Earthquake in Haiti

The terrible news of the earthquake in Haiti has hit the Congregation of Holy Cross, and our University of Notre Dame and University of Portland communities particularly hard.

The Congregation has been in Haiti since the late 1940s and has grown to a considerable size in that impoverished country. Our American universities have also sent any number of volunteers to work in Haiti serving the needs of the people there in schools, orphanages, shelters, dispensaries and clinics.

Sadly, one of our Holy Cross seminarians, Emmanuel Jacques Guillaume, CSC was killed in the falling debris at the University Quisqueya where he was taking an exam in preparation for teaching mathematics at one of our Haitian high schools. Please pray for the repose of his soul.

(It is also reported that the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince, and "hundreds" of other priests and seminarians have been killed in the total collapse of the cathedral, diocesan chancery, and seminary.)

Thanks be to God, the other members of the Holy Cross community have been spared, despite significant damage to our provincial house, high school, and other properties. There are now a large number of refugees taking shelter on our properties and our religious are doing their best to serve and feed them.

Fr. Thomas Streit, CSC of the University of Notre Dame spends much time in Haiti working with a Gates Foundation grant to eliminate elephantitis. He and several other Notre Dame researchers were in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake struck, and they are thankfully unharmed.

The University of Portland is, however, mourning the loss of one of its alumni. Molly Hightower was an 2009 alumna of the University of Portland volunteering in an orphanage in Port-au-Prince. She was killed in the earthquake when the building she was in collapsed.

If you are interested in contributing to relief efforts, one can never go wrong with Catholic Relief Services. CRS was on the ground in Haiti, already involved in long term relief work long before the earthquake hit. One could also send donations to the Holy Cross Mission Center with the specific intention of helping our Haitian confreres.

And of course, please join us in praying for our brothers and sisters in Haiti through the intercession of Our Lady of Sorrows, and Venerable Pierre Toussaint.