CHARLOTTE — As the Diocese of Charlotte’s Helene response efforts shift from emergency aid to long-term rebuilding, Bishop Michael Martin is calling on parishes to form “sister” partnerships for at least the next six months.
Even if their church buildings suffered only minor damage, western North Carolina parishes will face continued “fallout,” Bishop Martin noted in an Oct. 10 email to the diocese’s 160 priests.
“While some of the immediate needs have been cared for, our longer-term walking with the people affected … remains an important ministry of our local Church,” the bishop said.
The key, he said, is for the diocese to band together to provide long-term material and spiritual support to the affected parishes and communities – accompanying them through the challenges of disaster recovery, “making a difference in that process in the months to come.”
In the program announced by the bishop, partnered parishes can hold second collections to help offset lost operating revenue in their sister parish, offer monthly Holy Hours to pray for their sister parish, check in with the parish regularly about the need for pastoral help or volunteers, and more.
Parishes are asked to sign up for the program, with the chancery pairing up parishes based on resources and level of need. The hope, Bishop Martin said, is for multiple parishes to help each of the impacted communities.
Monsignor Patrick Winslow, who has piloted much of the diocese’s storm response, recently consulted with Church leaders in Louisiana who went through Hurricane Katrina. In a recent letter to priests, he shared sobering news that people’s emotional recovery from the storm will likely take a year. Survivors of Katrina, the most catastrophic storm on record in the U.S., described three phases of recovery after the storm as
“Respond, Reopen, Recover,” focusing first on immediate needs, then on short-term and long-term needs.
“As priests and deacons who have served in these regions, we have observed with shock and sadness the images that are now being shared,” said Monsignor Winslow, the diocese’s vicar general and chancellor who previously served mountain parishes in Tryon and Sparta. “There are a number of pastoral challenges that lie ahead … since the relief efforts will be going on for some time and the human toll will take even longer to address.”
— Catholic News Herald