Local Catholics worry and try to help
For Joanna Tuimavave Ilaoa, a parishioner at Our Lady of Lourdes in San Francisco, the tsunami that struck her native American Samoa had a personal impact.
“Some of the people who were killed were some of the people I knew growing up when I was little,” she said. “My sister lives back home and they’re doing OK, except her husband’s niece was caught in the car going to work that morning, dropping off her son. Didn’t have time to escape.”
Ilaoa said most of the victims were in cars or buses. Some tried to outrun the tsunami but the wave caught up with them, she said.
“It’s very upsetting,” said Ilaoa, who is part of the large Samoan Catholic community at Our Lady of Lourdes. “There’s not a day that we’re not thinking of them, how they’re getting up in the morning and starting the day. What we’re doing in the community is just praying and hoping for a recovery.”
Local Samoans are pooling their relief efforts through the Samoan Community Development Center in San Francisco. The organization is accepting donations of clothing, water and dry goods, as well as money. For information on how to help, go to www.samoancenter.org.
On Oct. 2, Archbishop George H. Niederauer sent an appeal to all parishes to take up collections for the relief of the victims of a series of natural disasters in the Asia Pacific region: a devastating typhoon in the Philippines Sept. 26, a tsunami in Samoa, Tonga and American Samoa Sept. 30 and 7.9 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sumatra Sept. 30.
“Because of the proximity of all these disasters, the archbishop made a general plea for everybody,” said Msgr. Floro Arcamo, pastor of Star of the Sea Parish in San Francisco and vicar for Filipino Catholics in the archdiocese.
Msgr. Arcamo said he placed a donation box at the communion rail with instructions for donating to disaster victims.
“A few of my Filipino parishioners have families who are really affected – have lost their homes and some are still even missing,” he said. “What is sad is they were not even halfway through their cleanup when another typhoon came.”
