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A man holds a weapon next to burning barricades during anti-government protests in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Feb. 17, 2019. (CNS photo/Ivan Alvarado, Reuters)
July 19, 2019
Clarck De la Cruz
Agenzia FidesIn the capital of Haiti, Port au Prince, thousands of men, women and young people demonstrate against the government and call for the departure of the president of the republic, because they cannot continue to live in subhuman conditions.
In its mission to accompany the Haitian people, the Church is devoted body and soul to the harmonious development of young people, adolescents, children, and all categories of people without exception. Each group of faithful can feel formally supported; the catechesis is transmitted to the faithful in such a way that they are very evangelized and that, in their turn, they can leave to evangelize the others in their respective circles.
Family pastoral care lends itself lovingly and openly to the advancement of children and young people through doctrinal, dogmatic, liturgical, pastoral and missionary teaching. The fathers and mothers of the family are responsible for their task of catechetes with their sons, who are also called to mission all over the world, and in particular in their immediate environment. Visit sick people, the sick, the prisoners (see Luke 4-16-18) leads many people to become supportive of each other in all the circumstances of human life. And, they play a decisive role in relieving the lives of the poor in spirit or in material terms. Through the family are transmitted moral values: notions of justice, respect, law and morality.
The big dilemma that blocks the family: unemployment. There is no work, young people are forced to leave Haiti to go elsewhere, as in Chile, Brazil or they fail for the most part. Young people who have opportunities decide to go, with the support of their parents or friends living in the United States or Canada, to New York or Monteal to get bread. A very complex situation, even complicated.
In all this, the Church does not stop supporting young people by creating favorable frameworks for their evolution. For what, the Catholic University Notre Dame was founded, and it is implanted in seven dioceses of Haiti. This effort of the Church of Haiti must be strongly positive.
And in every diocese, in order to support the faith of the youth exist centers of formation, of listening, a young person in difficulty can always be listened by a priest, or a nun destined for this purpose.
We can mention the many primary and secondary schools, vocational training centers run by religious communities; young people find ways of moral, spiritual and intellectual growth.
As for health, the Church with Caritas, succeeds to be present in every corner of the country, even where the state does not go. And today, still, the Church strives to intervene for the benefit of the most needy in society. Children are welcomed in foster homes or they can live with dignity. Also, the Church of Haiti contributes to the progress of people, despite its socioeconomic limits.
What is the situation of the Haitian people?
The Haitian people are going through a great social crisis like no other. In fact, unemployment plunges more than 60 percent of the population into anguish and worry. Its purchasing power decreases considerably. Galloping inflation makes the entire Haitian people vulnerable. Those who are employed can not even provide for their basic needs. Another factor that explains the poverty situation of the Haitian people is the devaluation of the local currency (the gourd). So the economic base does not meet people's expectations at all. Everything is expensive in the market. Food becomes a luxury. A small bottle of water is a luxury. The consequences of this way of life are catastrophic, because it results in the development of begging, delinquency, violence.
We know that the civil authorities do not succeed in solving the real problems of the population: poverty, health, the crisis of the family and the lack of public education are the important elements of young people's lives. this not? What can we do, as Church, in the face of this situation that also causes violence?
The problem of poverty, health and lack of public education still remains, after two centuries of independence, a major challenge for the country's civil authorities. And yet, every year, a national budget is voted in which are inscribed these params of great importance for the life of the young. At this point, the notion of collective consciousness is totally absent. The notion of others no longer makes sense. Each person tries to save himself, but, on the ethical level, this is illogical.
It will take a new vision of man, life, God and death. The Haitian man needs to be introduced to a new way of life. It will develop, communion and sharing. For what we possess is not ours alone, the earth is given to all. The young people, at the end of their university education, cannot find work; they have become very fragile.
Faced with this difficult situation, the Church can always achieve the conversion of hearts that would lead to a new way of being and existing. The Haitian people should be taught to come together to confront poverty and change it into wealth.
To achieve this, socio-charitable institutions can serve as a reference for building funds for social development, economic enabling the poorest to emerge, young people to hope in spite of everything. All this would require an ethics of sharing and solidarity. based on the word of God and social justice. We need to create a new mentality among Christians who have economic resources. Among Christians, we can meet men who are able to help those in need, but they must be guided by training.
The author is National Director of Pontifical Mission Societies in Haiti.