Situation in Venezuela “apocalyptic,” but Church is organized and responding

ACN’s aid is currently supporting the religious and laity who are helping the victims on the ground, but future projects are already being studied and could include rebuilding church structures and trauma healing.

The situation in La Guaira, Venezuela, can only be described as “apocalyptic,” according to the executive president of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Regina Lynch.

“I was not expecting this extent of destruction,” said Lynch. “When you arrive there and you see these mountains of rubble all over the city, and teams of men and bulldozers digging through the rubble – they’re not looking for survivors anymore, it’s been too long – or you just see huge tilted apartment blocks that obviously nobody can live in anymore, it’s apocalyptic.”

Although the official death toll is approaching 5,000, the actual number is estimated in the tens of thousands. Besides that, several thousands were badly wounded, and up to 500,000 are thought to have lost their jobs.

In a briefing held shortly after returning from a field visit to the hardest-hit areas of the Venezuela earthquakes, ACN’s Regina Lynch and María Lozano, head of public communications, described a Church that was also badly affected but has been responding to the current needs of the population.

“You could see how well organized the Church is in Venezuela. They have a big operation there. There were so many volunteers of all sorts of ages helping to sort out what has been donated internally by other people in Venezuela. It was like a beehive,” said Lynch of a visit to a distribution center in Caracas.

The Church’s ability to mobilize quickly and professionally is partly explained by the strong roots of diocesan and parish Caritas, as the ACN delegation was able to confirm. Their work is deeply grounded in the Gospel and closely integrated into the life of the Church.

“Over and over again, volunteers kept telling us, ‘We’re not an NGO. We are here and we act moved by our faith. Caritas is not understood as an independent organization, but as an expression of the Church’s maternal care and as a concrete extension of its mission,'” explains Lozano, adding that “this identity is also reflected in the training that volunteers receive. In many dioceses, before actively participating in relief work, they follow a period of spiritual and biblical formation, including the study of the Sacred Scriptures and the practice of lectio divina, so that their service is rooted in a Christian understanding of charity.”

“Thank goodness the Church is there in Venezuela,” Lynch said, explaining that ACN’s work with the Archdiocese of Caracas and Diocese of La Guaira began in 2011, due to the financial and social crisis in the country, and so can count on a decade and a half of good cooperation and trust. She noted that almost all the infrastructure built with the support of ACN over this period had resisted the quakes, while entire housing blocks had collapsed.

As soon as news emerged about the scope of the tragedy, ACN pledged an initial support package of $114,367 (100,000 Euros), but there are already plans for further long-term help. “The money already sent is being used to support the priests and the sisters and the laity who are working now with the victims,” Lynch said.

These include tens of thousands of people who are living in tents in the streets. The Church is serving them, including through celebration of the sacraments, but there is concern that as time goes by, they will become restless, while the international community’s attention begins to drift.

ACN, on the other hand, plans to remain with the Venezuelan people, through the local Church, for the long haul. The pontifical foundation estimates that it will be necessary to support the reconstruction of Church structures, but also to provide trauma healing.

“We visited one clinic in La Guaira run by the Church, which is open 24 hours. Some of their staff members had lost their families and their homes; two of the doctors who worked there were killed; and that morning, an expert in trauma healing had come from Caracas, and they were given training. Firstly, they were helping the staff there themselves who suffered trauma and then helping them to help the people who were coming to them for further support. We have indicated to the bishops that, of course, if they need more help, they know we are here,” said the executive president of ACN.

Unfortunately, examples of severe trauma are abundant. “During a visit to the hospital, we met Gismely, a 31-year-old woman who fell from the twelfth floor. She survived the tragedy and was rescued, but lost a leg. Thanks to the support and deep faith of one of the Caritas volunteers, Gismely had been able to smile again. ‘I know it’s not going to be easy without my leg, but my life is more than that,’ she told us. We assured her that ACN will accompany her with our prayers. Another man and his three children had found refuge in a home of the Carmelite nuns. They lost 40 members of their family, including the mother,” Lozano recounted.

But many Church members are also suffering from great loss, such as Father Alfredo, who lost 80% of his parishioners, or Bishop Pablo Modesto of La Guaira, who opened his bedroom door to discover that his office and a side of the seminary building had disappeared, as had several entire buildings next to it.

Yet he and his seminarians had been spared — and left to wonder why.

“We are here to rebuild this country, and I think this is one of the most important jobs for the Church now,” he told ACN, knowing that he can trust the foundation’s benefactors will stand with him on that mission.

– Filipe d’Avillez