Metropolitan Porfirije: We have been making efforts to help people to settle down

  Metropolitan Porfirije of Zagreb and Ljubljana received, on the 8jh of January  2011, the aid of the City of Belgrade, which was sent to Petrinja, and informed the news agency Tanjug that it was necessary to support people who had lost their homes in the earthquake with accommodation.

He stated that more prefabricated houses were needed, because a large number of people had been left without homes in the earthquake. - There are many older people. They spend their nights in cars, and not only those whose homes were destroyed, but also those who had a possibility  where to sleep, but for fear of recurrences of earthquakes, they do not dare to spend the night in their homes, said Metropolitan Porfirije.

The help of the City of Belgrade consists of 22 prefabricated houses intended for families who were left without accommodation after the devastating earthquake in Glina and Petrinja. Metropolitan Porfirije expressed gratitude to the Serbian Orthodox Church in Belgrade and other institutions and individuals for their aid. He says that a total of about 40 containers have been brought so far, that there are about 20 of them to come, and that in the meantime other donations are arriving, such as a donation of the Province of Vojvodina, but also of private donors.

- Now we have been making efforts to provide what is most urgent, and contribute to the general activity of the Croatian state in solving the most basic needs, said the Metropolitan Porfirije. The Church expects to deliver a total of about 100 containers. He stated that in addition to the containers, much more aid would be needed for the people in the earthquake-affected area.

- It will be necessary - when homes are built - for the Church and other Serbian institutions to try to the rescue as much as possible. We expect that the greatest burden will actually be borne by the Croatian state, Metropolitan Porfirije said. He added that it was important for  representatives of the Church to visit people in the places affected by the earthquake in order to encourage them, to show them their care so that they might get impression that they have not been left to themselves.

-Like the pandemic, the earthquake as an elemental natural disaster that does not know who is who, does not select and does not divide people according to the way they pray to God, to which Church they belong to and to which people, - everyone is treated uniquely. So, at this moment we are trying to offer aid to all who need it",  Metropolitan Porfirije said. He added that at this moment they would nevertheless be more concerned about Orthodox believers and Orthodox Serbs, but also that they would not skip anyone in providing help.

Describing the situation in Petrinja and the places affected by the earthquake, His Eminence says that everything seems very dramatic, like a biblical cataclysm. - You come to these villages and everything around you has been destroyed. People's homes and barns have been destroyed, some people have been left with nothing. Everybody sleeps in cars or in an improvised shelter.

The Metropolitan also says that there are many churches that were completely destroyed in the earthquake. - At this moment we should help people, and when life becomes normal, we will construct churches, Metropolitan Porfirije said.

Source: Tanjug