In the year since hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast, parishes across the country have played an active role in the rebuilding process by offering monetary and spiritual support to parishes hit hard by the storms and by sending volunteers to do the dirty work of removing moldy debris, gutting damaged homes and schools, and putting up new drywall.

Parishes used diverse means to connect with parishes that needed help. Some found parishes with the same name as theirs through Internet searches or phone calls to diocesan offices. Parishes run by religious orders sought other parishes sponsored by their order. Others used more personal connections by contacting the damaged parish of a friend or relative of one of their own parishioners.

Many parishes have also been twinned, or paired, with those needing help through the Parish Partnership Program sponsored by the Chicago-based Catholic Church Extension Society. In the past year, 283 parishes in 107 dioceses joined the partnership program, helping 101 parishes in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.

The program links parishes in need with parishes that have expressed a willingness to help.

The aiding parishes determine the extent of their relationship, either a one-time gift or a long-term commitment. Some parishes have sent items such as gift cards and clothing, backpacks for children full of school supplies, religious education materials, Bibles, rosaries and even liturgical vestments and church furnishings.

Many parishes also have sent volunteer crews to the devastated region for at least one week of intensive repair work. The crews often camped or stayed in gyms or parish halls. After their visits they frequently spoke of the overwhelming devastation they witnessed, which was far more extensive than they had imagined.

Although some groups coordinated their own visits, an estimated 4,500 volunteers teamed up with Operation Helping Hands, the community outreach program of Catholic Charities in New Orleans that mobilized volunteers to gut homes of seniors, the disabled and those with little or no flood insurance. To date, the program's volunteers have gutted about 600 homes in New Orleans and 700 more are on the waiting list.

"We wondered how we could possibly make a difference," said Eileen Schmelzel, a parishioner of Sacred Heart Church in Sterling, Ill., in the Rockford Diocese. She went to New Orleans in early June with other members of her church and a group from Sterling's First Presbyterian Church.

The group of 35 volunteers spent a week helping repair seven homes and a school. After they finished work on one home, the owners said they were so inspired by the volunteers that they decided to return to church.

For many parish groups, repair work was more than just physical labor; it was an expression of faith.

In late July, 17 parishioners from St. Catherine Church in Binghamton, N.Y., in the Syracuse Diocese, gutted a home and cleared out the convent and kindergarten classrooms of St. David Parish in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans.

During a Mass at the gutted church July 28, Father Tim Taugher, pastor of St. Catherine, encouraged his parishioners to reflect on the spiritual lessons they had learned from their week of service.

He said thousands of similar groups from across the country made only a dent in the overall recovery, but without their heroic efforts so much less would have been accomplished. The priest said the trip also strengthened the faith of his parishioners, allowed them to bond with each other and offered hope.

"This does give us hope," he said. "This is our faith. Out of the ashes of life there is new hope. It can be resurrected."

The needs of some Gulf Coast parishes are so great that assisting parishes are still trying to determine how they can best help. Such is the case with Annunciation of the Lord Parish in Taunton, Mass., in the Fall River Diocese, twinned with Annunciation Parish in Kiln, Miss., and the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Tyler, Texas, which has pledged to help St. Clement of Rome in Metairie, La.

But even if the sister parishes have just given monetary support for now, it has meant much to the parishioners in need.

"We are so grateful for the people of Tyler," said Yvonne Hymel, coordinator of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults at St. Clement. "They are the answer to our prayers. We need financial help, we need prayers, but mostly, I think, we just need to know that we haven't been forgotten, and that people still do care. What we need is Christ, and that's who we're seeing in the cathedral community," she said.

In some cases, parishes have simply adopted other families in need. Last October, parishioners at St. Mary's Church in Nassau, N.Y., in the Albany Diocese pledged to support a family from St. Mary Parish in Biloxi who lost everything in the hurricane.

The first thing the adopted family asked for was a family Bible since theirs was destroyed.

At first, the Biloxi family was hesitant to accept help, but the New York Catholics convinced them that they were "offering assistance as a gift, out of Christian service."

Dom Devaney, a parishioner of St. Mary's in Nassau, said fellow parishioners wanted to assure the Biloxi family that "others care what happens to them and that they are not alone."

He also said the assistance his parish was able to give is "part of our responsibility as Catholics. This is what we've been directed to do: help our brothers and sisters."

Father George Klepec, pastor of St. Paul the Apostle Parish in Joliet, Ill., has a similar take on helping those at St. Mary of the Angels Parish in New Orleans. His parish initially collected more than $5,000 to send to the New Orleans church, which is just blocks away from a collapsed levee. Now his parishioners receive regular updates from St. Paul, and Father Klepec plans to return with another donation.

He doesn't see help as a one-time shot. "We plan on helping them as long as we can," he said.

---CNS