Local News
Haitian Catholics Form Council To Help Community
Published: November 20, 2003
DECATUR—After living in hiding she fled Haiti by boat in 1999 to escape government persecution for her civil rights work. Leaving behind her family, she sought asylum in the United States, where she settled in the large Haitian community of Boston.
There, this Haitian Catholic refugee met Atlantan Jean Robert Durand when visiting his mother. Durand, who was transferred with his company to Atlanta in 1996 from New Jersey, told her of the intimate Haitian Catholic community taking shape in Atlanta where he is a founding member.
Because she was sought by government officials in Boston, she was encouraged by Durand to come to Atlanta. He eventually helped her to relocate here two years ago and allowed her to stay at his home for a year as she resettled. In the Haitian Catholic community, which meets at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Decatur, she found a spiritual and social safe haven, as members offered her support and help with transportation to her job at a nursing home.
Durand and five others were installed as the first council members of the Haitian Catholic community during Mass celebrating the community’s sixth anniversary on Nov. 2, All Souls Day, at Sts. Peter and Paul Church. The weekly Haitian Mass is celebrated there at 4 p.m. in French, Creole and English.
Archbishop John F. Donoghue was the main celebrant. Concelebrating were Father Maxis St. Fleur, parochial vicar at St. Catherine of Siena Church, Kennesaw, and the community’s chaplain, and the group’s founder, Father Guyma Noel, parochial vicar at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Atlanta. Both are natives of Haiti.
Other members of the new council are Chantale Monpoint, Danielle Desruisseaux, Narces St. Gerard, Andre Joseph and Jean-Claude Alfred.
The Haitian music group led the congregation in Caribbean-style songs including “Ann Fome Yon Kominote Nouvel” (“Let’s Form a New Community”) and “Maten Lannwit M-Ape Voyaje” (“Morning and Night, We Are Traveling”). Some 250 people participated, from the newly arrived to the American-born to longtime residents.
Father Noel, preparing to enter the church, spoke of the value of providing Mass for the Haitian community, especially for older Haitian immigrants who don’t speak English.
“There is a real need to extend more pastoral care to them,” said Father Noel. “It’s a very growing (community), very Catholic, very traditional in their faith. When they arrive here if there is no pastoral care for them they go to Protestant churches … My main intent to open this ministry was so they could find themselves in terms of faith.”
“Most speak English,” he continued, but it is important to try and find better ways to make them feel more comfortable and at home in worship. “It’s challenging in Atlanta with all its diversity … We try to integrate all these cultures into the Catholic Church.”
In 2000, the U.S. Census counted 6,394 persons of Haitian ancestry living in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Community leaders say, however, that the actual size of the community is probably around 20,000, many of whom have moved from Chicago, New York, Boston and Miami. They have left a Caribbean country of 7.5 million, making up the western third of the island of Hispaniola next to the Dominican Republic. Since declaring its independence in 1804 from France, Haiti has been plagued by political violence and unrest for most of its history and has become one of the poorest and least developed countries in the hemisphere. Over three decades of dictatorship and military rule ended in 1990 when Jean-Bertrand Aristide was elected president. He returned to office in 1994 and then in 2001. But a political crisis from fraudulent legislative elections in 2000 has not yet been resolved.
According to the Web site of the Trinity College Haiti Program in Washington, D.C., the nascent Haitian community in Atlanta is spread out over the entire metropolitan area and is working to serve members by organizing itself and form Haitian organizations like Haitian Community Relations and Haitian Community Services Center of Atlanta and radio programs. But at this point “churches remain the most common place where members of the community interact socially.” While the country is 80 percent Catholic, Trinity College reports that in Atlanta “by one person’s account, there are 19 Protestant churches, five Adventist churches and one Catholic church that include significant numbers of Haitian members … The close intermingling of spirituality and culture provides an important link for many Haitians in Atlanta with their homeland.”
In his homily Archbishop Donoghue focused on the spirituality of All Souls Day.
