Western liturgy churches gather for Venezuela earthquake relief

After a pair of earthquakes devastated Venezuela, churches across western Massachusetts began raising disaster relief funding.

The 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes that struck Venezuela back to back on the evening of June 24 were among the strongest to hit the country in more than a century and left behind widespread devastation. The death toll rose to 4,490, with 16,740 others injured and 17,907 others displaced, Reuters reported on Sunday.

Bishop William Byrne, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, urged Catholics to help earthquake victims, and encouraged congregations across the region to donate to Catholic Relief Services (CRS), which works through Caritas Venezuela to provide families affected by the disaster with food, shelter and medical care.

“These catastrophic earthquakes have shattered the lives of so many people,” Byrne said. “The scale of devastation and death toll are beyond devastating.” “As we pray for these victims and their families, I also ask you to prayerfully consider helping them financially.”

The bishop also encouraged local dioceses to assemble a special collection in the coming weeks. The Rev. Douglas McGonagle announced fundraising relief efforts at Holy Redeemer Church in Hadley and at Our Lady of Grace Parish in Hatfield.

McGonagle said he saw drone footage of the earthquakes around the same time the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield called on Catholics to donate. He said it was not the first time his parishes had raised donations in the wake of a disaster, and he expected the congregation to come together in this case as well.

“We’ve done this before — there was that tornado that swept across Appalachia, and it was one of those situations that we knew was bad,” he said. “We have become accustomed to doing this, unfortunately, during these natural disasters, but people are very supportive.”

Catholic Relief Services wrote that it has “fully deployed” a team of emergency specialists to Venezuela to assist Caritas Venezuela in supporting emergency shelters and water and sanitation in the country.

“From the first days, the parishes were full of volunteers, and trucks carrying relief were constantly coming and going,” said Nico Maslawi, head of the Catholic Relief Services regional emergency team.

Zorales Moreno, of Easthampton, moved to the United States four years ago and owns Zora’s Catering, a Venezuelan catering company that serves Saturdays at the Amherst Farmers Market.

Speaking by phone with the help of a Spanish-English translator, Moreno said she was happy to hear about the disaster relief fundraising initiative.

This has been very difficult for my country and I hope people will [of Venezuela] “They can get all the help they need,” Moreno said. “This is a very dangerous situation. … Venezuelan society is generous and will stand together.”

In Franklin County, River Valley Christian Church at 345 West Leiden Road in Colerain is holding a quilt show and sale on three Saturdays throughout July, with all proceeds benefiting Venezuelan earthquake victims.

Colerain Church member Judy Stetson said she has been making quilts since 1970 and always donates the money she makes from quilts to charity, telling her it’s a hobby, not something she’s trying to make money from.

“We feel very bad about what happened in Venezuela,” Stetson said. “The quilt isn’t doing me any favors sitting in the trash.”

Stetson said she has placed scriptures around the quilts, with each quilt containing at least one Bible verse, and she has about 50 quilts for sale at the church. The first of these sales took place on July 11, and the next sales are scheduled to take place on Saturdays, July 18 and 25. Sales start from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Staff writer Johnny Dibben contributed to this report.

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