Kottar bishop undertakes sea voyage, instills courage in tsunami victims

Kottar – In attempt to instill confidence and courage in the hearts of fishermen, Rev. Leon Tharmaraj, Bishop of Kottar put his own life at risk and sailed by sea to the Catholic parishes along the coast in the tsunami–ravaged Kanyakumari district on January 12.

The killer tidal waves that swept Asian coastlines on December 26 last year left a trail of death and destruction in the coastal parishes of Kottar Diocese killing more then 850 people and damaging property worth Rs. 2,600 crores. The fishermen are now suffering from a fear psychosis and are hesitant in venturing out to the sea for fishing.

Fr. John Kuzhanthai, Vicar General, Fr. John Bosco, diocesan treasurer, Fr. Charles Boromeo, director of Coastal Peace and Development Centre and a group of clergy and members of the laity accompanied the bishop in his voyage, which commenced at Cape Comorin.

The bishop and his team first visited Arokiapuram village in the Bay of Bengal and passed through other coastal parishes before concluding the tour in the parish of Thengipattinam in the Arabian Sea. Thousands of parishioners greeted the bishop during the journey.

Meanwhile, the Kottar diocese has started counselling programs for its parishioners affected by the tsunami.

According to Sr. Efamia Lucy Joice, the counselling coordinator of the diocese, the program was started on January 3 with the help of some members of the clergy, laity and lay volunteers and is being monitored by the Diocesan Counselling Group.

A team of counsellors, who have undergone an orientation–cum–training program, visit the parishioners daily, offering them individual counselling.

Besides losing fishing boats, the fishermen are also in the danger of losing their livelihood as the tsunami disaster has also led to a collapse in fish prices. The reason? People believe that the fish are being contaminated by the corpses of tsunami victims and hence unfit for consumption.

To counter this, a campaign, aiming to help the tsunami–traumatized fishing communities of southern India by encouraging consumers to purchase fish, has been launched by Apostleship of the Sea jointly with Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI).

Fr. Xavier Pinto, coordinator of the Apostleship of the Sea in Southeast Asia, in an e–mail promoting the campaign, said, “If you have stopped eating fish these days, maybe you need not contribute to any Tsunami Fund at all.”

“If you don't eat fish because of fear of contamination, you may be in the category of those who are building up forces for an economic 'tsunami' that will lead to their condemnation and slow death,” he warned.

The priest dismissed rumors among consumers about dead fish on the shores of other countries. Such false reports are “detrimental to the very livelihood of the people you wish to reach out to,” he stressed.

Fr. Pinto emphasized that the dead fish in the coasts of other countries do not affect the fish being sold in India. Moreover, the fish that are coming to market now are not from the tsunami–affected areas, because no serious fishing activities have taken place in the affected areas of the two countries over the past few weeks.

Fishing communities in other areas, such as Karnataka and Maharashtra, have also been hit by the price crash, although these areas have not been directly affected by the tsunami, the e–mail continued.

Fr. Pinto said that some reports about fish eating human corpses was misleading, as only three varieties of fish – scavengers, killer whales and killer sharks – feed on human flesh and these fish “are neither sold in the markets nor do not reach your table,” he stressed.

There are 44 coastal parishes in Kottar Diocese with about a hundred thousand workers engaged in fishing operations, mostly Catholic.