Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Feb 5, 2010 / 00:54 am
The president of Haiti’s Bishops’ Conference has mournfully recounted the burial of seminarians killed in the country’s massive January quake. Describing the strains and torments in the disaster’s wake, he says the surviving seminarians will help other grieving victims despite their own suffering.
“I cannot hold back the tears when thinking about their burial. We could not even provide them with a coffin, only a pathetic plastic bag,” Archbishop Louis Kébreau of Cap-Haitien told the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
“I feel completely helpless in this situation,” he continued.
The earthquake killed 16 diocesan seminarians in Port-au-Prince. Another 10 from the Montfortian order died when the earthquake destroyed their seminary bus. Most were under 25 years old.