Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Yogyakarta (Agenzia Fides) - “I was celebrating Mass this morning when we felt a very strong earth tremor and people rushed out of the church. Now everywhere around us there is destruction, fear, desperation. We are doing all we can to help those in need. In the coming days we will continue to pray for the dead and their families and undertake initiatives of solidarity making our structures available to the inured and the homeless. Caritas Yogyakarta is also organising aid efforts. We know that Christ the King church in Yogyakarta has suffered serious damage. Our duty is to be strong in order to help the people to have hope and to operate together with the authorities”. This report was sent only hours after the unexpected powerful earthquake which struck the island of Java this morning by Fr Rudy Rehkito an Indonesian Oblate Missionary of Mary Immaculate.
The epicentre of the 6.2 Richter scale tremor is said to have been in the centre of the island in the area of Yogyakarta. The first provisional toll is an estimated 2,300 dead and thousands injured.
Government military and civil rescue teams are working to pull survivors from the ruins and transport them injured to hospital. But local sources say medical centres in the area are already overflowing with patients and cannot take any more. The earthquake gave rise to fear of another tsunami and many people have fled the city and coastal areas making for the interior highlands.
In some places electricity supplies, communications have been cut and roads are impassable, Yogyakarta airport has been closed. The president of Indonesia Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the army to help evacuate the homeless.
The alarm was sounded immediately among NGOs and the local Catholic community activated volunteers and medical structures to treat the injured. Bishop Ignazio Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo of Semarang, the diocese in which Yogyakarta is situated, went to visit the site of the disaster to bring comfort and reassurance to the victims and offer civil authorities the full collaboration of the Church.
The Conference of the Catholic Bishops of Indonesia has its own Crisis and Reconciliation Service directed by local Jesuit Fr. Ignazio Ismartono which coordinates emergency interventions and aid. The Service, which provided valid assistance and aid at the time of the tsunami, is now discussing ways of intervening to help affected people in Java. (Agenzia Fides 27/5/2006 righe 28 parole 288)
