Paul KeenanReligious communities face violent attack in their work, writes Paul Keenan
If there is one nation in the world today deserving of some good news coverage, or at the very least – to borrow from modern vernacular – a break, it is surely Haiti.
The impoverished Caribbean nation, still struggling to renew itself after the shattering earthquake of January 2010, should be by now, in a world that can show the best of itself in the wake of such disasters, a site of numerous ‘feel-good’ stories for documentary makers and news broadcasters returning to investigate what rebuilding, or growth, or progress the nation has made. Think of the reaction to and subsequent coverage of the Philippines after typhoon Haiyan in 2013 and you get the idea.
Such positivity should have been contained in an interview given last week by Archbishop Guire Poulard of the capital’s Port-au-Prince archdiocese, who spoke of the many projects currently underway with the backing of the Catholic Church and its affiliated agencies. Citing some 60 ongoing projects, encompassing housing and medical facilities across parishes (including 30 new parishes), Archbishop Poulard referred also to the completion and dedication of the 1,500-seat transitional cathedral, next to the destroyed Cathedral of Our Lady of Assumption, whose gutted frame in the weeks after the quake provided stark photographic evidence of the sheer scale of destruction – in a quake that claimed at least 250,000 lives.
Participation
Appointed nearly a year to the day after the quake, Archbishop Poulard has been a central witness to the Church’s rebuilding efforts and to the will of his flock in their participation in it. Acknowledging in his interview that progress “will be slow”, he added nonetheless that “Haitian churchgoers, both in the country and the diaspora, are determined to rebuild the church and their country”.
Plenty of reason to be positive there, but this is Haiti – a nation seemingly burdened with a disproportionate amount of hard luck.
Sadly, just as Archbishop Poulard was lauding the strides made on behalf of Haitians through Catholic relief efforts, the country’s Cardinal Chibly Langlois, Bishop of Les Cayes, felt compelled to speak out on a growing and worrying trend by gangs, which, having grown in the chaotic wake of 2010, have now become emboldened in their activities amid broader unrest which has struck Haiti.
The matter to hand for Cardinal Langlois is the growth in violent attacks on the residences of religious communities who live and work among Haitians, his words prompted by the latest incident against the Sisters of the Congregation of the Servants of the Sick of St Camillus who recently found themselves faced with armed invaders at their Port-au-Prince residence.
“Since November 2014 to the present day, about 20 houses belonging to the nuns have been attacked,” the cardinal explained. “Religious women [have been] beaten, brutalised. Without being disturbed, looters take everything they can: money, identity documents, important documents and other valuables. The [Haitian Episcopal Conference] deplores this state of affairs which is similar to an apotheosis of evil and expresses its deep concern. It condemns this wave of insecurity that befalls the people consecrated to God”.
The cardinal’s words were measured; by “brutalised” he means raped, an action which makes the attacks the more heinous. At least one nun, of the Morfortiana community, was reportedly rushed to hospital in a coma after an attack.
It is also frustrating because, in their actions against religious communities, those responsible are attacking the one solid grouping which has not hesitated or flinched in the face of challenges thrown up by Haiti before and since 2010.
Where members of the international community who promised aid have subsequently delayed funds overs concerns of corruption in the country, the Church and its affiliates, by being on the ground (where only UN peacekeepers dare to tread) has placed itself in a position to best target aid which might otherwise be exploited.
In relation to this it is worth mentioning the Partnership for the Reconstruction of the Church in Haiti (PROCHE), which has garnered millions for rebuilding projects, and the University of Notre Dame’s Alliance for Catholic Education, which, backed by Catholic Relief Services, is providing for the schooling needs of thousands.
Similarly, where overseas investors have been slow to commit themselves to potential win–win business investments in the face of political instability, the Church and its agencies have ‘filled the gap’ with projects for ordinary people as politicians squabble (and as policemen and protestors are injured in the subsequent vacuum of violence, it is to hospitals rebuilt by the Church to which they are transported). As the rest of the world has ‘moved on’ from Haiti’s woes, the Vatican has worked to keep attention on the country.
It held a major conference for relief agencies and foreign diplomats in January towards this. Such attention is needed: it is worth noting that while Haiti’s population of ‘tent dwellers’, created in 2010, has declined from over 1.5 million then to some 80,000 today as a result of rebuilding, more than 200,000 Haitians are classified as displaced still, and without access to basic services.
Criticising the ongoing lack of effective protection for law-abiding Haitians, Cardinal Langlois led a 24-hour prayer campaign on March 13-14 as “a gesture of compassion, of deep communion and effective solidarity with the religious and the other victims of aggression and violence”.
Then, on the eve of that event, Haiti’s President Michel Martelly finally acted to offer something of a psychological lifeline to his people. Having fudged over the issue of long overdue elections, leading both to suspicions among the electorate of a slow drift by design towards rule by presidential decree and violent demonstrations on the streets – adding to those staged in protest at high petrol prices – Mr Martelly announced August 9 as the date for parliamentary and senate elections, and October 25 for the presidential poll (from which he is constitutionally barred by term limits).
Announcement
What effect the announcement will have in the short term on Haiti’s levels of violence remains to be seen; grinding poverty is not about to disappear. However, as a first step towards convincing those badly needed investors that Haiti may be turning around, the elections may ultimately serve to bring in more funds and take pressure off the Catholic agencies now working amid the added threat of attack.
Whatever the outcome long term, the self-same agencies have proved their worth – again – while demonstrating an unshakeable willingness to stay the course until Haiti reaches a better day.