I just received a letter from Ray Seabeck, dated January 19:
We thank you so much for your generous gift . . . . for Mother Teresa’s missions in Haiti. It will be used to help the sisters rebuild and care for the poor in this terrible mess.
We got word on Friday that all Mother Teresa’s sisters in all of their 9 missions in Haiti are okay and all their people got out safely. Many of their buildings are unsafe and have to be rebuilt, but no lives were lost. . . . in each mission there is a home for the adult dying and a Children’s Home (400 people in each mission).
God bless you for your loving concern for the poor people of Haiti.
This is great news, but these poor people still desperately need help. If you want to help, contact Ray and Lauretta Seabeck at 22 Boyd Hill Rd., Gilford, NH 03249 (603) 524-4740.
Interrupting my blogging hiatus for an urgent message: about Haiti where the suffering has been tremendous since Tuesday’s earthquake.
I just spoke to Ray Seabeck who runs the Missionary Servants of John Paul I (who I wrote about here). They work directly with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in Haiti.
I have had a hard time contacting him, since his phone has been ringing off the hook constantly. But I did finally talk to him, and he said they have heard very little from inside Haiti. But they have learned that two of the convents of Mother Teresa’s sisters have been destroyed, and a third had to be evacuated because it was threatening to collapse. Nothing seems to be known about the six other convents, or how many sisters have been injured or killed. They are certainly desperately in need of help.
The Missionary Servants collect money, clothes, books, other supplies and Mass items regularly for the people of Haiti. Right now they are waiting to find out what is most needed and where it should be sent. But they especially want to get help right now to Mother Teresa’s sisters.
No doubt they will get help from other organizations, but Ray suggests that if you want to directly help Mother Teresa’s sisters with their relief work as well as caring for their own, you can make out a check to the Missionaries of Charity and send it Ray, and they will see that the sisters in Miami get it, so they can have the funds to provide what is most needed.
Ray and Lauretta Seabeck
The Missionary Servants of John Paul I
22 Boyd Hill Rd.
Gilford, NH 03249
They do so much good and are so desperately in need. Please keep them in your hearts and in your prayers. (I’ve already donated).
Update: Saturday, January 16.
If you want to help Mother Teresa’s sisters directly, you can also contact their regional offices in Miami:
Missionaries of Charity
727 N.W. 17th Street
Miami, FL 33136
USA
Tel.: 1-305-545-5699
Also the Holy Father has asked Catholic Relief Services to coordinate all the Catholic aid given in the crisis. You can find out more and donate to them here.
Archbishop Dolan of New York, who is also chairman of Catholic Relief Services, makes a plea for help here:
Pausing to look at all the sights on our way to Jerusalem. . . Mainly about faith, the Church, film, writing, famous Christian authors, and anything else I'm interested in at the moment.
The photo above was taken at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome in March 2007.
Quote of the Month
"The history of the Catholic missions is by now a long road: at the beginning of that road is the Father of Mercy, who holds out his arms to all his children. All those who encounter the missionaries encounter the Father. And they also encounter the Son, the first missionary, who, obeying the Father, comes to earth, becomes flesh in human nature, is one of us, in solidarity with our misery (except for sin) and ends up dying for us in order to then return to heaven, carrying on his shoulders the human race his has won back.
Out of the same mold are the missionaries, who repeat, in some way, his journey. They too leave their fathers and families and depart to go among a foreign people. They too strip themselves of the refined culture they have acquired in their homelands; and of their native customs and habitat, of a hundred little comforts, in order to be in solidarity. With who? With a people who are on one hand naked and poor, and on the other rich in possibilities, which the missionaries intend to respect, value and elevate."
Albino Luciani (Pope John Paul I), to the people of his diocese of Vittorio Veneto, on his return from the diocesan missions in Africa in 1966
