SOMERVILLE -- "This is not time for tears. This is time for action. Tears will come later."

Father Alejandro Lopez Cardinale, pastor of St. Benedict Parish in Somerville, said those words during a homily on June 29. Five days prior, two catastrophic earthquakes struck Venezuela, the homeland of himself and many of his parishioners. The capital city of Caracas and the coastal city of La Guaira were devastated. Among the dead -- 5,500 according to the official count, but the true number is likely much higher -- were three relatives of members of the Venezuelan Association of Our Lady of Coromoto of Boston. Father Lopez Cardinale celebrated their memorial Mass on June 29.

"People need us," he said, "so grieving and screaming and tears will come later, but now we need to have actions in order to help."

The parish listened. That day, St. Benedict raised $3,500 for relief efforts in Venezuela. A recent collection for earthquake victims raised almost $9,000. Since the earthquakes, there have been at least three events at the parish each week to collect money and supplies.

"People wanted to help," said Elena Swaddipong of the Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts, which has partnered with St. Benedict to aid earthquake survivors. "I'm the same. Rather than watching the news and getting sad, I'm just focusing on help and do whatever I can do, and that gives me hope and energy."

Efforts began immediately after the earthquakes. St. Benedict became a drop-off site for clothing donations. Food, money, and medicine are more crucial, so the parish will sell the clothes and give the proceeds to Catholic Relief Services, which is distributing aid alongside Catholic Charities of Venezuela. Private organizations, including the Catholic Church, have been forced to take up the responsibility because Venezuela's government is either unable or unwilling to help.

"Thank God for the immigrants, especially those living abroad, because they are the ones helping the people back in Venezuela," said Maria de Los Angeles Diaz de Banzy, president of the Coromoto Association. "Sadly, we don't have a government that supports us through everything that's happening, and people are facing great hardship."

The government's lack of help frustrates Father Lopez Cardinale, but he said the Venezuelan people are ready to step in.

"What is important is how the private initiative and the people, the real people -- the baker, the mechanic, the normal citizen -- take the lead to help and to rebuild the areas," he said. "So we don't have the government. The government doesn't have the intention to change."

Hospitals in Venezuela are barely functioning, so Venezuelans stateside have partnered with nonprofits to purchase medical supplies for survivors.

"It's been incredible that everyone has helped and come together to be able to do whatever we can because we have limited fundings, but whatever can be done, we've been able to get people together here and over there," Swaddipong said.

As her relatives in the city of Valencia sat down for a meal, their home started to shake, and they were forced to flee. Swaddipong's friend in Caracas was outside drinking coffee when the earthquake started. The tremors were so severe that she couldn't even move. Her home was damaged, while the home of Swaddipong's friends in La Guaira was destroyed. Swaddipong's second cousin, his wife, and their two children lived on the first floor of a 10-story building. The building collapsed. Their bodies were never recovered.

"They were just waiting for rescuers who never showed up, and the government came just to demolish the building," Swaddipong said.

She wishes she could be on the ground in Venezuela, though due to the unsafe conditions there, she must stay in Boston with her family. She is currently helping her high school classmate, a doctor back in Venezuela, to coordinate relief efforts.

"That's how we've been working together, with a person that I haven't been talking for 20 years, and so that united force has been incredible," she said.

De Banzy was talking with her sister in Venezuela when the earthquake struck. Her sister told her, "It's shaking very hard." People she knows in Caracas told her about the tremors, but they didn't know how disastrous the quake had been until they learned what happened in La Guaira.

"The rescue effort has been extremely difficult," de Banzy said. "I think our contribution has been a collective, massive effort, because there are no resources on the ground. We are sending supplies from here to there, and people want to pitch in and help."

The Coromoto Association, named after Venezuela's patroness, is present in many parishes in the Archdiocese of Boston. People of all religions and nationalities have contributed aid, particularly the archdiocese's other Hispanic communities. Despite their best efforts, de Banzy said there is a "critical lack" of machinery that can clear the mountains of debris in affected areas. For now, survivors require basic needs like food and shelter. Eventually, destroyed neighborhoods will have to be rebuilt. Survivors will need psychological care. Someone will have to take care of the orphans.

Since the earthquake, God's presence has been strengthened in Father Lopez Cardinale's life.

"I see this as an opportunity to really understand the Via Crucis," he said.

He added that the Venezuelans are a resilient people, having already carried the cross of "30 years of dictatorship."

"God is there," he said. "He never abandoned us."

The most affected area of Caracas was the neighborhood of Buen Pastor (Good Shepherd). He grew up in the neighborhood and was once the pastor of the parish there. Some of the people he knew from the parish and from his school days were killed or lost their homes. Just after the earthquake hit, he asked his nephew to check if his late parents' home was still standing. It was. This is the third earthquake the house has survived, but Father Lopez Cardinale's mother's collection of porcelain figurines was destroyed. To him, it represented the loss of part of her memory. The Buen Pastor church building was almost completely destroyed. Father Lopez Cardinale saw a photo of the parish's 20-foot-high crucifix, shattered on the ground among the rubble.

He thought to himself, "The crucifix is destroyed, but you are alive and you have a mission and you have a purpose."