A church for a parish in the rainforest
The parish of Ampangalantsary lies in the east of the island of Madagascar in a region of rainforest. For many years now, the Catholic faithful here have longed for a church of their own, for until recently, they had to walk distances of at least five kilometres to be able to attend Holy Mass. Although most of the people here live in deep poverty, the Catholic faithful have nevertheless made many sacrifices in order to raise money to build a small chapel, but sadly the funds were never enough, so their parish priest turned to ACN for help. Thanks to the wonderful generosity of our benefactors, we were able to step in with a contribution of $16,800.
Even with this financial support, building the chapel was far from easy. The pandemic made it difficult to get a hold of building materials, and prices had increased significantly. Added to this were the adverse weather conditions, as this is a region where it rains for eight months of the year—and where tropical storms occur—, making both the transport of building materials and the work itself all the more challenging. Despite all this, they finally managed to complete the church, to the joy and delight of all concerned. On the day when it was finally consecrated by Bishop Rosario Saro Vella, there were almost 1,900 people taking part in the celebrations.
