Nobody is exempt

By Emmanuel — May 28, 2010 | 0 comments

Port-au-Prince – It has been said that the earthquake has affected everybody. The earthquake’s strike was so huge that even today big companies, businessmen, and even Catholic churches still can’t rise from it.

Catholicism is well known all around the globe as a big religion with billions of believers. At first when people saw the many damaged Catholic churches, they thought they would quickly be rebuilt. But no, five months after the earthquake, the churches are still piles of rubble.

Ste Therese is one the best-known and oldest Catholic churches of Port-au-Prince, located in Petion-Ville. This church has been a parish since 1987 and was under the control of a vicar named Edmond Jean Pierre. This meant that the building existed for years before it became a parish in 1987. On the 12th January, 2010 it collapsed due to the earthquake.

Many experts visited and eventually concluded that the standing walls of the church needed to be demolished, which meant that the church had to be rebuilt completely. When the Priest, Barthélus Charles Peters, contacted the demolition company CNE, for the demolition, he thought there would be no charge, or if there was one it would not be high. When the company arrived, they informed the Priest that the demolition would cost $2000 per day.

According to Priest Barthélus Charles Peters, the church still hosts all of its weekday activities in a school playground located at the back of the church. On Sunday they have to move to a bigger school playground located a few miles away. Neither of the playgrounds can handle all the believers, but most of them come anyways, even though there’s not enough chairs in the tent for everyone to be comfortable.

The Priest, church members, choir’s members and the youth association called “Jeunes en recherche”, are all willing to receive help from anyone, no matter their religious beliefs. They are hoping for people to at least help them find some chairs, benches or even a tent, so the church can continue it’s holy duty.

I questioned the Priest, asking how Rome is involve in this situation.

He answered by saying that hierarchically speaking, Rome is concerned a great deal, but on the other hand it comes down to the economy. When considering the rate of Catholic churches that have been affected, Rome can’t rebuild all of them on its own since nobody knew this was going to happen. Instead, every member and believer must come in and show support in order to show recognition to their devotion.

Port-au-Prince student, fixer and researcher Emmanuel Midi blogs weekly for Inside Disaster from Haiti. You can learn more about him in these blog posts, connect with him on Facebook or through his business, Haiti Fixers.

Emmanuel volunteers with the youth organization Fonds D’Actions pour le Développement (FAD), profiled by Nicolas Jolliet last month.

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