Italian Franciscan says he fears Banda Aceh parish will never recover

Published: 2005-01-18

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (CNS) -- When Franciscan Father Ferdinando Seferi celebrated a mid-January Mass in his shattered parish in Banda Aceh, only six parishioners were among the 30 people who attended the service. Twenty-five members of the parish were killed in the magnitude 9 earthquake and subsequent tsunamis that claimed the lives of about 130,000 Indonesians. The rest of the 350 parishioners fled to other parts of Aceh province or to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta for fear that recurring tremors would lead to a more powerful earthquake and flooding. Sacred Heart Parish -- 75 percent Indonesian-Chinese and 25 percent Batak, an indigenous tribe -- was established in 1926 by Dutch missionaries and is the only Catholic parish in Aceh province. Father Seferi, an Italian, said he fears that his parish will never recover from the tsunamis' devastation. "My ultimate sorrow is that my parish has been dismantled," he told Catholic News Service Jan. 18.

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