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Thanks to your generosity, St. Mary Parish continued to support our sister parish, St. Michel, in Roche-auBateau, even during the COVID pandemic.

Twenty-two years ago the Diocese of Worcester established a covenant with the Diocese of Les Cayes in Haiti. A relationship of friendship, prayer and support began, especially between “twinning” parishes in both dioceses which helped to enrich the lives and faith of people in the U.S. and Haiti. The original covenant would “encourage the faithful of each Diocese to visit each other whenever possible and offer their gifts, talents, service and love to one another.”

Through the generosity and support of St. Mary Parish parishioners, great progress has been made in rebuilding the chapel in Bokolo. Here are a few photo updates we received from Fr. Serge from a recent celebration.

The reconstruction of the Bokolo Chapel is well underway.  This chapel is one of the 11 chapel communities served by Fr. Serge and St. Michel's parish in Roche-a-Bateau, Haiti. The chapel had been completely destroyed in Hurricane Matthew in October of 2016.

Cardinal Chibly Langlois, the bishop of Les Cayes, Haiti, the first Haitian cardinal in the Catholic Church and Bishop of Les Cayes visited the Diocese of Worcester the weekend of September 2-3, to renew the twinning relationship between parishes in the Diocese of Worcester and the Diocese of Les Cayes, Haiti. Accompanied by Bishop McManus, Cardinal Chibly visited St. Mary's and concelebrated the 4:30 Mass with Bishop McManus.

In addition to being Pastor of St. Michel’s in Roche-a-Bateau, Fr. Serge is also responsible for 11 surrounding chapels, the majority of which are in hillside communities accessible only by foot or via donkey.  We were excited to visit Boklo, a mission chapel that had suffered greatly from hurricane damage.

School visits were some of the most joyous and energetic experiences of our trip. In the classrooms we were greeted by smiling students who, despite sometimes living in squalor-like conditions, were impeccably dressed. As we entered the classrooms, students rose in unison to welcome us with a song. he privilege of attending school in Haiti is uncertain. The average Haitian has fewer than five years of education and only 61% of the population is literate.  Many students rise at 5AM and walk miles to classes, which sometimes start as early as 7AM to beat the midday heat.

The generosity of St. Mary’s parishioners allowed us to fund the repairs to St. Michel Church and rebuild the adjacent food canteen, both casualties of hurricane Matthew. We funded the church repair in three phases. At the time of our arrival, phase two –building up the walls and roof supports– was fully underway.Our group was to act as assistants on the smaller, more manageable canteen project.

Below are pictures sent to St. Mary's from Fr. Serge showing the progress that has been made in repairing the roof of the church.

We arrived in Roche-a-Bateau on Sunday, May 28th. As we pulled into town we were immediately struck by the damage inflicted by hurricane Matthew. It’s one thing to learn of the damage but another to witness it first hand. Many houses along the coastal road were gone and replaced with tin shacks or tarps spread over wood frames. St. Michel Church no longer had a roof and the parish center and connected canteen, which St. Mary’s helped to construct, were completely ruined.

Very early this morning eight members of our parish - Charlie Eisenmann, Lane Eisenmann, Tom Josie, Lynne Perreault, Sheila Seed, Patrick Seed, Martha Serafin, Barbara Trudel & Fr. Mike departed for a long-awaited trip Haiti.  

Members of our Hatiain Ministry spoke at all Masses this weekend to share an update on our sister parish in Roche a Bateau following the devastating hurricane.