From funds raised during “Christ Care for Japan Week,” held April 4-8, as well as other donations received since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the six-figure amount will be sent for emergency aid to the hard-hit Diocese of Sendai on northern Japan’s Pacific coast.According to Father Deasy, the money will be divided five ways. One-fifth of the total will be sent to Bishop Martin Tetsuo Hiraga of Sendai for aid distribution in the diocese. The remaining funds will be split among religious orders who have been serving in Sendai for a long time, including Guadalupe Missioners, and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Salesian Sisters). “One hundred percent of this money will be given to the missionaries who’ve already been in Japan for decades before this disaster and who are being asked more than ever to be that in-the-flesh-touch-of-Christ to those seeking food, shelter, medicine, relocation assistance and spiritual grief counseling,” said Father Deasy.He noted that all the donated funds for Japan will be sent with the directive that they be used only for emergency aid: food, water, shelter, medicine and basic supplies for living. As in last year’s archdiocesan HCA fundraising campaign for the children of earthquake-devastated Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which raised $500,000, all of the proceeds raised for Japan will be given to Catholic missionaries, priests, religious brothers and sisters already ministering in the country. St. John Baptist de la Salle in Granada Hills topped the list of 58 elementary schools holding fundraisers for Japan. Fifth grade student Patrick Mapile, after seeing a local television newscast about the Japanese earthquake, asked his principal, Patrick Hayes, for permission to sell home-made ribbon “Help for Japan” wristbands as a fundraiser.Mapile’s efforts raised $100, which created a momentum in the parish leading to additional fundraisers, such as a jog-a-thon and t-shirt sales. Combined with donations from parishioners, funds raised by the events grossed a total of $10,000. The second-highest fundraising parish school was St. James in Torrance, which collected a total of $6,432 in donations.During HCA’s Christ Care for Japan Week in early April, Father Deasy sent out daily missives of prayer and information about the church in Japan and sought the schoolchildren’s participation in collecting monies in the same way that they did for the church in Haiti.“The response was immediate and amazing,” said Father Deasy. “Just like what began at St. John Baptist de la Salle, many of the school communities had responded to the requests of their children to begin doing something to help the victims, especially in the Diocese of Sendai where the most damage from the quake occurred.”“The younger members of our church want to help,” he added, “because the Body of Christ cares without limits.”{gallery width=100 height=100}gallery/2011/0520/japan/{/gallery}
