With a heavy heart and rising alarm, the All India Catholic Union notices the tragedy in Kerala as also in parts of Karnataka, with floods taking a heavy toll in human life.
It calls on Prime minister Narendra Modi to declare this once-in-a-century floods a national disaster, and to immediately release the funds and material help demanded by the state governments to cope with the calamitous situation in most parts of the coastal states.
The AICU said this in resolutions passed in the working committee and annual general meetings held in the pilgrim town of Vellankani in Tamil Nadu. Vellankani, home to the Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Good Health, and which was devastated in the 2004 tsunami. It once again draws pilgrims from all faiths.
The AICU has a large membership in the State of Kerala which is home to all three Catholic Rites, the Latin, the Syro Malabar and the Syro Malankara.
The union extended its support and cooperation to the heads of the three Rites and other denominations, as also to the people of the other faiths. It also extended support to the people in the Coorg region of Karnataka which had also suffered much damage.