There is anticipation of the new school term for the girls at Sacred Heart of Turgeau School in Port-au-Prince. In their freshly pressed uniforms, the chattering girls seem completely normal but their beautiful smiles shadow the horrors of three months ago.
“The earthquake turned their lives upside down,” said Sister Janet Fearns FMDM. “There isn’t one of them who haven’t escaped a bereavement caused on that day”.
Outwardly, the legacy of the January 12 earthquake is immediately apparent on this first day of term. The old school buildings are mounds of rubble. “The classroom they will inhabit for the foreseeable future is a large tent supplied by UNICEF, complete with desks, chairs and a blackboard,” said Sr Janet. “The challenge now is about healing the human spirit.”
At the major seminary where 14 seminarians and a professor died in the quake, tents also suffice for classrooms and lodgings. The seminary rector, Father Clarck de la Cruz, the Haitian Director of Catholic Mission, is another who is haunted by the events of January 12. Initially he was thought to be one of those killed as the building where his office was totally collapsed.
“Yes, had I been there I would have been killed,” Fr Clarck told Catholic Mission Australia. “But by chance I was in the philosophy room when the quake hit.” He next found himself on the outside “a witness to what had happened I was stumbling across seminarians who were wounded and covered with white dust.”
Like so many survivors he asks why he was spared when others died. “How was it I was able to get out when so many didn’t? How is it that I was not among the rubble? I was and am still overwhelmed.”
Only afterwards he realized he had lived through an earthquake that had killed 300,000 and left a million homeless. Unable to explain how he had come through unharmed, Fr Clarck answered, “I was guided by Our Lady.” Amid the loss of 14 seminarians and one professor he said there was also the blessing that the chapel had not been filled for devotionals “or the whole community would have been lost”.
“The last earthquake to hit our country was over a century ago. There is no living experience of this. Everyone is traumatised by the catastrophe,” said Fr Clarck.
The Bishops called back the surviving 243 seminarians and re-opened the academic year on 6 April. In Rome, the collection on Holy Thursday during the Chrism Mass of the Holy Father was for the Seminaries in Haiti. Across the world, in 120 offices, Catholic Mission International has sent out an appeal for help to raise money to help the Church rebuild its shattered community.
“The physical needs of destitute children are great. They must be fed, given medical care and returned to school, to learn to read and write.”
Physical wounds of the injured are self-evident, but emotional scarring will take longer to heal, said Fr Clarck. “The children, youth, laypeople, catechists, religious and priests are all distressed.”
A recent emergency meeting of Catholic Mission National Directors in Orlando, Florida, has devised a long-term support program covering the psychological needs of survivors, he said.
“This is a vital need, aimed at helping children, young people and priests deal with the trauma. The children, youth, laypeople, catechists, religious and priests are all distressed.” At the seminary the grieving seminarians are engaging in organised therapy, meetings and periodical discussions.
“A similar program is being offered to religious brothers and sisters and catechists for psychological, spiritual and liturgical support,” said Fr Clarck.
“That the Church in Haiti is able to formulate, not only a ‘wish list’, but also a concrete plan of action is thanks to the generosity of donors who have come to our need. We thank you and hold you all in our prayers.”
If you would like to help re-build the Church in Haiti, or for further information call 1800 257296 or visit our website catholicmission.org.au
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