US Bishops Fund Ordinations in Haiti NEW YORK – With donations from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and the Vatican, Archbishop Max Leroy Mésidor of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, plans to move forward despite a period of violence and instability by holding an ordination ceremony for two new auxiliary bishops in early August.
In a June letter to the USCCB Latin America Secretariat, Mésidor expressed his desire to hold an Aug. 3 ordination for the archdiocese’s new auxiliary bishops, Fathers Jean Pierre Sander Louis-Jean and Wismick Jean-Charles. He requested a donation to make the event possible because of the “ precarious financial situation » of the archdiocese.
The letter details a $25,000 budget the diocese has established to help with ordination costs, and a request for a $10,000 donation from the USCCB so the archdiocese “can celebrate this long-awaited event with dignity and fraternity in our suffering archdiocese.”
On July 11, Father Leo Perez, executive director of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America, told Crux that the conference had responded to that request and sent $10,000 to the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince to help with the cost of the ordination.
Auxiliary Bishop Octavio Cisneros of Brooklyn, chairman of the USCCB’s Latin America Subcommittee, told Crux that the decision to grant Mésidor’s request was an easy one.
“Giving this donation to the Church in Haiti is a sign of our commitment to the Church and to hope,” Cisneros said. “We believe that the ordination of bishops is a sign of hope for the Haitian people, who need it so much at this time.”
“The only hope that sustains us is the hope of faith, the hope that God is with us and guides our actions, our thoughts, our future, our history, and therefore having a ceremony by the Church where the apostles, those whom Christ instituted as the pastors, as the successors, as those who will guide the Church with Peter, is very important,” Cisneros continued.
Mésidor’s letter outlines some of the challenges facing the archdiocese. Mésidor said that for the past two years, pastoral ministry in the archdiocese has been “significantly paralyzed” by armed gang violence. Many parishes in the archdiocese have no priests or Sunday services, he said, which has contributed to the archdiocese’s financial woes.
Cisneros noted that given the difficult circumstances, holding the ordination is a demonstration of resilience.
“It is the resilience of the pastors of the People’s Church to say no to violence, to say no to the destruction of life. It is the Church that proclaims the dignity of life. It is the Church that proclaims the dignity of the life of human beings. It is the Church that promotes peace,” Cisneros said. “So this ordination definitely stands in the face of all the unrest, the violence and the atrocities that are being committed.”
Mésidor said the funds will help the archdiocese purchase episcopal vestments and insignia, as well as cover ordination costs, including the purchase of 100 chasubles, printing booklets and meals for those participating in the ordination.
Pope Francis announced the auxiliary bishop appointments on May 31, and the Holy See’s Dicastery for the Service of Charity donated $6,000 to the archdiocese to help with ordination costs. Mésidor said he hopes the archdiocese will receive a contribution of about $7,000 to $8,000 from religious communities and the faithful as well.
Mésidor described Louis-Jean and Jean-Charles as “two devoted priests, direct pastors, with a solid human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral training.”
A new government, an uncertain future Days before Pope Francis appointed Louis-Jean and Jean-Charles to the archdiocese of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s new transitional government, backed by the international community, appointed Gary Conille as the country’s prime minister – a role he previously held from October 2011 to May 2012.
The transitional council is in place primarily to bring a level of stability to the troubled nation and guide it through to presidential elections scheduled for 2026. The challenge, however, is that the seven voting members, including Conille, are not exactly allied as they all represent different political parties, so there remains some uncertainty as to what level of stability they will actually provide.
“This transitional government is a group of rivals, and they represent about seven political parties, and all of these people have, in one way or another, led the Haitian government, successive governments, over the last 30 years since the departure of [Jean-Claude Duvalier] “, Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, who has a close relationship with Haiti and the Haitian Church, told Crux.
“So you have a group of politicians who have basically failed at running the country, and now they’re back in charge, or they’re trying to take control again,” Wenski said. “That doesn’t inspire a lot of hope.”
Wenski spoke with Crux this week about the situation in Haiti, following the installation of the transitional government, the appointment of Conille, and the recent arrival of 200 Kenyan police officers to support the Haitian police and military. All of this follows months of unrest in Haiti where the government has collapsed and gangs have taken control.
Even with recent developments, Wenski said “no one can guess what might happen.”
Wenski explained that there are currently three centers of power in Haiti: a transitional government backed by the United States, Canada and other nations; well-armed gangs that are wreaking havoc in some areas; and forces loyal to Guy Philippe, who led a coup against former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004 and returned to the Caribbean nation last year after serving a prison sentence in the United States.
“The other thing that’s always there is the Haitians, who are currently on the sidelines and watching what’s going to happen,” Wenski said. “They’re anxious that the crisis be resolved. They want security because you can’t do anything in this climate of insecurity.”
As for Catholicism, Wenski said that “the life of the Church continues” as best it can. As everything was unfolding, the Church was invited to be part of the transitional government, but declined the offer largely because it would involve it too much in politics and compromise its mission. Wenski said that was a wise decision, because the Church can still use its voice when it deems it appropriate.
Asked if he is optimistic about the direction things are going, Wenski preferred to speak of hope.
“I’m not optimistic. Let’s say I’m hopeful, because hope is a theological virtue and optimism is a secular value, and there’s not a lot of reason to be optimistic in Haiti right now, but hope always springs eternal,” Wenski said. “We have to have hope.”
source: La cCroix
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