Missionaries in Haiti maintain hope despite the harsh reality and violence

In Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world and affected by the extreme violence of criminal gangs, Catholic missionaries fight to keep their mission alive. Fr. Amos Jean, of the missionaries of the Sacred Heart, said that the reality of the Caribbean country does not “prevents them from looking at the future”, but calls them “to be where people need us.”

“This situation gives us one more reason to accompany people. Exit, detect needs, be with people and, from there, project to the future, always with hope, ”said the missionary In an interview with Vatican News.

The serious daily life in Haiti

Fr. Amos says that people only leave their homes when it is strictly necessary, for fear of the actions of criminal groups that, for many months, control a large territory of the capital, Port -au -Prince. The same priest has to carefully choose the appropriate time to go from the formation house of his congregation, which he directs, to the parish to be able to celebrate Mass.

“There are places that have no electricity. Everyone manages them as he can. Some have solar panels or have made an electric generator. Of food and medicines there is almost nothing left. You have to go looking. Pharmacies were looted, hospitals as well. The main roads are blocked and controlled. The food in the provinces does not arrive easily, ”laments the missionary.

Poverty affects a large percentage of the Haitian population, affecting their daily lives to the point that a person “leaves to see how ‘fight’ the day and what he gets brings him home,” explains Fr. Amos. “That same day it ends. It has nothing for tomorrow. Sometimes not even for the day. Thus, day after day, ”he says.

“In addition, leaving is not safe for violence. You can even go out and not return, because you don’t know where the shooting is, you can take a lost bullet. The day to day is complicated. There is nothing guaranteed, but people have to go out, ”says the priest.

Many schools, located in areas of high conflict between gangs and the police, cannot teach. The children, says the missionary, can spend months without attending. The formation house of the missionaries of the Sacred Heart, which functions as a seminar, is no stranger to this reality.

“In the seminar, they complete the formation with prayer and retreats. We make meetings with children and adolescents in the area, which also serves us to have a closer presence with them, give some talk, gather to celebrate holiday moments of the liturgical calendar, ”said Fr. Amos.

“We cannot have many activities, Haiti’s situation prevents us. Certainly, we had more, especially in the parish, ”he adds.

Precisely in the parish of our lord of the Sacred Heart, the missionaries carry out several pastoral activities with the parishioners. Fr. Amos remembers that some of the young people who previously attended the activities were recruited by the gang members.

“Mothers, close and involved in the parish community, suffer and share their suffering with us. Most boys come together to gangs to earn money, like a profession. Unfortunately, for a large part it is a way to get ahead. We are in a very socially depressed area, ”explains the priest.

Haitian children’s bodies have become “battlefields”

James Elder, UNICEF spokesman, assured February 7 That, between 2023 and 2024, there has been “an amazing increase of 1,000% in sexual violence against children and adolescents in Haiti, who has turned their bodies into battlefields.”

“Almost amazing is the little coverage that this frightful statistical has received,” Elder said. UNICEF confirmed that criminal gangs still control 85% of the prince port, which qualify as “one of the most extreme cases of insecurity about a capital in modern history.”

The recruitment of children by armed groups also increased 70% in the last year. Elder said that currently “halfway” of the members of the criminal gangs are minors, “some of only eight years.” The spokesman lamented the immense suffering of the Caribbean country and said that more than one million children “live under the constant threat of armed violence.”

“The attack on a child is abhorrent. Multiplying it by 10 is devastating. The pain, of course, does not stop with the survivor, but extends through families, destroys communities and leaves scars in society as a whole, ”he said.

Despite this reality, Elder said that “Haiti’s progress begins with her children and adolescents”, celebrating the success of several UNICEF programs, in which thousands of young people have involved to attend and help the most vulnerable .