“Today, as we enjoy this beautiful fall day, and as we celebrate the sixth year of the Haitian Catholic community here in the Archdiocese of Atlanta, we too, must remember the souls of our ancestors. You would not be here, and perhaps you would not have been able to leave your ancestral home to make a new home here, if it had not been for the lives, the strength, the faith and the sacrifices of your ancestors, who now rest in holy ground, in the earth of your fatherland Haiti,” he said. “Turn to the memory of these holy souls, the souls of your mothers and fathers, your grandparents, and all who have had a place in your family—turn to the memory of these souls, and pray for them, with tears, and with confident hope, to the Lord, that He will grant them eternal rest according to His will.”
Before the Liturgy of the Eucharist girls brought forward baskets with pineapples, cantaloupe and bananas. Behind them came a woman in a blue dress with yellow, red and green trim and a man wearing a straw hat who carried a machete.
At the end of Mass, declaring “seis ans” (“six years”) emphatically, Monpoint gave thanks to Father Noel and Father St. Fleur. Those with birthdays were recognized and announcements were made for a day of prayer for Haiti and for a bilingual fund-raising concert. A party is being planned for Jan. 1, the 200th anniversary of Haitian independence from France.
Desruisseaux, who immigrated to the United States with her husband who came here for his studies, is eager to begin her work on the council and to welcome new members. She hopes the group can begin doing projects to support the poor of her homeland, where the need is immense. About 80 percent of Haitians live in abject poverty, and nearly 70 percent of all Haitians depend on the agricultural sector, which consists mainly of small-scale subsistence farming. The economy has suffered further following the fraudulent 2000 elections, where international donors, including the United States, suspended almost all aid to Haiti. In 2001 the economy shrank an estimated 1.2 percent and 0.9 percent in 2002. Suspended aid and loan disbursements totaled more than $500 million at the start of 2003. Among health care problems, an estimated 250,000 live with AIDS.
“We need help and it’s very important for us to let people know about us. It’s a poor country and we are mainly Catholics in Haiti and it’s a very small country,” Desruisseaux said.
While she’s from Honduras, Mayfern Barron, a member of Sts. Peter and Paul Church, came to the service to support her Haitian friends. “You don’t have to speak the language to feel the Mass. I feel strongly we should support each other with our presence.”
Said Casaundra Neupichonnea, who came with her Haitian husband, “It’s a lot of love here. It’s just different than any place I’ve been. I just want to learn the language.”
Father St. Fleur looks forward to continuing to develop the community, as more Haitians move to the Atlanta area for jobs. He’s glad that several parishes now have sister relationships with or offer other types of support to Haitian churches.
“As a Haitian I enjoy working with my people. I can feel the Spirit when I get with them. We are concerned about the situation of our country and we pray for our country,” he said. “As a priest my role is to lead God’s people. I’m trying to do my best to help especially my people. I come here at 4 p.m. (on Sundays). It’s not easy. We’ve made a great step with the new council.”
With the new bimonthly council meetings, he looks forward to learning about the specific needs of members and exploring how to address social problems such as immigration and financial needs.
The community also has a young adult group and a charismatic prayer group that meets every Friday at 7 p.m.
Durand, who is also a member of the Holy Family Catholic Association in Haiti, also spoke with a sense of mission of his service to his community.
“We started with 30 people at Mass. Now every Sunday there’s 100 people at Mass … The Holy Spirit is working through our community,” he said. “We feel the Holy Spirit really guides us and helps us in our endeavor because we did not know each other … The Holy Spirit picked us and put us together.”
In October the refugee’s husband and two children were finally able to join her in Atlanta. Together they attended the vibrant celebration at Sts. Peter and Paul.
“I’m so happy” to gather with family and community, she said at the celebration, speaking in Creole with Durand translating. She hopes to become more active in church as she was in her homeland. Her husband, wearing a gray suit and a serious expression, added, “It feels just like home.” Her 11-year-old daughter participated in a liturgical dance during the Mass alongside Durand’s 10-year-old daughter, Aklia, who was wearing white bobby socks, a red ruffled skirt, a white blouse and a red bandanna tied at the neck.
“I’m going to teach her English and I’m going to try to help her with a lot of stuff that she needs help with,” said Aklia of her new friend.
For information on the Haitian Catholic community call Father St. Fleur at (770) 428-7139.
