By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press
Equality and friendship were themes sounded for the visit 15 Haitian priests made to the diocese last week.
They came from Haiti to renew covenants between their parishes and parishes here. They and members of the Worcester Diocese signed covenants during a diocesan Mass Saturday at St. Paul Cathedral. Some signed covenants at their twin parishes on the weekend instead, according to Sister Marie-Judith Dupuy, the Sister of St. Anne who directs the diocese’s Haitian Apostolate. She said the priests arrived from Haiti Oct. 16 and 17 and left earlier this week.
They were Bishop McManus’ guests at the diocese’s Celebrate Priesthood gala Oct. 18 at St. Vincent Hospital, and attended welcoming and farewell parties at Christ the King Parish in Worcester. Sister Marie-Judith expressed special thanks to Msgr. Thomas J. Sullivan, pastor of Christ the King, for hosting those parties. Christ the King twins with Immaculée Conception Parish in Les Anglais.
The Haitian Apostolate oversees the twinning between the Diocese of Worcester and the Diocese of Les Cayes, which also includes the twinning between some parishes in each diocese. The bishops sign a diocesan covenant every three years, and the priests sign the parish covenants annually, Sister Marie-Judith said.
This visit was exceptional because it testified that the twinning is a relationship of friendship, she said. She said that was demonstrated with the priests from each diocese processing in to the diocesan Mass together and then facing each other on either side of the altar.
“I feel it was a tangible sign not only of an agreement … but working together,” Sister Marie-Judith said.
She said the Haitian priests remarked that the Worcester Diocese does the twinning with a special spirituality, taking turns with the Haitians in visiting each other, strengthening their friendship.
She said 24 Haitian priests were invited to come this year, but some couldn’t afford it. She asks them to supply their own airfare because she wants them to make an investment in the twinning, she said. If she asked the Americans to pay the airfare, they might want to send that money to the poor instead, and that would take away from the spirituality of twinning, she said.
“The twinning is about loving relationship … between two faith communities,” she said. It’s not about money being donated by one person.
Preaching at the diocesan Mass, Bishop McManus quoted Psalm 133:1: “See how good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters live together as one.”
He said God’s covenant with Noah and all of creation established an enduring relationship between unequals – Creator and creatures, but the covenants renewed at St. Paul’s Saturday were not unequal. They were between brothers and sisters who share one Lord, faith and baptism, demonstrating the “universality - the catholicity - of our beloved Church.”
He told listeners they are joined to the great cloud of witnesses, saints and martyrs, who offer encouragement by their example. Today’s Catholics accept the vocation to become missionary disciples, he said.
Since the Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life, it was fitting to renew the covenants at Mass, he said. By receiving the Eucharist, worshippers would be bound more closely to Christ, and, through him, to one another, he said. He expressed hope that the ecclesial communion of faith, hope and love be a source of joyful solidarity.
At the welcome party Oct. 19, Msgr. Jean Alfred Bernard thanked Bishop McManus for his unconditional support for the twinning program. According to an English translation of his speech, Msgr. Bernard said the bishop’s pastoral solicitude extends not only to the faithful of the Worcester Diocese but also to those of the Diocese of Les Cayes. By this commitment, the bishop has shown that the Church is a body whose members are connected to one another, he said.
Msgr. Bernard, pastor of Sacré-Coeur Parish in Les Cayes, which twins with St. Mary of the Assumption Parish in Milford, said he was speaking on behalf of all the visiting Haitians.
He thanked Sister Marie-Judith and her collaborators for arranging the visit; the priests here for their solidarity and efforts to involve their parishioners in helping the Les Cayes Diocese; and the benefactors for their generosity.
Sister Marie-Judith said the Haitian priests were very touched by the reception they received here, and they felt at home.