Haiti mission to refocus; office to be closed

By Raymond L. Delisle  | Communications Ministry
And Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
    
    WORCESTER – Bishop McManus announced Tuesday that the diocesan commitment to Haiti will refocus on its original mission to promote twinning between parishes in both dioceses. The operation of a separate Haitian ministry office and staff, which also oversaw direct fundraising programs for Catholic school students in Haiti, ended Jan. 1.
    “I am grateful for the tireless work with the Haitian Adopt-a-Student and backpack programs which Sister Marie-Judith Dupuy of the Sisters of St. Anne has provided with various staff people over the years,” Bishop McManus said.
Sister Marie-Judith was named director of the Haitian Apostolate in May 2005.
“It is important that we refocus on our primary mission in this ministry, which is to partner or twin with parishes in the Diocese of Les Cayes so that they may direct effective outreach to their parish communities,” Bishop McManus said.
    The bishop continued, “Subsidiarity is an important operational principal in the life of the Catholic Church and in many global, non-profit organizations, such as Catholic Relief Services. It means supporting the local community to determine how to best address their most critical needs.
    “For more than 25 years, parish twinning between the Dioceses of Worcester and Les Cayes has proven to be effective in assisting one of the poorest areas in the Western Hemisphere.”
    “I think the changes came at the right time,” said  Sister Marie-Judith. “I’m very grateful to (Bishop McManus) … for recognizing my big effort in this ministry.”
She said she starts this month as a full-time student at Anna Maria College, working on a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice in preparation for a master’s in homeland security, in hopes of becoming an immigration officer.
    “I love it,” she said. “I take this change not as a loss, but as a gain, because in my studies … I will be able to help people in America” who are undocumented.

TWINNING PARISHES

    Nearly a dozen parishes are currently twinning with Haitian parishes. Parishes such as Sacred Heart of Jesus in Hopedale and St. Gabriel, the Archangel in Upton have been twinning for many years with parishes in Haiti. More recent parishes to join the effort include Christ the King in Worcester and St. Roch’s in Oxford.
“Our commitment to our (twin) parish has allowed the people of St. Gabriel’s to have an awareness of Church” that is not only inward, but outward, said Father Laurence V. Brault, pastor of St. Gabriel, the Archangel Parish in Upton. His parish has been twinning with St. Anne Parish in Sucrerie Henri, Haiti, for nearly 18 years.
St. Gabriel’s supports St. Anne’s with $1,027 per month, part of which helps St. Anne’s clinic, he said.
    St. Gabriel’s also pays $15,000 per year to support St. Anne’s main parish school and several chapel schools, Father Brault said.
Beginning this month the diocesan Office of Fiscal Affairs will coordinate the bank transfers to the twinning parishes in Les Cayes which were being done by the Haitian Apostolate.
    St. Gabriel’s already uses the diocesan bank for such transfers.
    “We have a special account in the Diocesan Expansion Fund” where St. Gabriel’s keeps a certain amount of money for emergencies, special projects and to help pay for visits – for St. Anne’s pastor to come here about every two years, and for St. Gabriel’s parishioners who can’t pay the whole cost of going there, Father Brault said. He said he tries to visit St. Anne’s every three years, and parishioners also go at different times.
    St. Gabriel’s has ongoing, regular communication with St. Anne’s pastor; “we’re constantly on top of what is happening,” Father Brault said. “We are able to wire money directly” into St. Anne’s account in Fonkoze Bank “so the pastor has that available to him.” St. Gabriel’s informs the diocesan Haitian Apostolate how much money was sent, he said.
    More important than money is the “strong parish-to-parish relationship,” Father Brault said. He said that has also included good relationships with the several pastors St. Anne’s has had. He’s been St. Gabriel’s pastor the whole time.
    “I would strongly, strongly urge that the relationship continue” whenever St. Gabriel’s gets another pastor, he said. He said St. Gabriel’s has a Haiti committee with at least seven members, two of whom are Haitians who speak Creole and French.

SACRED HEART, HOPEDALE

    Father William C. Konicki, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Hopedale, said his parish has been twinning, through the diocesan Haitian Apostolate, with St. Gerard Parish in Point Simone, Haiti, for 18 years. During all those years he has been pastor of Sacred Heart, but St. Gerard’s has had three different pastors, he said.
“We visited Haiti from our parish twice,” and each of St. Gerard’s pastors has visited here at least once, he said. “We have had great communication with each the pastors,” who all spoke English.
    Although Father Konicki once served in Haiti, fostering the relationship between the two dioceses that began after his initial trip there in 1989, and he speaks Creole and French, he said he is not the primary communicator with this parish twinning. He said he wants it to be his parishioners’ mission, and he hopes it continues whenever Sacred Heart has a change in pastors. A committee of six, chaired by Elli Maurais, oversees the mission for Sacred Heart, communicating with St. Gerard’s pastor and collecting the donations, he said.
    Sacred Heart has a covenant with St. Gerard’s to send $900 per month, he said. It pays salaries for St. Gerard’s to keep operating its school at the main church and the school at each of its three mission churches or chapels.
Sacred Heart was able to help pay for the building of the chapel schools because parishioners gave more than the $900 needed each month, he said. The money comes from monthly pledges Sacred Heart parishioners make annually on World Mission Sunday, he said.     Sacred Heart’s religious education students also raise money and collect items their twin parish needs, Father Konicki said. And three families gave money in memory of loved ones, which enabled the Haitian parish to dig a well at each of the chapels.
    Now Sacred Heart is raising money for St. Gerard’s to get a rice mill, a $13,000 machine that will husk rice, so the rice doesn’t have to be sent to Port-au-Prince for processing, he said.

EDUCATION PROGRAM

    Besides trying to generate more interest in parish twinning, the Haitian Apostolate, under Sister Marie-Judith, operated the Adopt-A-Student program which provided tuition and other assistance for students. Education is not free in Haiti and students must get books, uniforms and supplies. The apostolate also collected backpacks and school supplies annually for those in the program, and other students.
Sister Marie-Judith said the education program has 849 students and 619 benefactors, and that some benefactors sponsor more than one student.
    “No way I will just cut or close or eliminate the education program for those poor children in Haiti,” she said. She said details are being worked out for operating it another way.
    After discussion with the leadership of the Sisters of St. Anne, Bishop McManus and the Sisters of St. Anne are investigating options for donors who want to continue to help the education program, especially in the schools run by the Sisters of St. Anne in Haiti.

VALUE OF TWINNING

    In the meantime, Bishop McManus encourages those who are still interested in helping children to either support their parish’s existing twinning program or ask if their parish will get involved in twinning.
    Father Konicki said that, because of the twinning, his parishioners pray regularly for St. Gerard’s people. And, hearing of the present turmoil in Haiti, they have been “wanting to know exactly what’s happening,” which he said they wouldn’t think of if they didn’t twin.
    He said he would encourage other parishes to consider supporting a parish in the Les Cayes Diocese.