U.S. holiday festivities give way to prayers for tsunami victims

Published: 2005-01-06

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- At a time of year normally marked by festive celebrations, many Catholics in the United States grieved over relatives and friends in the tsunami-ravaged areas of Asia. It also was a time of prayer and generosity as Catholics gathered at Masses and offered money to help survivors. About 150 Washington-area Catholics with roots in Sri Lanka met at Our Lady of Mercy Church in Potomac, Md., on New Year's Day for a Mass to remember victims and survivors of the devastating tsunamis that swept through part of their country on the day after Christmas. "We needed to come together," said Dakshi Desilva, holding his 2-and-a-half-year-old son, Drushan, after the Mass. The Dec. 26 undersea earthquake and resulting tsunamis left a trail of death and devastation through 12 countries bordering the Indian Ocean. More than 150,000 people are estimated to have died, including 30,000 in Sri Lanka, an island nation off the southeast coast of India. The United Nations estimates that millions in the region lack proper shelter.

Copyright (c) 2005 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .