Parishes, relief organizations in archdiocese help earthquake-stricken Haiti

When a 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck southwestern Haiti Aug. 14, and two days later Tropical Storm Grace slammed into the country, Haitians hadn’t fully recovered from disasters years earlier that were compounded by government instability and rising crime, friends of Haiti in the Twin Cities said.

“As soon as one tragedy happens, there’s not much time for recovery and healing and it’s the next tragedy, so they’re still definitely in shock and (have) post-traumatic stress from these things,” said Jimmy Dunn, outreach director at Annunciation in Minneapolis and president of the nonprofit Mission Haiti Inc.

As Haiti begins to rebuild after these latest disasters, leaders at parishes and relief organizations in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis are helping their Haitian friends, just as they helped after the earthquake that hit the country in 2010, followed by Hurricane Matthew in 2016.

Many provide annual support as well, and said they regret that the country’s instability prevents them from traveling right now to help.

More than 2,200 people have died in Haiti since the Aug. 14 earthquake, whose epicenter was near the coast of the country’s southern peninsula, about 80 miles west of the capital, Port-au-Prince. The tropical storm that followed flooded parts of the battered country with up to 10 inches of rain. As of Aug. 22, 344 people remained missing, 12,268 were injured and almost 53,000 homes were destroyed in the quake, according to The Associated Press.

While the death toll and damage from the earthquake were lower than the government-estimated 316,000 killed and more than $7 billion in damage in the 2010 earthquake, which hit densely populated Port-au-Prince, Haitians were also reeling from the July 7 assassination of their president, Jovenel Moise, and rising gang crime. Also, COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths have been escalating in Haiti, according to the Pan American Health Organization.

The U.S. State Department has advised against traveling to Haiti, so volunteers who previously provided hands-on assistance could only help remotely.

Father Paul Shovelain traveled to the Haitian city of L’Aisle in 2019 and learned last week about extensive damage in that city, which is about four miles from the earthquake’s epicenter.

“My heart has been heavy for them,” said Father Shovelain, pastor of St. John the Baptist in New Brighton, who said the rectory and church in L’Aisle were leveled and he fears for families living in small huts.

Residents of Bouzy, about 15 miles southeast of the epicenter, suffered injuries, and homes and the rectory of Sainte Catherine d’ Alexandrian de Bouzy were damaged. The church, still being rebuilt after the hurricane and previous earthquake, was also damaged, said Dave Henke, who with his wife, Lori, serves on St. Joseph the Worker in Maple Grove’s Haiti core team.

St. Joseph the Worker instituted a sister parish relationship with the Bouzy parish in 2009 and sent a team there after the 2010 earthquake. Parishioners plan to send assistance following this latest earthquake, the Henkes said.

In Marfranc, roughly 50 miles west of the epicenter, the elder care centers supported by Coon Rapids-based Reiser Relief Inc. didn’t suffer damage or loss of life, but area buildings swayed and the roofs of single-story buildings collapsed, said Joyce Getchell, board vice president of Reiser Relief, which was founded in 2006 by the late Father Bernard Reiser to create partnerships to help Haitians.

Reiser Relief sponsors education, elder and disabled care, job creation and agriculture in regions of Haiti, and it has sponsored rebuilding after previous disasters, said Getchell, one of Father Reiser’s nieces. In April, a Marfranc school principal was kidnapped and later released, another sign of unrest in Haiti.

Reiser Relief recently appealed to Facebook supporters for disaster relief to be distributed by the Little Sisters of St. Therese of the Child Jesus who run the Marfranc ministries, Getchell said.

Parishioners from St. Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake started their work in Haiti in 2014, and the next year a parishioner donated funds for a school in Marfranc, said Samantha Hagel, the parish’s mission director. Each year, the parish sponsors the school’s teachers, tuition and meals.

Parishioners haven’t visited Haiti since 2019, but they maintain contact with the religious sisters there, and every fall they organize a collection for Haiti support, Hagel said.

The parish is glad that the school, which they have rebuilt several times after disasters, held up during the latest earthquake, she said.

Dunn of Annunciation and Mission Haiti said another town, Leogane, located 13 miles east of the epicenter, wasn’t hit as hard by the latest earthquake as in the 2010 earthquake, which damaged an estimated 90% of its buildings. But Annunciation has partnered with the Haitian Sisters of the Companions of Jesus in Leogane for more than 23 years. In 2006, it spun the international mission into a nonprofit called Mission Haiti Inc., with a focus on education, elder care and sustainable farming.

Annunciation and Mission Haiti have helped finance and build two schools and they send $120,000 annually to the sisters, Dunn said. The nonprofit plans to host an Oct. 15 fundraiser to raise funds for Haiti.

When Catholics recognize a need, they’re called to do something, wherever the need is, Dunn said. And prayer is part of that response, said Getchell.

“We do what we can with the resources that are provided, and we leave the rest to God, because no one else can take this one on,” she said.

Organizations in the story welcome donations at this time. Donations to Bouzy through the Maple Grove parish can be made at https://pushpay.com/g/sjtwmaplegrove  or through a text: SJTW GIVE to 77977.  Donations to Reiser Relief are accepted at reiserrelief.org/donate. Donations to Mission Haiti Inc. are accepted at missionhaitiinc.org/donate.

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PARISH COLLECTION FOR HAITI

Archbishop Bernard Hebda is asking parishes to take up a special collection for Haiti at weekend Masses Aug. 28-29, as part of a national appeal by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Funds will support the Church’s pastoral and reconstruction efforts through Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities USA. Funds also may support relief efforts around the globe during other disasters. In the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, online donations for the collection can be made at centerformission.org/contribute-donation-form. The needs in Haiti are particularly significant because two days after the Aug. 14 earthquake, Tropical Storm Grace exacerbated problems, said Deacon Mickey Friesen, director of the Center for Mission in the archdiocese, which administers and coordinates missionary activities in the archdiocese. In addition to the USCCB’s appeal, its National Collections Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America has approved $10,000 grants to three heavily-impacted Haitian dioceses.