HAITI (ACN News): A Haitian bishop has spoken about his plans to rebuild both his earthquake-shattered cathedral and the broken lives of the people in his diocese.
Speaking during a visit to the international headquarters of the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need, Bishop Launay Saturné of Jacmel described his calling to bring the love of God to a shattered country.
“The fact that I survived the earthquake shows me that God still needs me and that I have a mission to fulfil,” Bishop Saturné said.
“As shepherd of my diocese, I tell people who have lost everything, that even if everything else has gone, God has still spared our lives.
“With them we have the duty to work for a more humane, more reconciled world and for a better future.”
Part of his plan involves rebuilding his cathedral, which was severely damaged in the earthquake of January last year.
The bishop said it was a “symbolic place” and “a place of unity”.
Until now the faithful have continued to gather to worship in a tent, but Bishop Saturné is hoping the diocese of Jacmel – which was the hardest hit after Port-au-Prince in the earthquake of January 12, 2010 – will soon find a site for a new cathedral.
Several other churches and Church properties were either destroyed or severely damaged by the quake and will also need to be rebuilt.
ACN is committed to supporting the Church’s plans to rebuild the national seminary, churches and convents.
However, the 47-year-old bishop, who has only been in office since May 2010, emphasised physical rebuilding was not everything.
He said there could be “no rebuilding without mission, without evangelisation, without prayer, without the proclamation of the Word of God”.
Although the earthquake had destroyed everything, he described how it had given Catholics, Protestants and members of other faith communities an “all-embracing brotherliness and solidarity”.
Bishop Saturné said the disaster had brought Haiti closer to God and shown people that “the things of this world are very fragile”.
ACN recently paid out projects including repairs to a school for prospective seminarians in Cap-Haitien and a new roof for St Joseph’s Church in Port-de-Paix, as well as Mass offerings for priests across the country.
A further $67,000 has gone towards repairs to a convent, which is temporarily home to more than 50 religious sisters after the congregation lost most of its houses in Port-au-Prince.
Jacmel diocese, in the south-east of Haiti, covers a region of more than 2700 square kilometres and has a population of almost 530,000 of whom 65 per cent are Catholics.
