It’s already shaping up to be a bad week: The collapse of Afghanistan and the earthquake in Haiti and the coronavirus figures that keep on going up and up; how much worse can it get?
Quite a bit. Tropical Storm Grace dumped torrential rains on Haiti on Monday. Oh, and Lebanon is in economic collapse.
With tmatt already covering the religion news landscape in Afghanistan (be sure to catch his note on the U.S. embassy in Kabul being tone deaf to Islamic values), I turned my attention to Haiti, the recipient of a 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Saturday that has killed at least 1,300, injured at least 5,700 and leveled buildings in an isolated corner of the island that’s a four-hour drive from Port-au-Prince, the capital.
Finding a religion angle when reporting a disaster is challenge enough, but finding an original angle is harder. Happily, the New York Times foreign desk came up with a jewel of a story about how the role that the churches of Haiti are playing in all of this.
For many Haitians, their only source of aid throughout their lives, in the absence of strong government institutions, has been the church, a part of Haiti’s landscape since the era of European colonialism and slavery.
Many churches lay in ruins after the 7.2 magnitude earthquake on Saturday morning,
In the city of Les Cayes, which was particularly devastated by the quake, clerics despaired even as they sought to project hope and resolve to rebuild.“We are the only thing here,” said the Rev. Yves Joel Jacqueline, 44, who works at cathedral in Les Cayes with Haiti’s cardinal, Bishop Chibly Langlois, who was hurt in the quake. “There is no support from the government.”
Langlois, who is pictured with this post, is Haiti’s first cardinal, appointed to the post by Pope Francis in 2014. Of all the articles I’ve scanned, none seem to know what kind of injuries he has.
Having never been to Haiti, I wasn’t aware that churches and their relief agencies are often the only safety net for many people. I must say I am impressed that the Times reporter managed to get into Haiti within 24 hours (via helicopter perhaps) and come up with these details:
In an interview on Sunday, Father Jacqueline stood atop the rubble of his church and leaned on a gnarled set of red and white radio towers that collapsed at the building’s entrance, printouts of a past Christmas program strewn across the ground.
The priest had shared the residence with Haiti’s cardinal. Both men escaped the building as they were having breakfast, but a disabled priest who was eating with them and two women who tend to the residence were killed.
“The church has suffered from the situation in Haiti, from the kidnapping, the uncertainty and then the coronavirus,” said Father Jacqueline, referring to the widespread gang violence across Haiti that has not spared religious institutions, with thugs kidnapping priests and nuns for ransom.
A crew of men used their hands and sledgehammers to extract what they could from his destroyed residence, including sensitive church documents, while trying to keep at bay men on the street who wanted to take what they could, anything that remained intact from the destruction.
Can you imagine what it’s like to confront these human wolves who are intent on looting a church? Moreover, the article reveals later, aid convoys are trying to get to this area from the capital but gangs are stopping and robbing them.
Is anyone covering the religious groups on the scene?
Not much. I checked on Franklin Graham’s (son of Billy Graham) Samaritan’s Purse organization and sure enough, the sent a plane on Sunday with 13 people and 31 tons of emergency relief supplies. That’s just on the first day.
Oddly, Graham’s group was not one of 22 aid groups rushing help to Haiti in this list compiled by CNN.
Watch this update from our team in #Haiti and continue to pray for all those impacted by this weekend’s deadly earthquake. pic.twitter.com/562Kg5ylaA
— Franklin Graham (@Franklin_Graham) August 16, 2021
The biggest players on the scene, however, are Catholics. Catholic Relief Services, which is rushing aid to the country, is often on the ground in disaster areas worldwide before a lot of other groups and they get little credit for it. In Haiti, they are a huge player there, with more than 250 staff in-country. Fortunately, one of its three offices there is in Les Cayes, giving it almost immediate access to earthquake victims.
The CBS affiliate in Baltimore did a story mentioning Lutheran World Relief Services helping out.
The Miami Herald did run a piece on religious groups (including the local Catholic archdiocese and Jewish federation) that are accepting donations because a lot of Haitians live in south Florida.
Most media lacked the resources to fly to Haiti, so they called contacts in the area, as did the writer of this Catholic News Service article.
In fact, it is the Catholic media that seem to have the best sources in Haiti (the country is majority Catholic) such as this report from the Miami archdiocese that said one reason why CRS could get supplies into Haiti so quickly was they already had some there (from the 2010 earthquake, probably) and access to supplies in Panama.
CruxNow’s roundup of the situation in south Haiti relied heavily on extensive Catholic contacts in the country. As it and the New York Times and hopefully other media will discover, the best sources out there are the religious sources, as they are closest to the action — and the hurting.
FIRST IMAGE: Cardinal Chibly Langlois of Haiti
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