SEAFARERS from around the world are facing increasingly perilous times according to the Australian head of the international Catholic organisation Apostleship of the Sea (Apostolatus Maris) and its Stella Maris centres.
Brisbane-based national director Ted Richardson said the current world economic situation had brought with it a dramatic increase in the number of piracy attacks on ship crews as third world nations became more desperate.
Mr Richardson made the comment in a letter for today’s Seafarers Sunday appeal sent to some 1300 parishes throughout Australia.
He also spoke to The Catholic Leader before the campaign from the organisation’s national headquarters in Wynnum, on Brisbane’s bayside, as volunteers packed the appeal envelopes.
He said the Apostleship of the Sea, now an office of the Vatican which offers help regardless of race, culture, nationality or religion, was stretched to the limit as it sought to keep up with the demand.
“Last year we had more than 13,000 seafarers through the Wynnum centre alone,” he said.
“Services we provided ranged from cheap phone connections to the seafarers families overseas to recreational facilities and the location of cheap accommodation.
“Our Stella Maris bus also met the men to transport them around while they were in port.”
The Apostleship of the Sea celebrated its centenary in 1995.
It grew out of the work of English national director of the Apostolate to Prayer Fr Dignam, a Jesuit who in 1891 first sent parcels and periodicals to 12 ships from his Messenger office at Wimbledon in the United Kingdom.
In 1895, Fr Dignam’s successor Fr Gretton, also a Jesuit, launched a seamen’s branch named the Apostleship of the Sea.
In 1922, Pope Pius XI approved the first constitution of the movement.
The Brisbane branch opened in rented rooms in George Street in 1925 and has been located at Wynnum for the past 12 years.
Mr Richardson, who once worked in the merchant navy, said he would today be visiting several bayside parishes around Brisbane to outline ways in which Catholics could help the often exploited people of the sea.
“These people are invisible,” he said.
“Yet we rely on them for almost everything we eat or use in our daily lives.”
Anyone wishing to provide material aid or to inquire about volunteering can contact Ted Richardson on (07) 3348 6629 or 0419 197096.
