Our Gospel duty: help others

For the past week, the small Caribbean nation of Haiti has dominated world news.  Already one of the poorest countries on the planet, with a long history of strange and brutal politics, Haiti has never found a way to win the serious help, or even the interest, of the world community—that is, until a massive 7.0 earthquake killed tens of thousands of people and left more than 300,000 homeless on Jan. 12.

The scope of the damage is catastrophic.  Thousands of bodies initially littered the streets.  Schools collapsed on classrooms of children.  Many seminarians, as well as the archbishop of Port au Prince, died in the disaster.  Worse, Haiti lacks even the most basic modern infrastructure that would allow survivors to respond to cries for help coming from within the rubble.  As news media have already reported, aid from the United States and foreign community is now pouring into the country.  But for many thousands, it will arrive too little and too late.

Few things bring out the goodness in people more forcefully than the suffering of fellow human beings in a natural tragedy.  We spend much of our waking lives absorbed in our families, our work, our problems and ourselves.  But we’re social creatures.  We need each other.  God made us with an instinct for compassion, and that explains why—no matter where and when a tragedy like Haiti happens—religious and secular organizations, public celebrities and political leaders all join in the task of raising and delivering resources, and easing the pain of survivors.

This generosity in a common cause is a wonderful thing.  It witnesses to the kind of human family God intended us to be.  The trouble is that—for too many news organizations and too much of the world—Haiti will be old news next month.  Attention will turn elsewhere.  Other urgencies will take the world stage.  But the survivors in Haiti will still bear the burden of a physically and psychologically devastated society.

In contrast, the Catholic Church in Haiti does not “go home” or lose interest in the chronic problems of Haiti’s people because Haiti is her home.  For generations, Catholic priests, religious and lay leaders have worked among Haiti’s people and their intense poverty with whatever limited resources they can muster from Catholics in wealthier countries.  There’s never enough money, or medicine, or teachers, or catechists, or doctors, or clean water.  But the work of the Church doesn’t stop because, right alongside the religious cults, the suffering and the dark side of Haitian life, the Catholic faith preaches Jesus Christ and pursues his redemptive mission.  The Church knows Haiti because the Church is part of Haiti’s soul.

These are not easy economic times for any of us here in the United States.  But most of us will go to bed tonight reasonably well fed, well clothed, with adequate shelter, safe in our homes and without fearing for our survival tomorrow.  Very few of the people of Haiti can count on any of these simple gifts we take for granted.  We can’t roll back the clock.  We can’t make the tragedy in Haiti right.  We probably can’t, in our lifetimes, fix the deep and complex problems that have kept Haiti so poor for so long, and that now complicate the nation’s struggle to recover.  But we can help the many innocent people who are suffering in Haiti right now.  And as disciples of Jesus Christ, we have the invitation, the Gospel duty and the privilege of doing so.

I urge you to please help the people of Haiti with your prayers and financial resources; and I urge you to make every dollar of your generosity really count by contributing to the very effective Catholic relief efforts supported by America’s bishops.  May God bless you for your sacrifices.

 

TO DONATE

Mail a check: Archdiocese of Denver, 1300 S. Steele St., Denver CO 80210; in memo line write: Haiti Earthquake