Charity - Who ever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord

I was born and brought up in India. I had several pen pals in the U.S. Their friendship made me to want to come to America. President John Kennedy relaxed some of the Immigration rules and I was able to come to the “ best Country” in the World.

Fr. John Weyer was the Pastor of my Parish, St. Vincent De Paul in Houston. He passed away in 2008. Many parishioners considered Fr. John, a living Saint. He and I had a very special relationship. Fr. John nominated me to the Pastoral Council and to the Mission Council. He was a member of the Board of Advisors of CATHOLIC ACTION WORLDWIDE, a Ministry Valsa, my wife, and I had founded. Fr. John frequently gave us very valuable advice.

The Texas Catholic Herald is a fortnightly published by the Archdiocese of Galveston Houston. It has a circulation of 180,000 . One day the Chief Editor, Eric Noryega, called me and said, “Mathew there are not many CATHOLIC ACTION WORLDWIDES in the U.S. Can my staff interview you?”. The Herald interviewed Fr. John and me. Please see Attachment 1.

Because of Fr. John’s support, I was able to find sponsors for over 90 Seminarians, 80 orphans and 18 lepers from St. Vincent Parish alone. This article is a tribute for Fr. John Weyer.

The worst flooding in nearly a century has left hundreds dead, hundreds of thousands homeless, damage worth of over four billion US$ in southern kerala state, in India.

Please review the link: https://www.manoramaonline.com/videos/video-featured.kerala-floods.5827677602001.html

No amount of words are enough to salute the bravery and courage of the volunteers. Let's salute the unsung heroes of Kerala - the brave fishermen. They loaded their boats onto trucks, voluntarily travelled Kerala’s interior towns and villages, inundated with more than 10-30 feet of water.

Equipped with their wooden country boats that could face even rough seas, the fishermen went on rescue mission to reach out to those stranded on roof tops and even perched on trees. No wonder, the 3500 valiant fishermen were hailed ‘heroes’ and even honored by the Kerala government. The fishermen are Latin Catholics.

The unique design of the fishermens boats made it possible to take them any place including hilly regions

Video of Jaisal, a fisherman, seen in the blue shirt, who knelt down in knee-deep water so that women can use his back to climb onto the boat has gone viral. Kneeling, with his face hardly a few inches above the flood waters as women stepped onto his back to climb into a boat.

Jaisal tells his story “ With twenty of my friends I went to rescue the flood victims. There was a lady with bleeding. The volunteers said that It was not possible to go to her. With my boat I managed to go near her. Since she was bleeding, it was difficult to get her into the boat, I laid down on the water and became a bridge for her. I considered the women facing death as my mother and as my sister. That made me do it”.

Many people said, “When the fishermen who went to the sea did not come back, when they were going hungry, when they lost their boats, none of us went to help them. BUT, THEY CAME !

I always wondered why Jesus selected his disciples from the fisher folk. Now, I know why!!

Catholic nuns have taken the forefront in relief work for flooded Kerala. As many as 69821 young people and 99705 lay volunteers joined 6737 nuns, 2891 priests and 354 seminarians to rescue stranded people.

At the Angelus on Sunday, August 19th, Pope Francis prayed for victims of the flooding in the Indian state of Kerala. “In recent days,” he noted, “the inhabitants of Kerala have been harshly struck by intense rains, which have caused flooding and landslides, with heavy loss of human life, with many people missing and displaced, with extensive damage to crops and homes.”

The Holy Father voiced his hopes that “these brothers and sisters” would always be supported by our solidarity, and by concrete support from the international community. In that regard, he expressed his closeness to the Church in Kerala, “which is at the forefront of efforts to bring aid to the population.” Pope Francis then led the crowds gathered in St Peter’s Square in prayer for those suffering from “this great calamity.”

Even as the flood waters receded in most affected areas and people look forward to getting back to normal lives, Kerala is staring at a much bigger problem: rehabilitation and reconstruction. Kerala’s Finance Minister says the damage to property is about Rs. 30,000 Crores (over 4 billion US $).

Even though only 1% of India’s population is Catholic, saving lives were mostly done by Catholics. There is a lot of “good will” about Catholics among Hindus and Muslims. Some of their leaders have publically stated that.

I have already requested Cardinal Dinardo, the President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, to observe a day of prayer for the suffering in Kerala in all the American churches and to take a second collection. The Cardinal has sent it to the USCCB Office in Washington D.C. I will be contacting many more Christian organizations in the U.S and in Europe.

I had contacted a few State Deputies for help. The very next day, I received a very warm e-mail from the State Deputy of Pennsylvania Br. Jack Jago, instructing all the councils in his state to help the sisters and brothers in Kerala I will be contacting other State Deputies and hope they will be as generous as Pennsylvania!

To contribute for relief and rehabilitation of Kerala Flood

This Fund is managed by the Syro-Malabar catholic Diocese of Chicago.

For additional information, please call Mathew George 713-669-1295