Carroll's Deacon Murphy visits Haiti

By KENNY KEANE, Globe staff reporter
Posted March 27, 2002

CARROLL - Following Father Ronald Legerme's stay last fall at St. Lawrence Church in Carroll, Deacon Tim Murphy decided he would return the favor by paying his friend a visit at Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Haiti.

Father Legerme welcomed the visit of Deacon Murphy, who stayed at St. Lawrence's sister parish in Haiti from Feb. 6-18. Although he was eager to visit the Caribbean, especially during an Iowa winter, the Carroll deacon said he wouldn't have gone if he couldn't have been connected with Father Legerme.

"There are all kinds of problems down there I didn't want to deal with alone - disease, crime, getting lost, not knowing the language and all kinds of stuff," Deacon Murphy said. "He was a really good host. He met me right at the airport to pick me up. I was really happy to see him because that airport's pretty crazy."

After touring the city of Porte-au-Prince, which the deacon said is populated by millions of poor people with high unemployment and streets full of garbage and sewage water, they drove to Father Legerme's parish in Laborde.

"He has a country parish right out in the middle of nowhere," Deacon Murphy said. "It has a school with grades one through 12. That's the main place where I spent time."

Deacon Murphy said he visited the school with its 1,200 students, brought them pencils and taught them a couple English songs. He was also able to enjoy the parish's feast day, Our Lady of Lourdes, on Feb. 12, which he thought was a neat celebration.

Along with the parish and school, Deacon Murphy said they also have seven mission churches in the area that Father Legerme takes care of, along with a French priest who resides there.

"I visited all of them. I went to a funeral at one for a young boy who died from a fever," Deacon Murphy said. "There's not much medical care there. There's no insurance. So if you can't pay up front, you don't get much care."

Since returning from his trip, Deacon Murphy has been sharing a lot of information with St. Lawrence parishioners and in the classrooms at Kuemper. Through his homilies at Mass, a PowerPoint presentation he's been showing after Masses, talks at school and a newsletter, he has shared the many ways they have been helping members of their sister parish in Haiti.

"With all the things they need, they'd really be a lot worse off if we hadn't been sending them our monthly collections for them," said Deacon Murphy, who also has some ideas for future aid. "Father Legerme has a lot of kids there that can't go beyond high school, and it'd be neat to be able to bring one or two to study up here in college.

"Hopefully next time, I'll be able to take some people down with me. We also hope to get together some supplies to send to them. Otherwise it's just to get to know each other while we're down there."