Mission experiences offer lesson after Katrina, New Orleans nun says

Published: 2005-09-20

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Although the convent she shared with 25 other members of the Congregation of the Marianites of Holy Cross was underwater in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, Sister Judy Gomila's faith gave her reason to hope for a new beginning after the disaster. "We will rise again," she said. "We can never forget that there was an Easter Sunday -- after the Good Friday." But the tragedy also offers a lesson for children -- and all Catholics -- about the church's missions around the world and the needs of the local Catholic churches and the poor in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Pacific Islands, Sister Judy said. "Our people -- our kids -- have now experienced the daily reality of the poor of the missions firsthand," she said. "We've got to help them keep making those connections." Sister Judy, who had been living since Aug. 28 in the Diocese of Baton Rouge, La., was in New York Sept. 13 to meet with two other U.S. diocesan mission education coordinators involved in planning a new module for the children's Web site of the Holy Childhood Association, one of the four agencies that make up the church's pontifical missionary works.

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 The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in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 .