Newspaper Page Text
Priest In Quake Region fev ’ '
Heart In Mouth
Prayer On Lips
By Father James W.
Mundell, M.M.
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
CHOLCHOL, Chile — Sud
denly in the darkness — it was
6 a. m. — I awoke with my
heart in my mouth and a fast
Act of Contrition on my lips.
The whole rectory of rein
forced concrete was working
back and forth like a ball of
putty in the hand of a giant.
Any second I expected the
house to collapse. I have ex
perienced only three earth
quakes in my seven years in
Chile. Each lasted less than 10
seconds, with no more force
than it fakes to shake a glass
off of a table. Each registered
a mere "grade one" on the
Richter Earthquake Scale. The
quake at 6 a. m. May 21 lasted
three full minutes — an eter
nity — and hit "grade three."
We knew, of course, that some
area had been badly hit.
Later that morning, by porta
ble radio, we learned it was
Concepcion — where it struck
with an intensity of “grade
eight.” The damage there was
awful. There were no communi
cations at all until much later
in the day.
At 6:30 the next morning,
Sunday, another earthquake of
the same intensity as Satur
day’s struck. A half hour later,
another’. And at 8:30 as Mass
was starting, another.
Then all quiet. I left in my
jeep at 9:30 to celebrate Mass
up in the mountains, in Cha-
came, two hours away.
I was in the confessional from
the moment I arrived until 1:30.
Everyone in town wanted to go
to confession.
Then I started Mass in the
century-old farmhouse, with all
the chickens and dogs assisting,
as usual, along with the people.
There was a capacity congrega
tion, and many confessions and
communions. The people were
scared to death. During Mass,
another tremor.
I preached on the quakes: I
told the people to have con
fidence in God, the author of
nature who knows what He is
permitting. If He wants us to
go, fine.
After Mass I walked out into
the barn alongside the farm
house. Actually it wasn’t a
barn; it was the living quarters
of a large family—dirt floor,
with a fire in the middle, such
as all the country people have.
ELEtTWAl eMTIACTHG
MOTOR KHMM
DAY AND NIGHT SERVICE
m&m
MARIETTA, GEORGIA
Marietta
v
Commerical
lank
Member Federal Deposit insurance Corporation
804 ROSWELL ST.
PHONE 7-4245
MARIETTA, GEORGIA
I lit my cigarette and rested for
about 10 minutes. Then it start
ed, with a fury.
I had stepped back into the
room where I offered Mass to
get a few people ready for Bap
tism. The house started to rat
tle. Everyone made a dash for
the door. They all dropped on
their knees outside the house—
between the house and the so-
called barn.
I ran a bit further to get out
of the way in case the house
should fall. The old ground just
shook and shook.
A man started beating his
breast, and shouting, “Lord
have mercy on us, Christ have
mercy on us.”
Seeing everyone kneeling -—
and realizing that I was the
priest—I dropped on my knees,
too. It lasted three whole min
utes and was “grade six.”
It finally stopped, except for
a tiny shiver; I thought it was
over at last so I made my way
back among the kneeling people
to begin the baptisms. There
were four.
I got as far as the exorcism.
Suddenly the old wooden floor
buckled like paper. The rest of
the people were still on their
knees praying the Rosary. I ran, ;
trying to keep my balance, fell'
to one knee, and then up again
out into a clearing.
The entire horizon swept like
a wave and rocked from side
to side. The farmhouse and barn
waved back and forth like
leaves in wind.
It was violent, lasting over
four minutes and reaching
“grade nine” — near the top of
the scale.
The houses in the country did
not fall. But in nearby Nueva
Imperial, the houses were down,
roofs caved in, bricks and stones
, all over the streets.
I drove up to the Franciscan
Sisters’ convent school on the
crown of a hill. Two walls were
down. I went in and found it
abandoned. In the patio, how
ever, all of the girls — student
boarders — were huddled in
blankets praying the rosary and
frightened to death.
We decided to spend the
night on the football field
around fires. We carried our
blankets and mattresses out —
the boys at one end of the field
and the girls and the Sisters at
the other. The' Sisters sat up the
whole night on benches around
the fire, praying. About three
big shakes fiif cfurinjf' tAe nlgfft'
and the two-story schoolsound-
ed like it was falling apart.
Next, the tidal wave: Many
towns disappeared completely.
Others have only three or four
houses left standing. The quake
which caused it was of "grade
ten" in many cities a bit fur
ther south; 70 per cent of them
are now destroyed. There was
no communication. Railroads
were out. Fires started. There
was no light and water. The
only two hospitals in one city
went down.
What a grace of God that it
did not occur at night. Thou
sands upon thousands would
have been killed. But we still
did not know the total number
of deaths throughout the na
tion.
We need help. And prayers.
