AMERICA/HAITI - “A presence in the eyes of the world for our small country”: newly created Cardinal Langlois speaks with Fides

Tuesday, 25 February 2014

Roma (Agenzia Fides) – He is the youngest Cardinal created in the Consistory held in recent days and the first Cardinal in the history of Haiti: his Eminence Chibly Langlois, Archbishop Les Cayes, aged 55, kindly gave an interview to Fides expressing his feelings and speaking of the present commitments of the local Church in that country.
“First of all I would like to thank you for this opportunity to give voice to the Catholic Church in Haiti –Cardinal Langlois told Fides-, in our country the faith is strong . Our local Church is grateful to the Pope for appointing a Cardinal for Haiti, a most significant act: it gives our small country a presence in the eyes of the world . The Church in Haiti lives in a constant spirit of evangelisation as encouraged by the Bishops of Latin America, this means, pastoral care priorities include living and sharing the concerns of the poorest of our people, as Pope Francis has so often said. Our aim is to involve everyone in the commitment to evangelise, our young people, our priests, our bishops, our men and women religious, our families. The entire community of the faithful is called to share in this pastoral vision”.
Haiti, the poorest country in Lain America, was devastated by a tremendous earthquake in January 2010 the wounds of which still gape; today the nation is paralysed by a political situation in crisis. From this crisis the country is attempting to emerge, thanks only to the mediation of the Catholic Church in the person of Archbishop Langlois, (see Fides 18/02/2014).
“The Church in Haiti sees the situation in which our people live as a responsibility, an economic situation in the face of which we cannot remain indifferent – said Cardinal Langlois -. In this regard something most important must be said: in the social field the local Church is accompanying the political leaders to build dialogue between the sides and so solve the problems of our society. It is a duty to share responsibility for resolving the political situation in our country, the crisis we are experiencing, and this will be possible only through dialogue. As the Bishops’ Conference we have offered to act as mediator in the crisis and we hope that with dialogue we can advance in this venture. All that is needed now to end the crisis is for an agreement to be signed. In this effort, the local Church has a clearly defined social role”. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 25/02/2014)


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