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Quake news hits hard for parishes with Haiti ties

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
(Email Renee)

When Deacon Tim Murphy of Carroll heard about the earthquake in Haiti, he said, “What next?”

Having visited St. Lawrence’s sister parish in Haiti twice, the deacon was well aware of the Caribbean country’s struggles even before this recent devastation.

On the very day of the earthquake, one of three pastors from Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Laborde, Haiti, informed him via e-mail that the parish itself had received no damage.

“Our parish is about 100 miles from Port-au-Prince,” said Deacon Murphy, who feels such strong ties with the parish there that he often uses the terms “my parish” or “our parish.”

St. Lawrence Parish in Carroll has participated in the twin parish project with Haiti for about 20 years. About 10 years ago the deacon took a special interest in the project and has worked hard to establish a solid connection with the parish leaders in Haiti.

He visited the Haiti parish in 2003 and 2009, each time going through Port-au-Prince.

“There are a lot of poor people there. Many buildings are barely standing without an earthquake to knock them down,” said Deacon Murphy.

In the six years between his trips he saw much improvement in conditions but now fears there will be much regression.

“The whole country is in mourning and I’m sure this is going to cause a bunch of problems,” Deacon Murphy said in a phone interview Jan. 19.

Later that day, he received another e-mail from Father Jean Herve Francois, pastor at the Laborde parish.

The priest wrote, “We have very bad days in Haiti. People are running everywhere. There is no food, clothes or water for them. We received a lot of people in Les Cayes (seven miles from our parish). We have established, with the local authorities, a camp in Gabions in a soccer field for people coming from Port-au-Prince.”

Father Francois said while many are not originally from the area, they had no place to go.

“They found a bus and took it, for whatever destination,” he wrote. “We also have a lot of people from Laborde coming back. They cannot live in Port-au-Prince for the time being. So, we now have more people to feed in the community, more responsibility.”

He mentioned that some families were already out of money and predicted many hardships in the future.

“We expect a lot from our friends because I am sure that the people in Laborde will not be able to handle this by ourselves,” said Father Francois, who added that they hope for assistance from the providence there as well. “We keep in prayer.”

On Jan. 18, Deacon Murphy spoke with a student from the Haiti K-12 parish school via cell phone. The student told the deacon that he had lost relatives – an aunt and cousin in the earthquake. Although it was a bad phone connection, the deacon believes the student had said the schools were closed because everyone was trying to connect with relatives and there were funerals.

The Carroll parish is not the diocese’s only one involved in the twinning project with a Haiti parish. St. Joseph Parish in Milford also has a sister parish in Haiti, Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, which is located about six-and-one-half hours north of Port-au-Prince.

Father Tom Flanagan, associate pastor at St. Joseph’s, had organized a Milford group to visit the parish there as a way to build a stronger relationship and better understand the needs of the parish there. That trip was supposed to take place on Feb. 25 but has been put on hold.

“What Haiti needs now are not visitors as much as relief,” he said. “For the time being we have cancelled our trip. We are going to take the money that we would have spent on this trip and send it to our sister parish for whatever their needs might be.”

While Father Flanagan hasn’t been in contact with their twin parish, he has spoke with Teresa Patterson who heads of the twinning parish project.

“Our parish is on the far northern part of the country; it’s about six-and-one-half hours by land from Port au Prince,” he said. “She thought our parish would not have experienced damage.”

Both diocesan parishes provide regular support to their sister parishes.

Deacon Murphy pointed out that St. Lawrence takes up a monthly collection and they hold an annual parish-wide rummage sale that brings in thousands of dollars.

In Milford, in addition to monetary donations, St. Joseph’s religious education students had joined the effort to help their sister parish even prior to the quake. They sew shorts for little boys and dresses for little girls. At Christmas time they collected toys and they have an ongoing project of collecting school supplies. Last fall, they collected over-the-counter medicine for several weekends. These items will be sent to Haiti in early spring through the parish twinning project.

While parishioners in these two diocesan parishes have gained a better understanding of Haiti’s struggles due to the twinning project, both the deacon and priest believe that the national publicity has brought worldwide focus on the nation’s plight.

Father Flanagan noted that out of something bad, something potentially good can come. Despite the destruction and death, he is hopeful that the aid which is coming into the country now will extend beyond this in order that the country can get on its feet.

“A lot of people never thought about Haiti and now it’s on everyone’s mind,” Deacon Murphy said. “Hopefully it lasts long enough to have some benefit for reconstruction and encourage better politics down there. They have a lot of corruption in their government.”

For now, these parishes opted to take part in the diocesan collection for Catholic Relief Services as well as continue their projects to benefit their sister parishes.

“It’s hard to send people and materials down there so right now the best thing is money,” noted the deacon, who urged prayers to continue with the flow of cash.

Both parishes offer prayers on a regular basis for their sister parish.

Father Flanagan said they do plan to organize a trip to Haiti in the future.