Catholic Sisters Beaten and Robbed in Haiti--March 25, 2015

Photo by John Carroll

The clinic where I worked in LaPlaine is run by an order of Catholic Sisters. Five Sisters live in a simple convent above the clinic. The Sisters are from Cuba, Columbia, Spain, and Central America and all are fluent in Haitian Creole.

These Sisters are joyful, hard-working, and accompany the poor by living with them. Hundreds of patients show up each day before the sun comes up to be examined and treated by the four Haitian physicians who work in the clinic. And the Sisters are the only ones in all of Haiti who are giving care to this lady with cancer.

I decided to work with these Sisters in February because the Sisters of the same order in Soleil (about two miles away) were being robbed so frequently during the previous eight months that they were forced to close their baby malnutrition program in Soleil. And the pediatric clinic in Soleil was almost devoid of patients several weeks ago because of the gang wars and shootings in the streets of Soleil. Mothers were simply too afraid to bring their children to the clinic. (Last night, March 9, three more people were allegedly gunned down in Soleil and the police station in Soleil was also shot at from gunmen in a car.)

The day before I started working with the Sisters in LaPlaine in February, one of the Sisters from Colombia told me that the next day they were burying a 35-year-old Haitian doctor who worked for them. Her eyes welled up with tears as she explained to me how he was shot six times by men on four motorcycles who surrounded his car while he was on his way to work last week. She offered me his office explaining that the three other Haitian doctors did not want to work in his office.

And one week ago today in the middle of the night these same Sisters were awakened by three armed intruders who shoved and beat the Sisters with the little Columbian sister taking most of the beating. She was struck multiple times in the head and body. The bandits stole a little money from what was collected the day before at the clinic downstairs. The Sisters do not store large quantities of cash on site. They live very simply.

And one of the elderly Sisters (pictured above) who serves the malnourished people in the clinic neighborhood had a broken arm from a fall when I was there. But that did not stop the bandits from striking her also.

All of the Sisters will be ok but they are very afraid. The Columbian Sister e-mailed me yesterday and said she is slowly recovering and that “God allowed me to be struck but it is a grace and He will cure me.”

So this is Haiti today. Many other Catholic nuns have been attacked and robbed in Port-au-Prince. (See article below from Haiti Libre.)

Three of our Haitian Hearts employees in Port-au-Prince are visibly thinner than usual because they don’t have enough to eat. They call and text and e-mail me every day explaining their plight and the danger and disarray of the streets. Poverty and violence go hand-in-hand.

What needs to happen in Haiti to protect the Sisters? There has to be a functioning government with a justice system that works for everyone. There needs to be an infrastructure that supplies jobs, food, water, sanitation, electricity, housing, education, health care, and passable roads for Haiti’s 10 million people. Until this happens, these atrocities will continue against the Sisters who are the best examples of social justice in Haiti.

John A. Carroll, MD
www.haitianhearts.org

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Haiti – Security : 25 Sisters residences attacked by gunmen…
(Haiti Libre) – 07/03/2015 12:51:40

Haiti – Security : 25 Sisters residences attacked by gunmen…

In a letter dated March 5, 2015, the Haitian Religious Conference (CHR), which includes 96 congregations (more than 3,000 Sisters, Brothers and Fathers of 30 different nationalities), denounces the wave of trials, injustice and persecution, which falls on religious communities across the country where several religious houses “have been systematically robbed and the religious insulted, humiliated and beaten by gunmen.”

The RHC recalled that “from October 2014 to the present day, 25 Sisters residences have been attacked, some several times, as well as the Charismatic Renewal Center in Tabarre. This is almost always the same scenario that reproduces, at night or at dawn men armed with guns, spears and sticks, intimidate, insult, brutalize nuns and religious and took away everything they find as money destined in many cases to our works to the benefit of the population. Some victims have even been hospitalized.

This is not the first time this has happened to us. Shortly before, there had been cases of robberies, kidnappings and murders of nuns and religious, but these days, it takes the form of a skillfully orchestrated phenomenon and it is clear that we are targeted . This makes us even more harm that neither the elderly nuns, worn in the work for the people, nor the female congregations or foreign congregations were spared. The most serious case is that of the Montfort Institute dealing with deaf and dumb and which has been attacked 5 times increasing the trauma of these deficient and staff. A sister is currently in a coma in St Raphael.”

More recently, last Wednesday night, gunmen broke into the residence of the Sisters in Verrettes and stole a sum of money and equipment. 7 individuals have been arrested in connection with the investigation. On the night of 23 to 24 February, the residence of the Sisters of the Holy Union, in Saint-Michel de l’Attalaye was attacked again, the bandits left with money, jewelry and other objects after having beaten religious… same scenario in January, where the Sisters of Petite-Rivière de l’Artibonite have been attacked at night, in the latter case, the perpetrators were arrested and brought to the investigative office.

In total, 16 communities for 29 consecutive cases were identified. Department Center: Mirebalais, Saut d’eau, Boucan Carré, Pandiassou. Department Grand’Anse : Marfran. South Department : Vieux Bourg d’Aquin, Maniche. Département du Nord : Saint Raphael. Département de Artibonite : Petite Rivière de l’Artibonite, Estère, Verettes, Saint Michel. Department of the West : Croix-des-Bouquets, Kenskoff, Delmas, Marin, Tabarre, Sibert.

The Cardinal Chibly regrets that “These brigands show no respect for the dignity of the human person in general and in particular, to the lives of people who are devoted to the Lord at the service to others […]”

The Episcopal Conference of Haiti (CEH) proposes 24 hours of continuous prayer on 13 and 14 March “It will be a gesture of compassion, of deep communion and effective solidarity with religious people or other victims of aggression and violence. Stand firm in prayer so that are strengthened your faith and charity…”

Government authorities, remains strangely silent about the proliferation of these targeted actions against religious… In turn, the police claimed to have made arrangements around residences of religious…

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UPDATE–March 25, 2015

See this article from Haiti Libre. After three decades in Haiti, I have never seen a situation like this.


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