by Paul K.

The Bishops’ Conference calls on the faithful to pray for and send material help to Japan and its people after the recent natural disaster. Prayers are held in ‘paper dome’, a place of hope that serves as a memorial for the last great earthquake that struck Taiwan. Material aid begins to arrive in Japan.

Nantou (AsiaNews) – Catholics and Protestants in Taiwan met yesterday at the ‘paper dome’ in Taomi, a rural community in Puli, Nantou County, to pray for victims and survivors of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on 11 March. The service was organised by the New Homeland Foundation, a NGO based in Puli.

Participants, including Catholics and Protestants, wrote messages on paper cranes (well-wishing origami), expressing hope that Japanese quake survivors will be able to return home soon. In Japanese, crane and ‘return home’ are pronounced the same.  

In Taiwan, after an appeal by the Bishops’ Conference, Catholic churches and three Catholic universities began prayers during Lent for Japan victims, calling for divine comfort.

“Here in Taiwan through news footage and our own experience with the earthquake of 9/21/1999, we can understand better and feel the pain the people of Japan are now suffering. It is thus time to concretely put into practice the commandment ‘to love God and one's neighbour’. The bishops of Taiwan have already sent a letter to the Catholic Bishops Conference of Japan expressing our sympathy and solicitude,” the bishops wrote. The 1999 quake in Taiwan reached a magnitude of 7.6 on the Richter scale, killing 2,375 people. More than 13,000 homes were destroyed.

“Taiwan is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire,” the bishops added. “Sufficient preparations for earthquake are highly recommended. Parishes, lay faithful and families should actively prepare to deal with emergency scenarios.”

The bishops urged all Christians engaged in the medical field to join rescue teams organised by the government or NGO to help Japan.

According to Taiwan’s Central News Agency, the compassion of the Taiwanese population can be seen in the tonnes of material aid that arrived yesterday in Tokyo.

A first batch of 26 tonnes of relief supplies, including coats, masks, blankets, generators and mineral water, arrived at Narita Airport outside Tokyo, whilst another shipment of instant noodles, 298 generators and 200 heaters arrived at Tokyo's Haneda Airport.

The paper church was designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. It was originally used as a temporary building for a Catholic church destroyed in the Kobe quake.

However, Japanese officials allowed the foundation to relocate the building to Taiwan before the structure was demolished and replaced with a new concrete church building.

The paper dome (pictured) is a rectangular-shaped structure built with 58 cardboard columns. It was officially inaugurated in Taomi Village on 21 September 2008, the ninth anniversary of the 1999 earthquake.

The church has served as a platform for exchanging ideas about community-building and post-earthquake reconstruction plans.

• taiwan
• japan
• prayers
• material
• aid
• christians
• catholics
• protestants
• paper
• dome