Catholics in Christchurch, New Zealand drew inspiration from a recent
Divine Mercy Congress as they work to rebuild from a series of
devastating earthquakes that have hit the country in the last year.
“The
blessings and graces which all received at the congress have and will
continue to inspire all those who attended to greater acts and greater
works of mercy in their homes, workplaces, and missionary endeavors,”
Pat Barrett, national coordinator for the event, told CNA on Sept. 1.
“This
is particularly important right here now in Christchurch,” he added,
“which has suffered exceptional losses and destruction over the past 12
months.”
Since Sept. 2010, four major earthquakes and over 7,000
aftershocks have shaken the city and “reduced its center to a demolition
site,” Barrett said.
Over 200 people have been killed in the
series of quakes and 27,000 have left the city permanently. More than
5,000 damaged homes need to be razed to the ground, “to say nothing of
the 900 plus city buildings that will have to be demolished,” he said.
The
New Zealand Apostolic Congress, which was held at the local St. Bede's
College from Aug. 26-28, was launched under the title “Divine Mercy -
God's Gift for our Time.”
The event began with a Votive Mass of Divine
Mercy, celebrated by Bishop Barry Jones of the Christchurch diocese.
Barrett
said upwards of 500 people attended Masses, Eucharistic adoration,
presentations, films, and talks given by “witnesses to and for mercy.”
One
of the best aspects of the congress was the “high caliber of the
keynote speakers,” which included Fr. Rory Morrissey, a spiritual
director for the congress, and EWTN host Fr. Antoine Thomas of the
Brothers of St. John who offered a special adoration session for
children.
Other notable guests included the American Deacon Bob
Digan –the husband of Maureen Digan who received a miraculous cure of
lymphodemia at the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow, Poland in 1981.
Barrett
sees the Christchurch conference as an extension of the various
congresses held around the globe over the past three years after the
2008 World Apostolic Congress on Mercy in Rome.
He said that
those gatherings have established “a clear link between the Pontificate
of John Paul, that of Pope Benedict, and the urgent and universal call
to become apostles of mercy in these days according to the model
established and proclaimed by St. Faustina Kowalska.”
The Polish
saint, who lived from 1905 to 1938, received prophetic visions and
instructions from God to write her now famous diary, “Divine Mercy in My
Soul.”
He noted that several attendees who came from the local
Catholic community were unaware of the call and urgency of Divine Mercy.
But they were “captured by this message and mission and now desire for
it to transform their lives as new apostles of mercy.”
“With Pope
Blessed John Paul II, we can say, 'There is nothing that man needs more
than Divine Mercy,' and with St. Faustina, 'Jesus I Trust in You!'”