Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Picking up the pieces

byStaff writers
24 November 2013 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 3 mins read
AA
Rebuilding: An altar server lifts up a broken crucifix as he and others clear debris from the sanctuary of the partially destroyed Metropolitan Cathedral in Palo, the Phillippines, on November 15 in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.

Rebuilding: An altar server lifts up a broken crucifix as he and others clear debris from the sanctuary of the partially destroyed Metropolitan Cathedral in Palo, the Phillippines, on November 15 in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. Photo: CNS/Wolfgang Rattay, Reuters

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

BRISBANE Filipino chaplain Fr Marce Singson left “with a heavy heart” for typhoon-devastated Ormoc City where his 11 siblings and 73 nephews and nieces are battling to cope with the aftermath of super Typhoon Haiyan.

Fr Singson flew out from Brisbane on Sunday, November 17.

“I will head directly to Ormoc City – next to Tacloban City, the hardest hit by the typhoon – to comfort and to console my homeless and starving members of my family and relatives,” he said.

Fr Singson was due back in Brisbane on Friday, November 22.

The following day he was to celebrate an 11am Requiem Mass at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Acacia Ridge for typhoon victims.

“Filipinos from Sunshine Coast all the way down to Coolangatta will converge to the venue to pay our last respect for those who perished from the calamities,” he said.

The monster storm, thought to be the strongest to have ever made landfall anywhere in the world in modern history, hit the Philippines on November 8.

Most recent estimates were that more than 3600 people had died. Authorities have resorted to mass burials, with one report of 500 bodies being placed in a mass grave.

Fr Singson’s preparations came as Caritas announced plans to deliver more than 4000 temporary shelters to families in the poorest villages of Ormoc where Super Typhoon Haiyan destroyed 80-90 per cent of homes.

Caritas Australia international programs manager Jamie Davies said tarpaulins, hygiene kits and other household items were coming by boat from Cebu City and being stored in the Catholic school gymnasium in Ormoc for distribution.

Related Stories

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

Parramatta Bishop Anthony Fisher celebrated a Memorial Mass for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan at 7.30pm in St Patrick’s Cathedral on Monday, November 18.

The disaster was deeply felt in Parramatta diocese, which takes in much of western Sydney, where one in five Catholics is either Filipino born or a child of Filipino-Australians.

Apostleship of the Sea Australia national director Peter Owens said the organisation was supporting Filipino seafarers who made up a 40 per cent or 1.2 million of seafarers world-wide.

He said the close-knit nature of Filipino culture meant the disaster would have a profound impact.

“Their culture is based around extended families which means people displaced by the typhoon will be moving in with families which are often themselves already under stress,” he said.

Mr Owens said AOS Cebu port chaplain Fr Ulysses Desales has been helping with relief efforts in Bantayan Island, Cebu, one of the areas most affected by the storm.

“Fr Desales said almost all the houses have collapsed, trees have been uprooted and debris is all over the place,” he said.

“He also said he saw people holding up placards with the words: ‘Please help us. We need water, food, medicine’.”

Fr Desales has turned the seafarers’ centre in Cebu into a hub which he can use to mobilise assistance, together with his team of volunteers.

“AOS has seafarers’ centres all over the Philippines from which support is being provided,” Mr Owens said.

“It also has a network of centres around the world providing free telephone cards and internet access to allow Filipino seafarers to contact their families back home.”

The Australian Salesians Missions office, which has a provincial office in Cebu, has launched an appeal for victims of Typhoon Haiyan.

Salesian Missions Australia director Br Michael Lynch said there was an “urgent need for emergency shelter, food, clean water and medicine.

“Funds will be distributed through the Salesian Provincial Office in Cebu,” he said.

Caritas Australia estimates nearly four million people have been displaced with about 550,000 shelters expected to be uninhabitable and un-repairable.

So far Caritas is assisting more than 68,000 families and 340,000 individuals in many of the worst hit areas.

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Fr Mac’s ‘originals’ bowing out

Next Post

Brisbane archdiocese is going digital

Staff writers

Related Posts

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia
Australia

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

26 May 2022
Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church
Australia

Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

26 May 2022
Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting
World

Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

26 May 2022
Next Post
Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane checks out the new app with vicar general Monsignor Peter Meneely and St Stephen's Cathedral associate pastor Fr Anthony Ekpo.

Brisbane archdiocese is going digital

family

Survey to focus on family issues

Pope Francis holds up a box of "spiritual medicine" after praying the Angelus from the window overlooking St Peter's Square on November 17. The box contained a rosary, a Divine Mercy holy card and a medicinal-style instruction sheet.

Pope Francis prescribes daily rosary as a spiritual medicine

Popular News

  • Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

    Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Archbishop calls for prayers in “troubled times”

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia
Australia

Ethiopian cardinal brings sense of gratitude to Australia

by Staff writers
26 May 2022
0

ETHIOPIAN Cardinal Berhaneyesus Souraphiel says his trip to Australia gives him the chance to thank individuals and...

Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

Blessed Sacrament desecrated in robbery of sacred vessels at Canberra church

26 May 2022
Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

Pope Francis – ‘My heart is broken’ over Texas elementary school shooting

26 May 2022
Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north

Nuncio take in the sights of Queensland’s far north

25 May 2022
Hong Kong

Cardinal Joseph Zen appears in court in Hong Kong on day of prayer for China

25 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping