From the Editor:

The following are brief messages from Redemptorists in areas affected by the Tsunami. Because of a skeleton staff at the Generale during the holidays and in the interest of getting you these reports quickly, we are foregoing translations and forwarding them to you unedited in the original English. We have yet to hear from Sri Lanka.

-Gary Ziuraitis, C.SS.R.

Vice Province of Alwaye 

Dear Father,

Thanks for your mail.  We are happy to inform you that the Tsunami did not affect neither the confreres of the Vice-Province of Alwaye nor their family members.  It is mainly because none of our communities are close to the sea.  Since the Tsunami attack was just after Christmas, all the confreres were at home after the busy days of preaching advent missions.

We like to know whether any of our confreres were affected in other parts of the world.

Yours in the Redeemer
Baby Verananickal, C.Ss.R.

Province of Bangalore

Dear Fr.Gary Ziuraitis,

Greetings and all good wishes to you. Thank you very much for you kind letter asking for details of how our
confreres have been affected or responded to the Tsunami tidal wave that hit our country as well.

The Tsunami tidal wave that struck the southern part of India on 26th Dec. 2004 , has left a trail of
destruction to both life and property of untold magnitude. At present the relief operations are in
full swing. Gradually we are getting to know the horror stories as it were, from people who have
survived this calamity. Often they are  heart rending stories of how people could save perhaps one child,
and had to helplessly see a life partner be washed away by the waves. This tidal wave has caused enormous
damage to life and property.

  All our confreres living in Southern India are safe. In the southern most tip of our country named
Manawalakurichi in the diocese of Kotar , we have a community of confreres, and their house is located
about a kilometer away from the sea. Our confreres as I said are safe, but many people in their parish have
perished and a lot of damage has been done to property. Two days ago on e of our confreres named
Fr.Santiago officiated at a mass burial of around 230 people from his parish. There are around fifty to
sixty people accommodated in our own Redemptorist house at Manavalkurichi, as these people  have lost
their entire houses and whatever belonging that they possessed. The relief work is in full swing. A number
of agencies have come forward to help. People are taken away from the site of disaster and kept in make
shift camps. Around twenty of our own students of theology have moved  out to these disaster struck
areas from Bangalore , to help out in the relief operations for the next ten days. As far as relief
operations are concerned things are going on as best as they could, given the difficulties of reaching
remote areas after a tidal wave had come crashing into the place.

However the big challenge for us is rehabiliation. How do we rehabilitate so many people with proper housing
and other facilities? This is a major job and would require a lot more planning and pooling of resources.
As a province we intend to focus all our energies to one place where our community is situated at
Manawalakurichi and reach out to people in that area. If some other houses or Provinces would like to help,
it would be better to channel all our resources to this one place and help re-build this area. That is
all for the moment . I will keep you informed of further developments.

With all good wishes to you for the New Year.

Yours in the Redeemer,
Fr. Xavier Sanjivi C.Ss.R
(Provincial Superior.)

Vice Province of Bangkok

For those conerned about the confreres in Thailand, our cental plains houses are on the Gulf of Siam. However, some of our Thai confreres have relatives working or living on the Indian Ocean. Fr. John Somphong's brother's restaurant was totally wiped out and his sisters' bungalows were badly damaged. Thousands of Thai and tourists were swept into the sea. The King's grandson was killed in the waves that slammed into his hotel. Over 400 Fishermen are missing and so far only 5 recovered. Over 20,000 dead and God knows how many missing.The news will only get worse.

Michael Shea, C.SS.R.