THE BULLETIN, June 23, "980-PAGE
CRS AIRLIFT TO CHILE QUAKE VICTIMS
National Airlines cargo clerk checks a freight load of 10,000 pounds of blankets gathered
at New York’s Idlewild Airport just before they were placed aboard National Airlines
plane for flight to Santiago, Chile. .Gathered by “Catholics of America” and distributed
by Catholic Relief Services—N.c.w.c., the blankets were being sent to earthquake vie*
tims in Chile. (NC Photos)
RELIEF WORK SLOWED BY WRECKAGE
Southern Chile In Ruins
After Quakes, Tidal Waves
(N.C.W.C. News Service)
CONCEPCION, Chile—Much
of southcentral Chile remains
near desolation in the wake of
the three weeks of recurrent
earthquakes, tidal waves, vol
canic eruptions and avalanches.
The cataclysms have changed
the whole face of the region
since the first devastating
quake on May 21. In all her
long history of such calamities,
Chile has never known greater
disaster.
The toll may take months to
compute; it might never be
known. But thousands are dead,
and more thousands injured. A
total • of i 170,000 homes are
wrecked, water and sewage sys
tems destroyed, along with vir
tually all docks along the whole
southern coast of the nation.
Valdivia, hardest hit on the
major cities has areas where
the ground level has dropped
as much as nine feet. Crevices
as v/ide as six feet are not un
common.
In the 10 provinces hit by the
violence two and a quarter mil
lion people have suffered in
some way. That’s nearly 30 per
cent of the total population of
Chile.
With winter new beginning,
the plight of the homeless be
comes the more difficult. But
the Chilean people have united
as one in coming to the aid of
their stricken brothers. At the
same time, over two dozen na
tions, ranging from Chile's Lat
in American neighbors to the
United States and Canada, and
Germany, Switzerland and
Spain, have rushed aid to the
homeless. Nations as distant as
the Soviet Union, India land Ja
pan have also lent a hand. But
relief work has been hampered
by the destruction of existing
airfields and port facilities.
This city of Concepcion,
which had to be rebuilt almost
completely following the 1939
earthquake, is on the northern
edge of the disaster area. It is
Chile’s third largest city, with a
population of close to 100,000.
The quakes have left almost
half the city’s houses destroyed
or inhabitable. The cathedral
here is half-wrecked, and
many of the churches are al
most beyond repair.
Nathaniel Hicks, Chilean di
rector for Catholic Relief Ser-
vices-National Catholic Welfare
Conference, the overseas relief
agency of the U. S. Bishops, ar
rived here.May 22 to begin sur
vey relief needs. He .was the
first non-Chilean, non-govern
ment official on the scene.
Later, after visiting the hard
er hit areas south of here, Mr.
Hicks estimated that the de
struction of churches, semina-
Requiem For
Victims Of
Tida! Wave
HILO, Hawaii (NC)—A special
Memorial Day Requiem Mass
was offered in St. Joseph
church here for some 55 resi
dents of Hilo reported dead or
missing in the wake of a dis-
asfrous tidal wave.
The tidal wave, which struck
Hilo in the early morning hours
of May 23, caused millionis of
dollars worth of damage here
Bishop James J. Sweeney of
Honolulu sent a message of
condolence to families of the
disaster’s victims.
“To all those who have been
bereaved of their lovbd ones we
extend our heartfelt sympathy
and we call upon all our people
to offer their earnest prayers
for those who have been taken
by death and for those who
have been left behind,” he said.
Priests of St.' Joseph parish
were among the first to go to
the aid of the injured and dying
after the tidal wave struck. Fa
ther John Joyce, M.M., pastor,
and Fathers Thomas Wilcox,,
M.M., Robert Mackesy, M.M.,
and Thomas Killackey, M.M.,
spent hours administering the
Last Rites at Hilo Memorial and
Pumaile Hospitals.
ries and Catholic institutional
buildings will run into tens of
millions of dollars. Due to the
disaster, he said, the Chilean
Church “will need almost com
plete financial support” from
the Catholics in America and
Europe if it is “to rebuild and
survive this blow.”
NORTHWOODS AUTO SALES, INC.
“WE SPECIALIZE IN EXTRA CLEAN SECOND CARS”
ACROSS FROM WINN DIXIE
5200 BUFORD HWY. DORAVILLE CL. 7-4384
£i,i Wist,
es
UPRE'
MARIETTA, GEORGIA
PIXIE CLEANERS
AND
SHIRT LAUNDRY
1411 Roswell Street
Phone 8-3676
MARIETTA, GEORGIA
CALVARY GARDEN . . . the only "exclu
sively" Catholic burial property in all
Atlanta. This garden located on a beauti
ful hillside and has been developed under
the direct guidance and approval of the
Catholic Churches of Atlanta.