Church workers recover rotting bodies at Indian Marian shrine

Published: 2004-12-30

VAILANKANNI, India (CNS) -- Amid the stench of rotting bodies and decaying garbage, Thanjavur Bishop Devadass Ambrose Mariadoss spent several days at India's most popular Marian shrine to oversee post-tsunami relief efforts. Barefoot volunteers, with faces covered by surgical masks or even handkerchiefs, removed rotting bodies from mountains of debris: houses, shops, remains of thatched sheds, boats and animal carcasses strewn around the scenic beach in front of the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health. The shrine, which draws 20 million pilgrims annually, remained untouched. More than 1,000 people, including hundreds of pilgrims, perished within a one-kilometer (.62-mile) radius of the basilica Dec. 26 when tsunamis triggered by a magnitude 9 earthquake deep in the Indian Ocean hit the coast. "The worst is over. We are gradually recovering from the shock," Bishop Mariadoss said Dec. 30. The same day, false warnings of another tsunami caused panic as people -- including the shrine's cooks -- fled to higher ground.

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