O’Malley embarking on Haiti relief trip
"O’Malley to assess needs in Haiti; Will determine how to distribute financial aid" by Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff | March 2, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley is traveling here with a delegation organized by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to assess the needs of the people and the church here.
Did we need three appetizers to tell us this considering the vapid coverage lately?
What they learn will help determine a plan for distributing millions of dollars in aid from Catholics around the world, including about $2 million from the Boston Archdiocese.
But the visit is much more than a fact-finding mission - the US delegation is also here to offer comfort to the people, to show the church’s compassion for their suffering, and to offer spiritual and emotional support....
Say what you want about the Catholics -- and I'm well aware of the disgusting stuff, I'm reminded all the time by the *ewspaper -- but at least they are in these places!
About the only ones sometimes. I know they have their own interests (increasing the flock and influence); however, I don't think they are the organ-harvesting gig. That's another shtick for someone else.
O’Malley, who speaks Haitian Creole, will begin his day today by saying Mass at a convent where 15 nuns were killed and 11 injured in the quake....
Now I do admire him for that! Foreign languages are tough (earlier the better), and conversing in a dialect other than English is bound to win some respect!
The Boston Archdiocese has the third-largest Haitian community in the United States, after New York and Miami, and eight parishes hold Mass every Sunday in Haitian Creole, according to the archdiocese.
Just serving his flock, 'eh (unlike politicians).
Yes, I do have my beef with the church on that one, but again, it's an imperfect world. I'll never agree 100% with anyone over everything, and waiting and wanting for it will only stress me out.
Besides, immigration falls under the LAWMAKERS and GOVERNMENTS RESPONSIBILITIES!
--more--"
"In Haiti, O’Malley offers aid, healing" by Lisa Wangsness, Globe Staff | March 3, 2010
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - O’Malley’s visit was a gesture of condolence and a whirlwind fact-finding mission to help decide how to distribute some $35 million in aid from a special collection of US Catholic churches, including $2 million from the Boston Archdiocese.
He and several other US bishops will also help sketch out a plan for rebuilding Haitian Catholic institutions and ministries, which lost dozens of churches and almost 70 priests, nuns, and seminarians in the quake.
O’Malley, the highest-ranking US church leader to visit Haiti since the disaster, was characteristically quiet as the delegation from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops toured the devastation in and around the nation’s capital yesterday. They rode in a sport utility vehicle from the local nunciature, followed by an entourage of reporters and people affiliated with the church, weaving their way through traffic with the help of a police escort.
Hey, I'm glad he went; however, tying up Haitian resources with the baggage he brought along?
The delegation visited the toppled National Palace, a model Catholic school, the archbishop’s grave, and a Catholic hospital, St. Francois de Sales. O’Malley blessed children there, gently asking their names in Haitian Creole, a language he has studied intensively since coming to Boston. He chuckled when a little dog in a schoolyard nosed the hem of his brown habit.
Hey, you think whatever you want, readers. I think he's a well-meaning man and definitely better than the last puke around here (wasn't Law his name?).
Gees, Globe has a whole website devoted to the topic.
Yeah, Catholics always come in for a good bashing in the *ewspapers. We must be a threat by sheer numbers even while declining.
That's not to soft-sell the sex scandal. Off with their heads, either ones. I have no patience for perverts.
Few people recognized O’Malley, who stands out in Boston with his snowy beard and Franciscan robes, but people on the street could see that a group of church leaders - probably foreign, and probably important - had come, and heads turned as they passed by.
Thus the media coverage.
Marise Joseph, 26, was sitting on a bench under a tent at St. Francois de Sales as O’Malley passed, an aid worker explaining to him how the hospital lost 85 percent of its buildings, yet was still caring for 90 inpatients and hundreds of outpatients a day.
Joseph, a factory worker, had a high fever and had traveled more than an hour on one of the gaily colored local buses, called “tap-taps,’’ to the hospital, where she had been waiting for four hours to see a doctor. Her house had been destroyed in the earthquake, and so was her church. But the congregation has met every Sunday for services in the courtyard, which she said “makes me forget’’ some of her suffering.
I'm not knocking religion if it helps the Haitians!!!
The delegation’s visit, she said, “shows that the Catholic Church overseas . . . cares about people here.’’
Hey, think nothing of it. Not interested in tooting the old horn, 'kay?
Just get well, Haitians.
Some were not so impressed.
I knew the *ewspaper would have to work some division in somewhere.
Marie Celestin, 20, lay on a hospital bed in a tent, two large metal screws holding her hips together, when O'Malley stopped by her side to give her wooden rosary beads and blessed her. As he passed by, she shrugged: With a wry smile, she said. After he passed by, she said with a wry smile that she was a Baptist, and his murmured "le pere, le fils et le saint esprit" meant little to her.
Notice they never raise objections when it is some Jewish organization (that usually only helps Jews)?
You never read "others were not impressed," do you?
But she said she prayed to God to make the agonizing pain go away, and she clutched the beads anyway.
The delegation rode through dusty city roads teeming with people and lined with piles of garbage and burgeoning tent cities.
As the rains are coming.
Amid rubble, vendors sold plantains, charcoal, and water, people carried bags of rice, children washed themselves....
Almost as if everything were back to normal.
Underscoring the importance of the church and its schools, hospitals, and charitable groups in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest nation - whose government was woefully disorganized and unable to meet the basic needs of citizens even before the earthquake - President Rene Preval and his wife, Elizabeth, dined with the US bishops’ delegation on Monday night to discuss their country’s needs.
They dined with the chief corruption official while Haitians outside thirst and starve?
They were particularly concerned about reopening the schools. About half of Haitian children attend primary school, according to UNICEF, and Catholic schools provide some of the best free education here.
Goodhearted people seeing as parishes are closing here.
The government has ordered all schools closed since the earthquake.
Elizabeth Preval presented them with pictures drawn by Haitian children....
O’Malley has long harbored a special interest in Haiti. He made a point of learning Haitian Creole when he became archbishop in Boston, which has the third-largest Haitian Catholic community in the US, after New York and Miami.
“They’re an extraordinary people,’’ he said. “The Haitians have an energy and joy about them, even in the most adverse circumstances.’’
Yeah, I agree, and stop it now, I'm tearing up.
His language skills allowed him to celebrate a Mass in Haitian Creole in the Petionville house of the Filles de Marie, or Daughters of Mary, just after dawn yesterday.
Impressive.
The Mass was held in a small whitewashed brick room with arched windows, open to a balcony behind.
It was a haven of quiet from the noise and dust rising from the streets outside....
Everyone needs a haven, and you have seen where is mine.
Today's Haiti update:
You understand what a blank space means, right, readers?
