Aid to the Church in Need: Haiti: After the storm ....

Haiti: After the storm ....

Posted by Press release on 23/2/2009, 11:05 am
Message modified by board administrator 23/2/2009, 11:13 am

ACN News, Monday, 23rd February 2009 – HAITI

After the storm ....

By John Newton

HAITI’S leading Catholic bishop described how more than six months after devastating hurricanes swept the island tens of thousands are still homeless and hit out at the government for not taking its responsibilities seriously.
Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need, the charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, Archbishop Louis Kebreau of Cap-Haitïen in the north of the country, president of the Bishops’ Conference of Haiti, described having witnessed the people’s pain first hand.
The archbishop said: “People are suffering, they have lost mothers, lost fathers, lost family – there are a lot of orphans.”
Hitting out at the government, he warned that preparations needed to be made for this coming year: “The government does not want to take it seriously – the season of hurricanes is coming next September.”
Official statistics record that 793 people were killed when a series of hurricanes and tropical storms battered Haiti from 15th August to 8th September 2008, with a further 310 reported missing.
After the storms hit, ACN gave more than $80,000 in emergency aid for basic supplies, such as food and clothing, and has promised further help for Church projects.

(Archbishop Kebreau president of the Bishops’ Conference of Haiti)

Archbishop Kebreau said: “Even today after many months, a lot of houses still stand abandoned, and roads have not been repaired, there is a lot of misery and people are very hungry.”
More than 100,000 houses were destroyed or damaged during the hurricane season leaving entire cities uninhabitable and affecting 165,337 families.
The archbishop said the government must take responsibility for reforestation before the next wave of storms hit the island.
Lack of tree cover contributes to the devastating floods that kill many people following the storms each year. Haiti has less than 2 percent tree cover today compared with 25 percent in 1980.
Archbisho Kebreau told ACN how, at the last meeting of the Bishop’s Conference, a vital project was launched to reforest the area around Les Gonaives, Haiti’s second largest city and the worst affected by last year’s storms, where almost 500 inhabitants died following the hurricanes.
While the Church is running food-distribution programmes, people are continually searching for their next meal: “This is a problem, as every morning people go the Church, to look for food, to look for bread.”
Sects have used the poverty caused by the hurricane as an occasion to proselytise the suffering people of Haiti, tying in aid to conversion.
The archbishop described how they are using the people’s misery to gain converts: “The sects use poverty to manipulate the people, they can give food and that’s a very big challenge, we need to value human dignity, people are not there to be manipulated or exploited.”
He described how these well organized groups attack Catholic teachings such as the Pope, Mary and the Saints – yet he emphasised the need to distinguish between sects and “historical churches”, such as the Episcopalians and the Methodists.
The archbishop thanked ACN for all the charity’s help, particular for providing Mass offerings from its benefactors to support priests.
He said: “It is a great help for ACN to provide Mass offerings, as the people in Haiti are so poor.”
He added: “The donations ACN is giving are very important, in order to celebrate, build communion between churches in Haiti and the rest of the world, knowing the sacrifices people make to offer these masses.
“I want to give thanks to all the benefactors, I know the Western world is in economic difficulties, in crisis, yet you share the riches and happiness God gives you with others.”

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information, please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org