Bishop of Indian Kashmir: "The devastation here is immense"
In an interview with AsiaNews, Mgr Peter Celestine, bishop of the diocese of Jammu-Srinagar, speaks about the earthquake, the devastation and first aid to victims. What is crucial now is aid.
Srinagar (AsiaNews) The most crucial need in Indian-administered Kashmir right now is to "provide relief to victims with food, clothes and human warmth", said Mgr Peter Celestine. The bishop of the diocese of Jammu-Srinagar was speaking to AsiaNews about the current situation in Indian-administered Kashmir, struck on Saturday morning by the earthquake. He shared his first-hand experience of the tremor and its impact.
"Our immediate goal is to provide relief to the victims, we have opened all our hospitals where nurses and doctors are working day and night to provide medical relief. I have also made my car available to bring patients from remote rural areas to hospitals," said the bishop. In Baramulla, one of the worst-hit areas, "Caritas India is delivering emergency aid; they will coordinate aid work with the diocesan social services".
The Indian government talks of 750 victims and Mgr Celestine is clear in his assertion that "there is much to be done" for them, "from constructing new houses to giving hope to those have lost whatever little they possess. The centenary celebrations for the diocesan school, which is the reason why I was in Baramulla, were to last for 10 days. Now they have been cancelled, and I will be staying on here in Baramulla to personally oversee relief work."
Local relief work is under way: "The school structure held out well although it developed some cracks, so the principal, Fr Sebastian, invited the people to spend the night in the school halls. The parish priest arranged food and some clothes for the victims. Meanwhile, as most communication and transportation lines have been disrupted, priests have been busy going to remote villages to take emergency aid to people there.
"The Carmelite Mission Sisters are looking after the women, young girls and children in the convent. Since Saturday night, they have camped there and the sisters are seeking to meet their basic needs. Most of them are traumatized by this earthquake, and the sisters know the most important thing is to give comfort and human warmth."
The bishop continued: "Every house has developed major cracks, and the people cannot stay in their homes, as they may collapse any time. It is so sad to see these people who are already so poor, waiting by the roadside for any passing vehicle to bring them to the Church compound or the convent school."
The bishop shared his first-hand experience of the tremor and said people on the spot did not realise immediately what was going on, that this was an earthquake which would leave huge damage in its wake. "I was in Baramulla for the centenary celebration of St Joseph's School, which is the diocesan school. I was in the school compound at 9am and at around 9.20 am, we saw the building swinging. It was an awesome sight, the school children began screaming, no one was aware what was happening."
No one understood because "it is not easy to face these things: the people are used to violence and terrorism and anything they cannot understand is linked to these things. Given that we were in the open and the school withstood the tremor well, we did not understand the gravity of the earthquake.
"The morning programme was postponed as most of the people ran away to see if their houses had been damaged, without any inkling of what devastation awaited them. An earthquake with an intensity of 7.5 may appear as a mere statistic to others, but you have to be present here to get a sense of the destruction and havoc it brought. Unfortunately, as most often happens, those afflicted were already crushed with suffering before."
The bishop said the first thing he did was to speak to those who had been struck by the earthquake. ""I celebrated mass at around 1 pm on Saturday, which was supposed to be a Thanksgiving mass for the centenary of the school. In the midst of the pain and destruction all around I preached that God's ways are mysterious, we should not ask ourselves why, now is the time to stand up and face the problems before us. God will use this tragedy, perhaps to finally bring peace between Pakistan and India. It could be the turning point in the conflict in which we have suffered so much. Sometimes, God's plans are difficult to understand immediately, however they are always for the good of all humanity."
When the bishop finished celebrating the Eucharistic service, he went to the border with Pakistan, towards Uri and outlying areas, together with the parish priest and the superior of the Carmelite convent. Only when they arrived there did they see "the immensity of the devastation: bodies of children lying near the debris, people trapped under the beams and collapsed structures, it was so tragic I was personally horrified. First terrorism, then extremism, now the earthquake: when will the suffering of these people end?" The victims of these evils "are always the same, that is, those who already face the most atrocious suffering every day in their efforts to survive in the face of poverty and tragedy."
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