Church in Haiti laments violence, insists on security for people

The Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince has called on authorities to protect people and places of worship after armed men broke into a church, kidnapped  several people and left numerous others with serious injuries.

“This act of kidnapping is one too many, undermining both the integrity of a sacred place of worship and the freedom of movement of people in the country,” the archdiocese said in a statement. “The Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince once again expresses its indignation at such acts, which spare no one and respect no place; in this sense, it demands that the State authorities finally guarantee the security of lives and property, and that they prosecute and condemn those who operate the kidnapping industry and profit from it," read the statement.

On April 13, at the end of Mass celebrated by Archbishop Max Leroy Mesidor of Port-au-Prince at the Oratory of Saint Bartholomew, armed men broke into the church, kidnapping several people and leaving two others seriously injured and in need of hospitalization.

The country has been witnessing almost daily political demonstrations and much violence following the July 7, 2021 assassination of Haiti's President Jovenel Moise and the devastating magnitude 7.2 earthquake on August 14 the same year that struck Haiti's southwestern region, killing more than 2,240 people and destroying thousands of homes.

The assassination of the president, for which no one has yet been tried, has collapsed the country's fragile political framework, leaving Haiti, which has been out of control for years, in a worsened state, paving the way for hundreds of highly organised violent criminal groups, often with links to police and politicians, to kidnap, rape, murder and loot at will.

Pope Francis in his Easter Urbi et Orbi message mentioned the violence in Haiti and called on the international community to help solve the problem there. “Turn your gaze to Haiti, which has long experienced a grave social, economic and humanitarian crisis, and support the efforts of political actors and the international community to seek a definitive solution to the many problems that afflict that sorely tried people,” Francis said.

A humanitarian catastrophe

Church people working in Haiti have described the situation in the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere devastated by disasters disease, hunger, and over-run by criminal gangs as a "humanitarian catastrophe".

Priests and nuns have long been spared because of their work for the poor, but the violence has affected Church personnel. Last year, Sister Luisa Dell'Orto, a 65-year-old Italian Catholic missionary was killed during a robbery in Haiti. A year before that an armed gang shot and eventually killed Father André Sylvestre, 70, as bandits tried to take his suitcase while he was leaving a bank. The Catholic priest ran an orphanage and cared for the homeless.

According to Haitian human rights organizations, armed groups accused of killings and kidnappings, rape and other violence control at least 60% of the capital city and its surroundings. They surround the city and manage the entrance and exit points. And according to the UN, between January and June of this year, the gangs killed close to 1,000 people in this country. Gang violence in recent times has left some 19,000 people homeless according to a report from the United Nations.

Acute hunger affects 4.7 million Haitians, or nearly half the country's population. Save the Children reported that 50% of Haiti's children suffer from acute malnutrition. According to the UN, 20,000 people in the capital are experiencing famine-like conditions, a first for the Americas and while the deadly disease cholera is back, the biggest problem is armed gangs ad their kidnapping for ransom business is expanding.