MWEHAUK, Myanmar (UCAN) -- Rainwater drips from the waterlogged ceiling of St. Mary's Church as 400 Catholics try to keep dry during Sunday Mass.

Pathein diocese's Mwehauk parish church lost half its roof when Cyclone Nargis hit on May 2 and monsoon rains have been ruining the interior since.

"We are offering Mass in a wrecked and unsafe church," Father Gilbert Thet Naing observed on July 6 from the altar, which had been moved out of the way of the dripping water.

Nonetheless, after a little more than two months, there was reason to hope the situation would finally change in this Irrawaddy delta village, 195 kilometers southwest of Yangon.

"We pray to God to give us shelter and all the graces we need," he said, gesturing as worshippers heard the sound of a truck driving into the compound during the Mass. It brought roofing materials for the church.

"God is Almighty, and his plans for us human beings are mysterious, and his graces for us are uncountable," he said.

Father Thet Naing, the parish priest, had tried to maintain a sense of normality by holding Mass regularly, and now the people could begin to patch the church roof.

Trucks had arrived with relief supplies several times previously, but for the Church-run refugee camp in the compound and cyclone-affected villagers.

Mwehauk, a Buddhist and Catholic village, has about 2,000 people, but it does not sit along the coast, where the cyclone that killed more than 100,000 people and displaced more than 2 million did the most damage. Some of the 150 Buddhists and Catholics staying at the refugee camp come from devastated villages relatively far away.

Mahn Laurence, chairman of the Mwehauk camp, told UCA News about the damage:

"All the villages along the seaside were destroyed by the cyclone, and we were very sad to see the ruins of our churches. But the extent of the damage here inland was not so severe compared to my village in Aima parish."

Aima, on the coast, is a six-hour boat ride south from Mwehauk.

Mahn Aung Min, from Mautee village in Mwehauk parish, told UCA News he regularly attends Mass at St. Mary's.

The night of the storm, he recalled, "we all took shelter in the church." But the winds were so strong they blew roofing off the church buildings and broke two statues into pieces.

"After our continuous prayers, the corrugated zinc sheets for our church have just arrived and I feel very happy," Aung Min said.

Father Thet Naing admitted to UCA News that he had been "too busy" looking after the cyclone survivors in the refugee camps to devote much time to fixing the roof of his church. Another factor was that he had to wait for the help of donors, he added. Now that help had come through.

"When I visited the villages of my parish, I saw trees had fallen and some of the churches were damaged," he recalled, "but I was surprised to see that no trees fell on the churches."

Father Peter Lay Cho, spiritual director of Pathein diocese's Legion of Mary, concelebrated the July 6 Mass with him.

Afterward, they traveled 15 kilometers by road to Laputta town to hold Mass at Sacred Heart Church, also damaged by the cyclone. That church had just received a new roof.

Many church buildings in Pathein diocese and Yangon archdiocese suffered serious damage. But Archbishop Paul Zinghtung Grawng of Mandalay, president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Myanmar, confirmed the Church's Myanmar Disaster Relief Committee focused first on helping survivors, whatever their religion. "Fixing the damaged churches is a separate issue," he told UCA News in Yangon on July 16.

END