Mary A. D. Petrino

Courage and Faith Stand United in Haiti

Commonly known as “Port-au-Prince Cathedral,” the stately Cathédrale Notre-Dame de L'Assomption (Our Lady of the Assumption) once stood at the epicenter of Catholic culture in the French Caribbean country.  Built between 1884 and 1914, dedicated on December 13, 1928 and clad in pink and white stone, the twin cupolas at the north façade have guided harbor ships as well as Catholic faithful to the shores of Haiti and within its walls.  But in the wake of the January earthquake, the “bare ruin’d choirs” of its ghostly structure became the national “wailing wall” for the survivors of the Haitian tragedy, a symbol of what the poorest of the poor has suffered.  Having lost their families and homes, their bishop and their cathedral, the Catholics cling to courage and faith – they stand united in Haiti. Back to this shattered Cathedral they came – the diplomats and politicians, the novices and seminarians and the everyday Catholics – to worship at the funeral Mass for their beloved Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot and Bishop Charles Benoit, Vicar General of Port-au-Prince.  “If Monsigneur [Archbishop] Miot were alive, he would tell us to have courage, to be strong in starting over,” according to Marie-Andre Baril, a banker whose home was also destroyed in the earthquake. “With my faith, I hope to have what he would want us to have. I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying here.”