Local Haitians, friends react to news of earthquake, initiate relief efforts

By Father Bill Pomerleau

SPRINGFIELD – Local Haitians and friends of Haiti struggled Jan. 13 to assess the full impact of an earthquake which devastated most of the capital city of Port-au-Prince Jan. 12.

As Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive told news agencies that more than 100,000 persons may have died in the quake, local Haitians feared for the safety of their loved ones in the Caribbean nation. Most had been unable to communicate with friends and relatives by telephone or other means.

Doug Campbell, the executive director of the Springfield-based aid agency Hands Together, had flown to Port-au-Prince just hours before the earthquake struck.

“He went down to consult with (Oblate of St. Francis de Sales) Father Tom (Hagan),” said Campbell’s wife, Julia, from Hands Together’s local office.

After several futile attempts to reach agency employees in Haiti, Campbell’s daughter Kaitlin Campbell, spoke briefly to her father and Father Hagan on a Haitian cell phone. They said they were both were alive and well, although the priest had suffered a blow to the head in the quake.

They reported that their mission house in the Delmas neighborhood of Port-au-Prince had been completely destroyed, Julia Campbell told iObserve.

The Hands Together property is adjacent to a convent and hospice run by the Missionaries of Charity, who care for orphaned or abandoned babies and young children. In recent years, more than 100 children and more than a dozen staff would be in the complex on a typical weekday afternoon.

“Father Tom said he didn’t think any of the sisters made it. I assume that means that their building collapsed on them and all those kids. That’s haunting me,” said Julia.

On Jan. 13, iObserve was unable to independently confirm the fate of the hospice.

Another agency with local ties, CRUDEM (Center for the Redevelopment of Milot), was only indirectly affected by the earthquake, according to Rev. Joni Paterson, director and administration of the Ludlow-based group.

CRUDEM operates Hôpital Sacré Coeur, the largest private hospital in northern Haiti. In recent years, it has hosted several local volunteers, including several parishioners of St. Cecilia Parish in Wilbraham.

“John Gilbertie and Tim Traynor, who are parishioners of St. Cecilia’s, are in Haiti working on an expansion of our hospital. They’re safe,” said Rev. Paterson, a minister of the United Church of Christ.

“We operate in the north, where there were tremors but no damage. But we have 250 Haitian staff, many with family members in Port-au-Prince. We’re obviously concerned about their well-being, and have started a relief fund,” she added. (See box at right for list of local relief funds.)

COTY volunteers

A delegation from the Church Outreach to Youth (COTY) Center in North Adams returned from Haiti two days before the earthquake.

COTY Executive Director Caitlin McConnell told iObserve that she believes that her group’s collaborators in DesSables, a village 50 miles north of Port-au-Prince, are safe, although they have not been able to contact anyone there.

Diocesan seminarian and North Adams native, Matt Alcombright, was part of the recent COTY delegation that arrived in Haiti Dec. 27. Like others, as he watched the images appear on broadcasts, he was left wondering about the future of Haiti, a place he has visited twice in recent years.

“It’s just so devastating and sad,” he told iObserve. “Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere and the third poorest in the world, so this is taking what little they had right out from underneath them. I’m not sure where they go from here, but despite their poverty they are rich in faith.”

Despite the earthquake, COTY is planning a trip to Haiti during the upcoming February vacation week, with 12 students from St. Mary Parish in Longmeadow attending. Patti Monroe, director of faith formation at the parish will be leading the student group.
Monroe said that they remain committed to going and helping with the relief efforts.

COTY has also set up a relief fund in conjunction with the Save the Children organization.

Passionist hospital

Several local Catholics have also visited St. Damien’s Pediatric Hospital in Petionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, run by Passionist Father Rick Frechette.

Father Frechette, a medical doctor, was in Connecticut caring for his dying mother when the earthquake hit.

In a moving message to Passionist supporters, Father Frechette wrote:
“I have been home with my dying mother, as a son and as a doctor and as a priest: daily Mass, managing her pain medicines, helping in any way I can. I was determined to stay with her to the end, especially since my whole adult life I have been far from home in the foreign missions…

“Now we have this huge sadness in Haiti. I told her I have to leave for a while. She said to me, ‘You have to go. The problems there are worse than mine.’”

St. Damien’s Hospital has been severely damaged. The chapel has totally collapsed as well as parts of the hospital and much of the parameter walls around the property

Father Frechette said he was flying from New York to the Dominican Republic, from where he hoped to travel across the island of Hispaniola to Haiti on Jan. 13.

Bishop’s response

In a prepared statement Jan. 13, Springfield Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell noted that “the devastating earthquake that ravaged Haiti yesterday has had its impact among people here in the Diocese of Springfield. 

“For a long time there have been special ties between Haiti and western Massachusetts.  From North Adams and Chicopee and Holyoke and Wilbraham, bonds have been forged with individuals and communities in Haiti. Our hearts, our hands, our prayers and our offerings go out to help the people of Haiti recover from this terrible tragedy. “

The bishop also announced that parishes through the diocese are being encouraged to take up a special collection for Haitian relief. The proceeds will go the Catholic Relief Services and Caritatis Internationalis, the Vatican-based umbrella organizations for Catholic Charities.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops also announced that much of this weekend’s scheduled national collection of the Church in Latin America will be directed to Haiti.