Twinned parishes grow in faith, friendship
In the village of Savanette, Haiti, beneath a calabash tree stands a small block building painted white and cobalt blue. From the outside, it’s a modest-looking structure, but it houses a deep well and a water purification plant that is the fruit of a friendship between two parishes miles apart: one in the Diocese of Cap-Haïtien and one in the Diocese of Richmond.
It’s named, aptly enough, Fontaine de Jean Baptiste, the fountain of John the Baptist.
“The beautiful thing about it is, it’s a self-sustaining project,” explained Richard Neves, chairman of the Haiti Ministry at St. Mary, Blacksburg.
The plant not only provides fresh water for the community, Neves said, but it also provides employment and a source of income for the parish, as extra bags of water are sold to surrounding villages.
There are few symbols more central to the Catholic faith than that of water, bringing new life and, with it, new hope. The small structure, built with funding from St. Mary and under the guidance of Father Nicolas Floréal, pastor of St. Jean Baptiste, is a testament to what can be accomplished when Catholics of two nations, united by one faith, work together for the benefit of all.
This February, the Diocese of Richmond is recognizing such achievements by observing Haiti Solidarity Month, a time of reflection and renewal, celebrating four decades of a friendship drawing two neighbors closer together.
’Encourage one another’
In his first letter to the Thessalonians, St. Paul writes, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as you have been doing” (5:11).
Such is the spirit of the diocesan twinning program, said Bishop Désinord Jean of the Diocese of Hinche, in which a parish, school or clinic in Haiti is paired with a sister parish in Richmond.
“The relationship established between the Diocese of Richmond and the Diocese of Hinche is in line with the primitive Church, where the founding apostles of the various communities showed their solidarity toward one another,” Bishop Jean said.
Today, more than 50 parishes in the Diocese of Richmond have twins, the majority of which lie in Hinche, as part of a diocesan program established in 1984. A few others, however, have formed friendships with parishes in Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haïtien.
The Diocese of Richmond’s Haiti Commission provides oversight, offering twinned parishes advice and support. There are also several teams devoted to working on specific issues, such as education, health care and sustainable development.
But, beyond that, “the twinning relationships can be as varied as the parishes themselves,” said Rachael Laustrup, director of the Diocese of Richmond’s Office of Social Ministries, depending upon the sizes, locations and priorities of the parishes involved.
Two parishes, one mission
“It was a pyramid scheme of sorts,” Neves recalled with a laugh.
In 2017, Neves traveled to Haiti to meet with Father Floréal, pastor of St. Mary’s twin, St. Jean Baptiste, to help him with a project devised to supply families in his community with dairy goats.
Neves accompanied Father Floréal to the local market, he said, but no sooner had they arrived than the priest asked him to make himself scarce.
“He told me to go to the other end of the market and to come back in around two hours,” Neves said. “He knew the price of the goats would jump as soon as they saw me. When I got back — I couldn’t believe it — he had about 20 goats tied to the bumper of his Land Rover.”
Neves helped bring the goats back to the rectory of Savanette, about a five-mile journey.
“Father Nicolas had made a list of families who might benefit from the project,” Neves said, “so, that evening, one by one, families stopped by the rectory to pick up their goat.”
As part of the arrangement, parishioners agreed that if their goat had a female kid, it would be brought back to the rectory so that it could be given to another family.
“It was a way of sharing the wealth — or, in this case, sharing the goats,” Neves said.
Over the past six years, about 70 families have received dairy goats from the original 20. This simple project, reminiscent of the parable of the loaves and fishes, is an example of how such endeavors can grow, Neves said, sending a ripple effect throughout an entire community.
St. Mary and St. Jean Baptiste have worked together to support the parish school and clinic, as well as to build the water treatment plant. They’ve also embarked on a seed distribution program, helping families to maintain their home gardens.
But one of the most rewarding aspects of the twinning program, Neves said, is witnessing the ways in which those whose lives are touched by the ministry return to help it grow.
