands who have been left injured, homeless or both.
"We have set up a Solidarity Committee and plan to hold fund raisers including a Latin America festival as soon as possible," he says.
Ironically, a group of Sydney-Chileans and others from Latin American countries such as Uruquay, Peru, Brazil and Argentina, held a fund raiser for earthquake victims less than two weeks ago.
"We wanted to show solidarity and raise money to help the victims of Haiti's earthquake. We held the event at Sydney's Uruguayan Club and raised more than $30,000."
But less than a week later, another earthquake struck, this time in Chile where many of Sydney's 28000-strong Chilean population had family and friends.
"If we can raise $30,000 for people in a country where none of us had family or friends, then I am sure we can raise double or even triple to help our brothers and sisters in Chile," says Fr Jose Maria who hopes to be able to release details of the newly-formed Solidarity Committee's fund-raiser festival on Monday at the special Mass at Smithfield's St Benedict's Catholic Church.
