People decapitated and bloody members. This is the only image which comes to mind to describe the people of Haiti. The Church did not escape from the damage. At a time when even the media itself show their admiration towards these people who sing and pray to regain some hope, it is urgent to ask oneself about the future of the Church in Haiti. Its role is essential unlike in Western countries.
Jesus Christ or Mawu
Out of 9 million inhabitants, 55% are catholic (official religion up to 1987), 15% are Baptists, 8% Pentecostals, 3% Adventists. Those who practice the Vaudou oscillate between 50% and 80% of the population, however only 2% consider it to be their “religion”, yet it was proclaimed national religion in 1987 and official religion in 2003. That is to say it impregnates all the other ones…
A fate which perseveres
This complex religious situation is the” fruit” of a difficult history. As its name suggests, the Spanish island of Hispaniola became French through Colbert in the 17th Century. The triangular commerce of this island brought hundreds of thousands of Africans to its shores who in 1791 revolted and obtained for the first time in history the abolishment of slavery in 1793 then independence in 1804. The sum demanded by Charles X for their independence – 150 million francs (today 3 billion Euros) – has handicapped Haiti right up to the present day. Instability is what sums up the 19th Century the best here: instability between the east and the west, up the division of the east in 1844 creating the Dominican Republic. There was also an ethno-political instability with fights between Blacks (masters of the island for half the century) and the Mulatres (in power until 1910, and bringing with them relative prosperity). Then it was the Americans who had their eye on the island and they invaded it and put it under their “dominion” form 1915 to 1934. Then, either military or popular governments followed until 1957 when the dictator Duvalier came to power, and marked the revenge of the Blacks but also the end of democracy and the explosion of the recession. His son succeeded him until the uprising of the people in 1986. Despite the constitution of 1987, military juntas succeeded rapidly. Elected in 1990 under international control, J.B Arisitde, before a Catholic priest, who was turned over then reinstalled by the United States, showed a very shy return to democracy. Then instability seemed to lose ground.
The Church at arm’s length
Immerged in this tragic story of massacres, sinking, dictatorships and natural disasters (4 cyclones in 2008!) the Church has found it difficult to come up to water level and dominate the divisions. From 1493 onwards, the Pope Alexander VI granted Spain the right to claim theirs the lands they had discovered on condition they sent evangelisers to these lands. The Benedictines were the first to go out there, then the Franciscans, then the Capuchins, then the Jesuits, then the Dominicans ( hence the town of Saint Domingo and the Dominican republic in the east of the island). Harsh defenders of the Indians, these Dominicans suggested paradoxically importing Black people from Africa, judged to be more robust in mine work and in the fields. It is fro these people that the Vaudou came about, a syncretic religion (animism, Christianity, and magic) coming from Benin generally. The arrival of the French put a stop to the evangelisation which makes a slave an equal to all in Faith. Thus, a great number of missionaries were persecuted. They are replaced by missionary clergy who are not edifying and who made up stories. If the independence of 1804 saw the massacre of religious and their flight, the posterior governments opened their doors to missionaries in order to show the world that Haiti was part of the modern and adult nations “because it can adopt the same cultural elements of the Europeans”.
Haiti asked many times for a concordat with the Church, but Rome did not accept the terms until 1860. This concordat permitted the arrival of real missionaries thus giving a better image of the Church which became the spine of the Haitian society. Official religion until 1987, it was structured (dioceses etc…); it built churches, schools and also hospitals and public services (firemen etc…). But the first seminary for Haitian vocations was only opened in 1920. Before, it was too difficult to even imagine a local clergy (not enough culture, not enough vocations…). Before, the clergy was made up of almost just bishops and priests from Brittany: a unique association in a foreign country. Hence Haiti’s nickname “Black Brittany”.
In the 50’s and 60’s, the dictator Duvalier, a “fervent catholic”, seemed to be linked to the vaudou cult: allegiance promises, house surveillances and expulsions were the fate for Catholic prelates. Rome finally signed an accord in 1966, handing over the responsibility of the Church in Haiti to Haitians, via the nomination of an archbishop and four native bishops In the 80’s, the catholic hierarchy, mainly composed of Haitians, was listened to and respected. It was the only voice against the abuse of the government of Duvalier. Today, twenty years after this, the main criticism of the Church is that it has become the reflexion of the Haitian society and its political divisions. Hence, the insistences on behalf of Benedict XVI during the ad limina visit of the bishops of Haiti in 2008, on the duty of the priests to not be engaged in politics.
Decimated
After the drama of the 12th January, and if the numbers are confirmed, two thirds of Haiti’s seminarians will have died (200 out of 300), but also hundreds of priests and religious with Mgr Miot at their head, who died as well. An extra misfortune for this country where the Church is from the beginning the main developer of stability, the only structured institution of a country victim of its passed courage.
What has just happen in Haiti is like removing Paris from the map. In the name of the links uniting France and Haiti, this is a call to your generosity especially towards the works of the Church which will remain almost alone when the international aid has departed, we hope as late as possible. Let’s save this country from chaos…
Translation : Charles Bradshaw