“We’re currently sponsoring a medical student from Savanette,” Neves said, “who is planning to return home after med school to serve as a doctor there.”
St. Mary has also sponsored eight seminarians over the years, he said, who have, in turn, worked to help their communities thrive, bringing the ministry full circle.
“When I go to a feast day celebration, it’s amazing,” Neves said. “When I look around the altar, I see so many familiar faces.”
“It’s a changed community. When you help people to create success in their community, it just keeps growing.”
A growing family
St. Francis of Assisi, Staunton, has had one of the longest twinning relationships in the diocese. Its story began in 1979, when a Missionhurst priest based in Wilkesboro, PA, traveled down I-81 to share his experiences of working in Haiti.
The following year, St. Francis partnered with St. Louis, King of France, in Pointe-a-Raquette, a village on the southern end of the island of La Gonâve, which lies about 35 miles off the coast of Port-au-Prince.
“It’s fairly isolated,” Marie Thomas, co-coordinator of St. Francis’ Haiti Outreach Ministry said. “Its location offers it protection from the violence of the capital, but it makes travel difficult.”
It’s possible to reach the island by boat, she said, or by Mission Air, which lands planes on an airstrip on the north end of the island. From there, it’s about a three-hour walk on a fairly rough path.
“For years, St. Francis of Assisi took up a second collection once a month to send to St. Louis, and that was the extent of the relationship,” she said.
All that changed in 2002, Thomas said, when St. Francis parishioner Colette Petitt decided to make the journey to Pointe-a-Raquette.
“And that was our first real meeting with the parish,” Pettit said. “They were all so welcoming. Almost no sooner did they say, ‘We are so happy that you came to visit,’ that they were asking, ‘When are you coming you back?’”
Petitt spent about a week in the parish, visiting the various chapels placed throughout the countryside and meeting with the deacons there.
Soon afterward, under the guidance of Father Roosevelt Leriche, pastor of St. Louis, the twinned parishes began work on opening a school, which, today, includes a three-year kindergarten program through grade 10.
“Our hope is to add a grade every year,” Thomas said.
A clinic was established the following year, and then, for a third project, St. Francis of Assisi enlisted the support of a third parish, thereby growing their ministry family.
“We realized we needed more funding for the shelter and the food program,” Pettit said. “I had just moved to Waynesboro and had begun attending St. John the Evangelist, but I was still on the Haiti committee at St. Francis. So it was a natural progression.”
Soon thereafter, St. John the Evangelist, Waynesboro, assumed the support of a small house located just beside the rectory of St. Louis that served as a shelter for the elderly and homeless. In 2018, St. John and St. Louis worked to build a sturdier dwelling there called St. Anthony’s House.
The house provides a home for 10 people and also serves as the center for the parish food program. Basic staples such as rice, beans and oil are available for pickup, Pettit said, and it’s also the base of operations for the “Meals on Feet” ministry, in which prepared meals are delivered to those unable to come to the house.
Although visits to St. Louis ceased with the advent of the pandemic, Pettit said, the three parishes are still working to keep their relationship strong.
“We are still supporting the parish however we can,” she said, “but we miss that face-to-face.”
’Right at our door’
For Paul Fletcher, chairman of the Haiti Ministry at St. Mary of the Presentation, Suffolk, the ministry has been a pilgrimage of faith and perseverance — much like a hike he once made with members of his parish’s youth group up a mountain to visit the school of St. Mary’s sister parish in Belladere, Haiti, after a heavy rain.
It was in 2006, not long after his retirement from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration, Fletcher recalled, when a fellow parishioner asked him if he would like to join the Haiti Ministry committee.
“At the time, I only knew what I read in the newspaper or saw on TV about Papa Doc (Jean-Claude Duvalier, president of Haiti, 1971-1986) ,” he said, “but she said, ‘You should think about it.’ And so, I thought about it. And I said, ‘OK.’”
“Next thing I knew, someone came up to me and said, ‘I understand you’re chairman of the Haiti committee,’” he said with a laugh.
