ARCHDIOCESE OF HARTFORD TO AID HURRICANE VICTIMS

Hartford, Connecticut, Thursday, September 1, 2005:  In a letter to all the Catholic pastors in the Archdiocese of Hartford, Archbishop Henry Mansell is encouraging local Churches to collect donations to help the victims of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the American South.

This Hurricane relief effort simply demands a response.  Offering a helping hand to our brothers and sisters in need is part of the very essence of being Catholic.  A disaster of this magnitude, is affecting millions in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, and as the storm moved north through Tennessee and Kentucky, even more people were affected.   

The local dioceses throughout the South have an established system in place for providing help where it can accomplish the most good.  The Chancery of the Archdiocese of Hartford will forward any donations collected to those southern dioceses most in need of assistance.  We must all remember that recovery will take many months, and so we will need to continue offering our generosity and our prayers for the many thousands of people who have lost their homes, their neighborhoods, their schools, their jobs, who have lost everything.

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