PARISHIONERS ASSIST

KATRINA RECOVERY

            Responding to an appeal by Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio, members of the 216 parishes in Brooklyn and Queens contributed more than $140,000 to a hurricane recovery collection taken a year after Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.

            Funds donated in a collection held the last weekend of August amounted to $141,818, with sixty percent sent to the Archdiocese of New Orleans and forty percent to the Diocese of Biloxi, Miss. New Orleans received $85,091 and Biloxi $56,727.

            This year’s collection, authorized by the U.S. bishops, was earmarked for recovery efforts, particularly for repairs of damaged church structures not covered by insurance so that they could again become useable for pastoral work.

In the wake of the hurricane last year, U.S. dioceses raised funds for humanitarian relief activities. Parishioners in the Brooklyn Diocese donated $1.2 million.

Msgr. John J. Bracken, Vicar General for Temporalities, recalled that Catholics in other U.S. dioceses assisted humanitarian and recovery efforts here after the tragedy of 9/11.

“Other dioceses helped us then,” he said, “and in the past year since Katrina our people have helped others. That’s what people do for their brothers and sisters in the human family when disaster strikes. God bless them.”

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10/30/06