Editorial - Coming to terms

01.01.1970

I was talking to an American visitor to Jamaica after Mass one morning, not long after Hurricane Gilbert devastated the island of Jamaica on September 12, 1988. He was a member of an expert team who organised responses to disasters in the Los Angeles area where the threat of an earthquake is ever present. He said you have to have a plan that works.

The article by Fr Greg Bourke in Kairos the fortnightly magazine of the Archdiocese of Melbourne (with permission), is a blueprint of how the Church is responding to the Victorian bushfire disaster in a co-ordinated way. It could be a blue print for the Church in any diocese. When the first shock is over, coming to terms with what has happened is a crucial part of recovery. Victims need the support of organisations that are there for the long haul.

The Church communities of Fiji and Victoria need as much help as the wider community to get back to 'normal', to come together to pray for the dead and the living. Rebuilding lives is harder than re-building churches and homes but people do it. But it is not a matter of moving on or having a short memory that seems to ease the pain.

For years communities will come together and pray for the living and the dead. The living are in need of much comfort and solace. The Church is well placed to be present for what is a long hard haul for many people.
 
Fr Gary Walker
TFE@columban.org.au