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Dear Fr. Basili,
Thank you very much for the condolences. For me calling Luzie to eternal life is a visible sign of God's Providence. On her way to San Antonio de Lomerio, Luzie dropped in on her old friend, Fr. Josef Schicker. Fr. Josef told me that they had been talking about death. He even read her a part of his last will which ends with the following words: "If I pass away from the world in Bolivia, I would like to be buried in San Antonio de Lomerio". On hearing this Luzie said: "I would like to be buried in San Antonio de Lomerio as well."
When she visited me in Concepcion she told me that she dreamt of going back to San Antonio for longer. She wanted to be closer to these people and help them more. She, through Caritas from Bolzano (Italy, South Tirol), did all she could to help ill people from this parish, especially the disabled ones. Thanks to her funds many drilled wells in very hard rocks (called here "escudo brasilero") came into existence. She also ran similar centres in Brazil and Peru. I believe that today she takes part in the heavenly feast in our Father's house and pleads for us. I thank God that I could devote some time to her while she was here. We were talking about her charity organization called "PUENTE" which means "THE BRIDGE". On her way to the village last Sunday, when she saw that she could not pass the bridge by car, she decided to walk across it and clear the way for a thirteen-year-old boy. She drowned in the river but the boy saved himself because he managed to catch a liana of a tree growing on the bank of the Sapoco river. Let her pray for us so that we will be able to build the bridges of spiritual friendship with God and with other people, especially now when Bolivia is divided and really needs unity and mutual confidence.
Dear Basili, I would be very grateful if you could you translate Fr. Josef's thoughts and together with my supplement send it to Fr. Krystian so that he could place it on the website or in our Provincial News. I also add that here, near El Fortin, in Los Troncos, more than 2 000 people live in tents. The El Carmen parish is flooded. A river flows near the new church in Villa Montero which was built thanks to Fr. Sykstus Gajda's benefactors, the Katowice Province and our Province as well. The church is situated on an island and is surrounded by the Rio Grande waters. He is used as a place in which tools, clothes and some other things people managed to rescue are stored. We work in Los Troncos through our Caritas. We mainly help children and old people. We also placed there sanitary posts. I will inform you about further actions. I think that the problems will come in more or less three months time when people will need food. Despite being in difficult conditions people do not lose hope. They search for land situated higher to, with the help of Caritas, build wooden houses covered with metal sheet (as we did it in El Fortin for the most harmed families). We help them as much as we can and this is the most important.
I would also like to thank you for all the offerings for our technical school in Concepcion. The whole sum I received from my personal benefactors during my last stay in Poland as well as from the Missionary Department will be handed over for this aim. I will send you more information about this school in the nearest future. And one more thing: Fr. Norbert Brylka has come back to Bolivia. I would like to thank God for his safe journey but most of all for the fact that he is willing to work here with me in Concepcion (especially in the Episcopal Curia together with Brother Mark).
God bless you. I wish you perseverance on your way of the cross which leads to Resurrection.
Bishop Anthony Bonifacy Reimann
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