Letter from Chile

Dear brothers:
I thank you sincerely for your compassion for the people of Chile and for us. Really comforting to feel your fraternal concern. It is in this way that we feel like brothers! Well, I must not add more information regarding the appalling suffering of so many brothers and sisters from Chile who mourn their dead, who have lost absolutely everything and now need water, food and shelter. In some places the neighbors help each other with exemplary solidarity. A shame for us is the looting, a shame which renders more humble a country that we thought more civilized. All the friars, after the initial fear, are well. Some were a bit demoralized seeing the damage to their beloved churches and feel the anguish and helplessness of not knowing what to do. The houses in Santiago were full of dust because of the plaster that fell from walls and cracks along the corners of rooms, especially Alameda and Capilla de Ossa, the Casa de Angola is uninhabitable, at the Totoral the outer wall of the kitchen and dining hall may fall outwards. The churches of Limache, San Antonio (Santiago), Parral, Chillán and Angol are severely damaged. Some even think that two should be demolished. Our old church of San Francisco de la Alameda was full of dust and rubble from pieces of cornice plaster, together with dust that had accumulated in the attic and now found its way out; a marble slab fell too. In Concepcion, the house is solidly built and the church is a consolidated hangar which seems to have suffered no damage. Tomorrow I am going to visit all the brothers in the south. Curiously (strange things always happen in these situations) in Valparaiso nothing considerable happened to either the bell tower (which was already in danger of falling even without the earthquake) or the house. Thank you brothers for your brotherly concern. We continue to pray for those who have lost family and all those who are suffering.
Peace and all good

Fr. Rogelio Minister Prov. Chile.

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