By Voice staff

Within hours of the magnitude 7 earthquake that devastated the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, Jan. 12, Catholics throughout the East Bay began mobilizing to help — organizing fundraising efforts, volunteering for aid agencies, and praying for injured, homeless survivors and the 200,000 believed to have been killed.

In churches throughout the Oakland Diocese, a second collection was taken for Catholic Relief Services, a main provider of earthquake relief because of their long-standing work in the country.

The Cathedral of Christ the Light sponsored a benefit concert for CRS on Jan. 24, featuring famed mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, a member of St. Joseph Basilica Parish in Alameda, along with members of the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the International Orange Chorale.

More than 50 members of the Catholic Community of Pleasanton went to MedShare in San Leandro Jan. 15 to help sort medical supplies for shipment to the capital.

Students and staff at St. Mary’s High in Berkeley collected money in every classroom for the Berkeley-based What If? Foundation, which for several years has helped St. Clare’s Church in Port-au-Prince provide food and after-school activities for needy children. Margaret Trost, the foundation’s founder, has links to the Berkeley school.

At St. John Parish in El Cerrito, which has a sister parish in Haiti, worshippers at the 8 a.m. daily Mass raised $1,000 which was matched by an anonymous donor, said Father John Maxwell, pastor. The money and medical supplies collected at the school will be sent to parish contacts in Haiti.

At Salesian High in Richmond a collection will be taken during the Jan. 29 Mass celebrating the feast of St. John Bosco, founder of the Salesian Order which has a large presence in Haiti and lost both members and students in the quake.

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