In January 2017 the coastal region of northern Mozambique was battered for five long days by a severe cyclone. The tropical storm brought heavy rainfall and devastated large swathes of the countryside in two of the coastal provinces of this country in southeast Africa, which is already one of the poorest in the world. Thousands of homes were destroyed and countless people left homeless.
Many of the properties of the Catholic Church were also severely damaged, especially in the mission parish of Netia-Natete in the diocese of Nacala. This parish covers a vast and predominantly rural area, which is also very poor. It has no fewer than 120 outstations with their own very modest little chapels where the faithful gather for prayer and catechesis. More than half – some 66 – of these chapels were destroyed by the cyclone.
Now Father Antonio Gasolina has turned to ACN for help, for his Catholic faithful in these villages are dismayed at having lost their familiar places in which to worship God and hear His Word proclaimed. For God is first and foremost in their lives. Now they are hoping, above all in two of the remotest and most inaccessible villages of the region, to rebuild a small chapel where they can gather to pray. They plan to make a start on these two chapels at least. The Catholic faithful here already live from hand to mouth, but have nonetheless made their own modest contributions to the building work and have also promised to pay the carpenters who will complete the roof. But the parish still needs our help to pay for the costly building materials. So we have promised them 15,000 Euros.
