U.S. advocates of Haiti keep close watch on troubled nation

Published: 2004-03-01

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Even before a rebel insurgency forced the ouster of Haitian President Jean-Bertrande Aristide Feb. 29, advocates of the desperately poor Caribbean nation expressed new worries about the country's future. By March 1 The Associated Press reported that the process of restoring order to Haiti had begun, but the violence that began in early February caused groups from parishes across the United States to cut short or cancel mission trips to their "twinned" parishes in Haiti. "A couple of medical teams that were supposed to go down were holding out as long as they could," said Theresa Patterson, executive director of the Parish Twinning Program in Nashville, Tenn., which oversees the twinning programs at 345 U.S. parishes. "We've reached the point where I could not recommend anyone trying to go there now," she added in an interview with the Tennessee Register, Nashville's diocesan newspaper. The timing couldn't be worse, since January through May are the busiest months for trips by U.S. parishioners to Haiti.

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