San Diego.... Recovery in Process the fires and the Diocese

Everything is going well here. The weather has changed.
It is cooler today. There is still an orange haze in the sky. But it is not very smoky smelling.
There are still fires burning, but they are out of the populated areas. Still in some areas where people have rural homes though.

Now begins the survey of the damage and beginning to make plans.

Watching the news right now and FEMA is setting up at the stadium, insurance companies are setting up trailers and booths to help the victims.
They say the first issue is to get them into a home so they can leave the shelters. Then they will start the paperwork.
They are comparing this disaster to Katrina a lot.
The opinion is that everything they did wrong with Katrina will not be done this time and FEMA will learn from their mistakes.

The President is arriving right now. His plane is landing as I type at Miramar. He will then get on a helicopter to tour the county and survey the damage.
Then he will have lunch with firefighters at a large mall (which is right across Lake Hodges from my mom's condo) Then he will make a statement at Noon.

**Geoff just called. He was driving up the 15 and saw the Air Force One plane going overhead to land.

My mother just left with Geoff - in separate cars - to see if she can get to her condo.
She knows, by a phone call, that she does not have cable tv and phone, but she will see if there is electricity so that she can go home.

TOPIC CHANGE
**Catholic Church side note - this just came to mind this morning. (This is a simplified version---click the diocese links to see the actual letters from the Bishop)

You may be aware of the situation where abused persons sued the Diocese of San Diego. (*note most abuse occurred in 60s and 70s. Not all of the abusers were priests. Most of the abusers are dead. ALL are out of the church ministries. One is in prison)

The Diocese filed bankruptcy because they could not pay all of the money to the victims. The Bankruptcy court kicked the case out after several months.
The court case was settled and the Diocese has to pay the victims millions of dollars. http://www.diocese-sdiego.org/Settlement/Pastoral%20Stmt%20Settlement%20H.pdf

The past 2 Sundays the parishes of San Diego announced that the Bishop has requested our Body of Christ to help fund some of the monies with a campaign called "Embracing our Mission". We could lose our Seminary and the Pastoral Center if enough money is not raised.

I bring this up because it puts the Catholics of San Diego in a tougher situation right now. When there is a disaster the donations to charity decrease.
All of the families that lost homes and all of their belongings are not going to be able to donate to charity.

I felt like telling you all this because San Diego, and the Catholics of San Diego could really use your prayers.

Please pray for our Bishops, priests and your brothers & sisters in Christ at this difficult time.

http://www.diocese-sdiego.org/set.asp?link=sexualabuseresponses.htm&in=Bishops

We are all in this together. The priests and the victims are our brothers & sisters in Christ.
We are all One Body. We pray for the priests, we pray for the victims. We can donate to the Mission to help our entire Church.

Thank you for reading this and for your prayers.

God Bless