At Miami Mass, community urged to help brothers and sisters in Haiti

Published: 2004-09-30

MIAMI (CNS) -- Nature's fury can be fickle: Hurricane Jeanne, packing winds of more than 100 miles an hour, killed six people in Florida. Tropical Storm Jeanne, packing winds of less than 70 miles an hour, killed more than 1,500 in Haiti. The tropical storm, which was a hurricane by the time it reached Florida, also left 1,500 people missing and at least 200,000 homeless in Haiti. "We come to ask God, in faith, why? Why us? We have been struck over and over and over. And now we say to God, we cannot (take) anymore. Save us," Father Robes Charles told Miami Haitians during a Mass Sept. 27 at St. Mary Cathedral in memory of the victims of the storm. "I feel my whole heart is broken and tears are breaking out," said Josette Michel, a member of Notre Dame d'Haiti Parish in Miami who attended the Mass, which was concelebrated in Creole by Miami Archbishop John C. Favalora and most of Miami's Haitian-born priests. Two other Haitian priests -- Father Jean Pierre, pastor of St. James Church in North Miami, and Father Pierre-Louis Joseph, associate pastor of St. Mary Cathedral -- traveled to northern Haiti Sept. 25-26 to bring comfort, aid and prayers from south Florida's Catholics. On Oct. 1 two representatives of Catholic Charities of the Miami Archdiocese were scheduled to fly to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to deliver a check for an initial donation of $10,000 for emergency relief efforts.

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