Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Port-au-Prince (Agenzia Fides) - "It is a time for tears; there is desolation everywhere, and the Montfortians have not been spared," writes Fr. Maurice, SMM, from Haiti, where the Montfort Missionaries (Company of Mary) have been present since 1871, with a dozen communities and about 50 religious priests. In addition to them are some 20 students in various stages of their formation. According to information sent to Fides from Fr. Alfio, the Provincial Secretary of the Montfort Missionaries, 9 seminarians are dead and there are fears for the fate of a priest, Father Jean Baptiste, who is missing. He was probably crushed by concrete blocks crashing to the ground from the Baussan Home, collapsed on the parking lot, when the priest tried to leave the house. The 9 seminarians, 8 theologate students plus one seminarian recently returned from Peru, were attending a conference at CIFOR (Institute of Studies for the Men and Women Religious), when the building collapsed on the bus they were on, as they were trying to leave place. They were crushed by slabs of concrete, it was impossible to intervene.
In 1871, the first religious brothers and priests of the Society of Mary, after leaving France, landed in Haiti. They founded the mission, at the same time in Pontchâteau, France, running a seminary for the formation of Haitian priests. Today, there are about 50 Haitian Montfortians, assisted in their ministry in Haiti by several missionaries from France and Canada. They are involved in several parishes of the Diocese of Port-de-Paix in the northwest of the country, but are also present in the Dioceses of Port-au-Prince and Gonaives, as well as in a mission in the Bahamas and one in the French Antilles. In addition to parish ministry, the religious of the Province headed several initiatives designed primarily to aid the poor. A member of the Province is also working to Nassau in the Bahamas, in a guidance center for the many Haitian refugees living in these islands. (SL) (Agenzia Fides 16/1/2010)
