12464: Haitian clergy and Sexual Abuse (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Alex Stevenson <alsteves2000@yahoo.com>

A Letter to the Editor published in Boston Haitian
Reporter- June 2002 issue

Haitian Clergy Must  Address Sexual Abuse Issues

Dear Editor:
   The subject of clergy sexual abuse that originated
in Boston last January had become a national and
international  topic. Last April, the gathering of 800
Haitians at a Palm Sunday liturgy at the cathedral
created a journalistic feud between the Pilot and the
Globe.  Five months into an issue that is getting more
media attention, the leadership of the Haitian
Catholic community had kept the parishioners totally
silent.
  My concern is if the leadership is able to assemble
800 Haitians to support the cardinal last month,why
have not they gathered eight lay and religious
Haitians from all over the diocese to speak and
express their views on the unprecedented clergy sexual
abuse crisis,  or mandate that the Haitian priests
hold “listening sessions” in all parishes or
chaplaincies that Haitians frequent/
   Many Haitian men and women were sexually abused by
clergies  in Haiti, five months into a phenomenom, a
forum has not yet been provided for Haitians to
express in Creole their emotional traumas or their
perceptions on this issue.  Those who ask for
listening sessions to be organized in the local
Haitian parishes are being  ignored by the priests and
even by their own lay ministers who have no insights
of the momentous  historical ordeal  the Catholic
Church  is facing.
    For the last thirty years the Haitian Catholic
clergy had not made a concerted effort  to  gather
the laity with them and address issues concerning
their participation, their input in the Church, and
their involvement in this country’s civic  life.  It
is ironic that western intellectuals are asking for a
third Vatican council  whereas the majority of the
800 who were taken to Palm Sunday Mass or the
estimated 2,000  practicing Haitian Catholics in the
Boston area have no clue of the Second Vatican council
teachings and the priests whom they wholeheartedly
revere are not providing them with any systemic
Catholic instruction or formation either.
  As a Haitian Catholic, I admire the care the
cardinal exuded for Haitians refugees and new
immigrants. While I echo Father William Joy’s
sentiment expressed in last month’s commentary
regarding established programs to educate and train
lay leadership at the parish and Archdiocesan levels,
I deplore the fact that Haitians have not benefited
from the adult faith formation programs instituted
under Cardinal Law’s leadership.  Clerics who spent
decades as missionaries in Haiti  are not trained to
work with U.S educated Haitians.  The Haitian priests
trained outside of this country are not prepared to
navigate the American system that this particular
group are raised into.
  The Haitian laity which is comprised primarily of
semi-literate or poorly educated new immigrants are
not informed or given training on the Western Catholic
Church. They are left into a practice of popular
religiosity which is common in many Third World
countries. The priests whom they believe are the only
knowledge keeper of the Catholic faith are not telling
the Haitian brethren that popular piety is not the
American church. As a result, a very spiritual,
energetic second generation and professional Haitian
Catholics don’t practice the faith.  Those who do
don’t go to Haitian parishes and there is no sign of
moving the Haitians toward an understanding of the
Catholic faith and the mystery of God which will
create an intergenerational, cross cultural, an
Haitians’ integration in the United States society and
the Information age and obviously a  vibrant
ministry.
    First and second generation of lay and religious
Haitian Catholics should  convene a first time
assessment meeting to discuss not only the sexual
abuse that many Haitians have suffered in Haiti, but
to express the silence, the lack of involvement and
the implicit exclusion that have been imposed on the
educated laity for three decades. Being part of the
Boston Catholic community which is considered the most
vibrant and the richest in the world, it is a disgrace
that the Haitian  ministry here is the least vibrant
and the poorest  among the large Haitian communities
in the United States.
    Professional and second generation Haitian
Catholics should voice their concerns on how they are
ignored, under represented,  and their interests
disregarded in the Boston Catholic milieu.
-Nekita  Lamour
(The author is an educator and writer who has been
involved in the U.S Haitian Catholic Community  since
l973 .

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