Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weakerare all the more necessary,
That the parts may have the same concern for one another.If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it;if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.
We are all one body. There is a part of our body that is suffering greatly now. In Haiti the death toll is over 111,000. Today they buried their archbishop who was killed in the earthquake when the earthquake rocked the country on January 12, 2010 at 4:53 p.m. The 7.0 magnitude quake’s epicenter hit just 10 miles west of Porte-au-Prince and its 2 million inhabitants. 3 million people in need of emergency aid after major earthquake.
Hollywood has helped with “Hope for Haiti” one of the most widely distributed prime-time televised benefits in history. Actors staff the phones, musicians play the songs on telethon. Telethon broadcast on more than 25 networks including CNN, MTV and Planet Green and CNN’s Anderson Cooper reports live from Haiti during the event. The concert raised over 9.4 million with highlight videos including Beyonce, Rihanna, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, and Madonna.
Locally donations for Haiti relief efforts are overwhelming local charities. However sufficient funding isn’t available to process and send the supplies. People from all over Northeast Ohio are volunteering to leave their jobs, to spend weeks away from home, to collect bandages, gather up clothing, do whatever they can to help the people of Haiti. But they want every kind-hearted donor to know this: some kinds of help are needed more than others.
What is the Catholic Church doing?
What is amazing about the Catholic Church is that we are truly universal. We have this whole network all over the world that is connected. St. Paul proclaims: “As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.”
What’s most needed is money to support the agencies that are working there right now who are capable of providing food, shelter, water for immediate relief as well as rebuilding the structure so that they can rise from this.
This is where Catholic Relief Service excels. They were formed by our United States Bishops to provide relief from disasters and have evolved to not only helping in times of disaster but also rebuilding cultures and helping them to prevent disasters in the future. What CRS is very good at doing is knowing that there are many parts to the body and they find and use the best parts to provide for the weakest.
CRS has worked in Haiti, whose population is 80 percent Catholic, for more than 50 years. The 313 staff of CRS in Haiti started helping people within hours of the earthquake. CRS has committed $25 million to the emergency response and rebuilding of Haiti. Food is moving to people in need. CRS is arranging the distribution of 2,100 metric tons of vegetable oil and grains from the USAID for Food for Peace program.
The CRS/Caritas team helped the St. Francois de Sales Hospital open three operating rooms which are now up and running.
Working with the parishes of Port-au-Prince, CRS is also identifying up to 50 points throughout the city that will be used for food distribution that could reach as many as 150,000. Parish personnel will organize the distributions, registering recipients, as CRS provides food and logistical support. This comes as flights head to Haiti, filled with those who will tend to its sick and injured and those who will mourn its dead.
CRS President Ken Hackett is in Haiti with Archbishop of New York Timothy Dolan, the CRS board chairman; and Msgr. David Malloy, the general secretary of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. They will attend the Saturday funeral of Joseph Serge Miot, the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince who died in the January 12 earthquake. The funeral and burial will be held on the grounds of the city’s cathedral, which lies in ruins.
The generous outpouring of support continues as CRS has raised more than $19 million for Haiti relief, with many donations still to be tallied.
The food comes from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Food for Peace program—supplies that were either already in Haiti or on the way when the 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck. Initial relief and recovery efforts focused on Port-au-Prince, where at least a third of the city’s 3 million people were affected.
Now CRS has been asked to take on large-scale food distributions in Leogane and is organizing the delivery and security needed to get help to 50,000 people there.
“We have been in Haiti for a long time and we will be here for a long time to come,” said CRS Country Representative Karel Zelenka. “The work in recovering from this disaster has just begun.”
CRS is extremely grateful for the outpouring of support we have received in response to this terrible crisis. Because of logistical difficulties in shipping US-based items to Haiti quickly, monetary donations to CRS will help quake survivors more effectively than in-kind donations
CRS has committed $25 million to the Haiti response. To date, we have already raised $16.5 million in cash and commitments, including a $1 million disaster response donation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and $225,000 from the New York Yankees baseball team.
CRS is known for it’s efficiency and good use of money. 96% of everything they bring in goes directly to the source less than 4% is for administration. They do this by finding resources that are working and supporting them and enabling them.
“Our teams on the ground say the needs are beyond belief. This money will help us go even further to reach people who are suffering.” Ken Hackett, President of CRS
But God has so constructed the bodyas to give greater honor to a part that is without it,so that there may be no division in the body,but that the parts may have the same concern for one another.If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it;if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.
