Katrina Rebuilding Effort

A letter from OSV publisher Greg Erlandson

December 18, 2005

Dear Readers,

As Christmas fast approaches, Catholics around the country are preparing to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus, with family and friends. We gather and thank God for the many blessings received this year and to pray for those in need.

Near the top of our prayer list this year should be the Gulf Coast residents whose lives were forever changed on Aug. 29, with the arrival of Hurricane Katrina. This year their holiday celebrations no doubt are simpler and the blessings perhaps a little more heartfelt with many thankful just to be alive.

The staff at Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., wanted to remember the Catholic community along the Gulf Coast in a special way by adopting two parishes in the storm-ravaged area: St. Paul Parish in Pass Christian, Miss., and Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Slidell, La.

On these pages we offer a glimpse of the heartache and destruction that these two parishes, and their people, endured.

Initially, we have donated $10,000 to each parish with the hope of giving more in the months to come. This donation is in addition to two $25,000 donations previously made by Our Sunday Visitor Institute, a charitable arm of Our Sunday Visitor, Inc., to the Archdiocese of New Orleans, as well as aid provided to Catholic Charities and the Red Cross, and a special donation of offering envelopes for refugee parishioners.

We invite you as readers of Our Sunday Visitor to join us in assisting these two hard-hit parishes. Your tax-deductible donation will be divided evenly between the two parishes and will provide them with the means to carry out the daunting rebuilding effort.

Donations can be sent to Katrina Rebuilding Effort, c/o Our Sunday Visitor, 200 Noll Plaza, Huntington, IN 46750. One hundred percent of each donation will go to the parishes. Unless anonymity is requested, your names and addresses will also be provided to the parishes so they have the opportunity to thank you, and donors' names will be acknowledged in a future issue of Our Sunday Visitor.

We hope you will partner with us in this important work.

Greg Erlandson
Publisher, Our Sunday Visitor

How OSV readers can help: THANK YOU to all who donated. Please continue to keep the people affected by Hurricane Katrina in your prayers.