April 18, 2021 - "Recent Developments in Haiti"

I was reading a report from the Vatican News Service about recent developments in Haiti.  Five Haitian and two French religious, as well as three laypersons, were kidnapped in Haiti on Sunday, April 11, as they were preparing to attend a ceremony for the installation of a new parish priest in the municipality of Croix-des-Bouquet, northeast of Haiti’s capital.  Reports indicate that the kidnappers, suspected to have been part of an armed gang, have demanded a ransom for the release of the people in their custody.  The local bishop, the Most Reverend Pierre-André Dumas of Mirogoâne, made the following comment after learning of the kidnapping, “This is too much.  The time has come for these inhumane acts to stop.”  The Haitian Conference of Religious (HCR) has expressed its deep sorrow, but also its anger at the situation.  HCR noted that this kind of illegal activity has been going on for over a decade.
 
The report goes on to describe that for several years now the island nation has battled with political and socio-economic crises, further worsened by Covid-19 and a worsening atmosphere of insecurity.
 
The spike in kidnappings and the situation of political instability have led to protests by thousands of Haitian citizens who accuse the Haitian governmental authorities of not equipping the police sufficiently in their fight against insecurity in Haiti.  In March, the government declared a state of emergency for one month in several areas of the country in an effort to stem the rising tide of crime and to allow the National Police of Haiti an opportunity to regain control of area overrun by gang activity.
 
In a report from October 17, 2019, Catholic Relief Services reports that while Haiti is still mired in poverty, the country has avoided in recent decades the repeated coups and violent revolutions of the past.  It has slowly recovered from the 2010 earthquake and, in doing that, has built in more resilience to future natural disasters.  Literacy rates have shown significant improvements, and farmers in the south of the country are beginning to increase productivity by innovating with crops like cacao.
 
Archbishop Eugene Nugent served as the Papal Nuncio in Haiti from 2015 until his recent appointment as the Apostolic Nuncio to Kuwait and Qatar earlier this year.  Archbishop Nugent wrote that his service in Haiti was a rewarding and intense spiritual experience for him marked by the wonderful people that he had met during his nearly six years in Haiti.  Archbishop Nugent admitted that Haiti is a very poor country that gets a lot of negative publicity in the media because of the natural disasters.  But in the Nuncio’s experience that is only one aspect of the country.  Archbishop Nugent said that he discovered in Haiti an enormously gifted people who were very creative artists, musicians, writers, and poets.

Chris Bessey, the country representative for Catholic Relief Services in Haiti, reported that Haitians have been through an enormous amount of trauma over the years as a result of manmade and natural disasters.  Bessy goes on to remark that the Haitians are resilient.  They just need the international community’s continued support.  CRS pleads with the American people not to give up on Haiti.
 
As a parish, we are not giving up on Haiti. Indeed, we have been privileged to support Conversion of Saint Paul Parish, our sister parish in the Diocese of Jérémie, for over thirty years now.  When our late beloved pastor Fr. Don Worch, Sister Grace, Pat Labuda, and Joan Treacy made the first visit to what is now our sister parish, they learned that the town of Leon was comprised of about 20,000 people who were poor, but also warm and kind.  They learned that the people of Leon were requesting our help with health care, education, and economic development.  Since our parish voted to become a sister parish to Conversion of St. Paul Parish in the 1980’s, we have tried to respond to these needs and will continue to do so thanks to the generous support of the Saint Francis of Assisi Parishioners.  We are not giving up on Haiti.
 
Until next week,
Fr. John Dillon