Fletcher said that, to prepare, he attended a seminar in Miami, featuring speakers from the U.N. and Doctors without Borders, as well as Haitian-Americans prominent in various fields.
Later that year, he visited Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Mary’s twin parish in Belladere, in the Diocese of Hinche.
“That was the turning point,” Fletcher said.
He has since traveled to Haiti nine times. His last trip was in 2017.
“Going to Haiti is about learning, observing,” Fletcher said. “I just write down what I see, ask the priest what the needs are. ‘What would your parishioners, what would your teachers, like to see?’”
“You tell them, ‘You steer us, and tell us what you’d like supported. If it’s something doable, we will support it.’”
The central goal of St. Mary’s ministry, Fletcher said, has been to support the parish school of more than 200 students. St. Mary has held a number of fundraisers over the years — everything from spaghetti dinners to a painting auction — to raise money to pay teachers’ salaries, provide students with textbooks and to make improvements.
“Haiti Ministry is very hard,” Fletcher said. “We take one step forward, and then we take three steps back. Not only because of the government, but because of the natural disasters — hurricanes, earthquakes.”
Fletcher said he has seen progress over the years, and ultimately, it’s the people who keep the ministry moving forward.
“The people there are wonderful,” Fletcher said. “It was never about pouring money into Haiti. It’s about a spiritual relationship, too, about working together.”
“I’ve had people say, ‘Why Haiti?’ And I always say, ‘These people are right here, right at our doorstep. They’re our neighbors. Just 90 miles away.’”
Building bridges
An integral part of building those relationships has been found in the help and support of Haitian advisors and expertise.
Since 2018, Father Herald Jean, executive vice rector of the University of Notre Dame of Haiti and director of the Diocesan Health Commission of Hinche, has been serving as a liaison between his diocese’s commission and the Diocese of Richmond’s Healthcare Support Team.
“I give advice about how they might work more effectively in Haiti,” Father Jean said. “If a priest wants to open a clinic in his parish, we will help.”
Father Jean’s office also works to mediate between the parish clinics and the Ministry of Health, he said, and conducts field studies to assess community well-being.
“We go out to try to reach the people,” he said. “Especially the children in the schools. We want to reach each school almost every year.”
Training programs are also key, Father Jean said, as they are responsible for creating a new generation of doctors and nurses who will, in turn, help their communities thrive.
’Grow strong in that’
Even amid the drought of the pandemic and political upheaval, new life and new relationships spring — such as one of the newest diocesan friendships, that of St. Paul, Richmond, and Our Lady of Sorrows, Poulie, in Hinche.
A small group of St. Paul parishioners — Tracey Wingold and her teenaged son, Blaise, among them — made the first trip to Haiti in August 2018, to meet with Father Withny Pierre, Our Lady of Sorrows pastor.
“We were just getting the lay of the land and meeting people and learning,” Wingold said. “The biggest need — what Pére Withny was looking for — was support for the school. It’s a fairly small village, and the children come from miles away.”
The parishes had only just begun to embark on their new journey, she said, when the pandemic hit.
“We were there in March of 2020,” said parishioner Edward Gerardo, a longtime volunteer with Haiti Ministry. “I think we might have been the last diocesan people out of Haiti.”
The parishes are keeping in touch through email, Gerardo said, and, despite the challenges of recent years, he would encourage other parishes to consider becoming involved in Haiti Ministry.
“Money comes and money goes,” Gerardo said. “There’s good times and bad times. I always go back to the mutuality of it, of the relationship between the parishes. Are you willing, are you committed to a relationship? Is there something that is there in this relationship that will help you to grow? If so, advocate that, grow strong in that.”
“It’s deepened my sense of gratitude,” he said. “It enabled me to let go of a lot of things that I thought were important. It changes us. It’s not just bringing change, but about how we are changed.”
“When God entrusts a mission, he always puts souls, hands and shoulders on our paths to help accomplish it,” Bishop Jean said. “We give thanks to God for all the lives touched and transformed on both sides from this relationship. We hope that this relationship continues to help our two communities grow in faith.”