PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – 1) Yesterday, Thursday feb. 4th we visited our formation community Kay Chevalier in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It was, more than anything, a visit to cheer up this community, to share with them and together to begin to look at the path of their immediate future. Of course we took the opportunity to bring them a lorry load of food and other articles of prime necessity. Not only the Priests Fr. Jones Jean Baptiste and Pascal but also the young students of Kay Chevalier are in good health and they seem to be in good spirits. I was accompanied by Frs Martin Luzon and Roland Vicente Galvan.
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2) The general situation continues to be dramatic. The most urgent needs are to find food and lodging for those who have nothing and to continue to attend to the sick. It is thought and it seems logical, that as international aid begins to wane the situation will get worse because people have to eat every day. We still hear complaints about the slowness and deficiency in the distribution of aid.

3) The exodus of people to the countryside is causing a big problem at the moment. The impoverished land of Haiti does not have the capacity to feed the avalanche of people who arrive compulsively, hungry and disorientated from Port-au Prince. In this sense the people in the countryside also need help but practically all the aid is concentrated in the Capital.

4) The basic problem for our Formation Community is the destruction of the Formation Centres. This means that the academic year has to be suspended. At this moment there is no way the academic year can continue – the conditions are not there. What have the Dioceses done?. They have decided to send the seminarians to their respective Dioceses so that they can be integrated into the pastoral work of the dioceses. Every so often they will meet to maintain the bonds between them, to give them some sessions of formation and especially therapies that will help them to manage their lives adequately in the presence of this tragedy that they have suffered and in this way be able to psychologically assimilate this disaster.

5) The Haitian Conference of Religious will meet as soon as possible to reorganize itself and, we suppose, discuss the problem of the academic year in their centres of study, especially CIFOR, which depends directly on the Haitian Religious Conference(CHR). We will wait on the proposals coming from the CHR before taking any decision about our students. That will be one of the themes in our Provincial Council meeting next Monday.

6) At the moment our students are immersed in work in the house, in pastoral work in our parish Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in Lizon, in formation encounters and colaborating as much as they can where there is need. However everything points to the conclusion that we have neither the material or psychological conditions or even the professors to continue the academic year that was so brutally interrupted by the earthquake on January 12th.

7) Our house of formation that was destroyed has been evaluated by two engineers. They concluded that it “ could support repairs” but they also say it would be a serious risk to live in this repaired house. Their advice is that it would be better to demolish it. I will send on in attachments some photos of the interior of the house and some columns in the first floor. You can see the twisted steel.

8) We are still in the process of collecting the help that will be destined as a priority for the necessities of housing. You will remember that we have asked all our parishes and missionary communities of the MSC Province of the Dominican Republic to do something or put on something and send on the contribution to the provincial bursar for this end. Almost all the Communities have sent on their contribution but some have yet to send it on. I have the satisfaction of informing you that we have received contributions from MSC’s around the world, not only from Provinces, Pro-provinces and Regions but also from parishes and persons who spontaneously want to be part of this initiative of solidarity. When we finish the collecting we will make a list of the donors and we will give an account of the amount and the use to which these donations have been put. We are already thanking these people individually.

9) Despite the tragedy which has hit the very heart of Haiti, i.e. the capital, where the most productive part of the population lived, one can see a great hope....the hope that with the reconstruction a new Haiti, more united, stronger, with more solidarity and organization will arise.

10) So we have to keep going forward, working hard without failing, facing up to the great challenge that this disaster has left us. We must get up and reconstruct what is in ruins, beginning with the spirit and dignity of the people. So that is how things are dear brothers at the moment. We will keep you informed of what happens in our province.

In the Heart of Christ.

Fr. Rafael Rodriguez MSC
Provincial Superior