“Every day we receive donations and inquiries from people asking us how they can help,” Vicki Compton, director of the diocesan Office for the Missions, said. “We are eager to help people in any way we can.”
Second collections for Haiti relief efforts were authorized to be taken at weekend liturgies in all parishes in the diocese. Donations the diocese receives are being sent by the diocesan Office of Finance to Catholic Relief Services.
Numerous schools, parish organizations and affiliated groups have initiated fund-raisers. There have been out-of-uniform day fund-raisers at some schools like Cathedral School in Springfield, where many students brought in not just the suggested $2 fee, but $5 or $10 as a donation, telling school secretary Johna Keen, “Two dollars just isn’t enough for the kids.”
Father Delix Michel, parochial administrator at Ss. Peter and Paul Parish in Alton, is a Haitian priest from the Diocese of Gonaïves. He learned both the minor seminary and major seminary in
Port au Prince where he had studied for 10 years had collapsed with priests and seminarians inside.
“They have already found 14 bodies,” said Father Michel. “Jean Claude Lespinansse, my canon law and history of the church teacher; Father Chery, a church pastor who studied canon law in Italy; Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot; Father Nicholas Christian, a retired priest; Msgr. Charles Benoit, a young priest who had just arrived back from a vacation in New Jersey; and Father Henry Jean Baptiste, died, they were all found in one place. Those buildings were huge, they had been standing for 50 years.
“We had seven Catholic churches that collapsed: The church in Jacmel; the Catholic church in Leogane; Sacre-Coeur in Port au Prince; the cathedral of Port au Prince, St. Louis Roi de France; St. Anne in Port au Prince. The churches are all big because they are modeled on the French cathedrals in Paris.
Father Michel delivered the homily at a special Sunday evening Mass Jan. 24, at Ss. Peter and Paul, for victims of the earthquake. Every pew in the church and choir loft was filled, with over 600 in attendance.
Msgr. Carl Kemme, diocesan administrator, was the celebrant, with seven priest-concelebrants.
“It is devastating for all of us Haitians who live outside Haiti, as well as for those who live in Haiti, to think about the tragedy,” said Father Michel. “Never before had Haiti suffered such a big earthquake.
“At first my heart was broken to see the tragedy, the calamity, the sad pictures of people, dead bodies, and people trapped in destroyed buildings, crying out for help,” said Father Michel.
“I could not stop crying; I could not keep from being in tears, as I was looking at my people on television. I wanted to be close to them, to help them any way I could. You feel powerless; you are speechless, witnessing such an unbearable situation through the television.
“God is our hope, the hope that shines through the crucifix of the churches that collapsed. Through that cross Christ is saying, ‘I am alive. Turn to me.’ Haiti will shine one day … God is asking us to comfort one another and to comfort the Haitians,” Father Michel said.
Seeing the out-pouring of generosity from American people, and seeing people from throughout the world responding to the people of Haiti with offers of assistance, is a comfort to Father Michel. “I cannot stop thanking God for these generous people,” he said.
In Springfield, Hospital Sisters Mission Outreach is actively helping to get medical supplies to Haiti. By Jan. 25 it will have the equivalent of six 40-foot shipping containers filled with 50 tons of supplies, valued at over $1 million sent to Haiti, said Bruce Compton, president and CEO of Mission Outreach. On Jan. 26, a 40-foot shipping container of medical supplies will go to Food for the Poor. On Jan. 27, a team of 20 medical personnel from Wisconsin will leave for Haiti carrying the supplies with them.
A medical clinic started in 2002 by Springfield’s Brent DeLand in the neighborhood of Sarthe, four miles north and east of the International Airport, survived the earthquake intact with only hairline cracks in some of its walls. Some of its partners, such as the Missionaries of Charity’s baby hospital, sustained damage, “but the sisters and children are all OK,” said DeLand.
“They have food there, but they initially didn’t have a means to cook the food,” he said. “The Missionaries of Charity brothers have a hospital in another part of Cite’ Sole, called Man Pele, named after the Brazilian soccer star. Their hospital received considerable damage to its outer security wall. The brothers and patients are fine, but also initially without food and water. The formation house for the men Missionaries of Charity survived the earthquake. The three brothers there are hungry, but fine.”
A Haitian medical doctor is the medical director at Sarthe. “We provide free service in terms of the physician services, free medicine, free lab. We have a nurse, a nurse educator, two medical assistants, and a pharmacy staff person. In the afternoons the medical assistants can start IVs and do IV infusions,” DeLand said.
“Our staff are overworked and underpaid,” he said. “We have a $42,000 budget in a normal year. We have served 67,562 patients since we started in 2002. Our per-patient cost is pretty minimal. We do work to the extent that we have the capability. We are in the midst of updating our lab. The new lab came mostly from Mission Outreach.”