Five hours northwest of Port-au-Prince in Haiti, two students lead morning prayers and singing at St. Paul Catholic School in the agricultural mountain village of Nanpol. Thanks to a parish sisterhood program with St. Vincent de Paul Parish in the Stirling neighborhood of Long Hill Township, one hundred three- to five-year-olds are receiving a Catholic education and meals three to four times a week.
Haiti’s Hope, the twinning program, “is a wonderful initiation for St. Paul Parish, and above all the most beautiful thing that has ever happened to us,” said Father Thèona Cèlestin, St. Paul’s pastor.
The Haitian priest said that the program is desperately needed in Haiti, which is facing a political, social, and humanitarian crisis. The United Nations reports that in 2024, more than 5,500 people were killed in gang violence, about 2,200 were injured, and 1,494 were kidnapped. Record numbers of people face hunger.
Nanpol is relatively calm, but villagers live in fear. Gangs block roads, preventing raw materials and food from getting to the people.
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Father Cèlestin recently texted St. Vincent’s photos of the schoolchildren and wrote, “What will tomorrow bring in Haiti? Look at these little children, oblivious to what is happening around them — to all the dangers. They have their whole future ahead of them, but an uncertain future.”
Moved by the ongoing suffering, John Mozer and other St. Vincent’s parishioners recently held an awareness weekend to encourage more involvement in Haiti’s Hope, a Parish Twinning Program of Americas project. Mozer said they aim to raise more funds for school supplies, books, faculty salaries, and meals.
Kevin Dempsey, a St. Vincent’s parishioner, was originally involved in the project along with Father Richard Carton, the Stirling parish’s former pastor and now pastor of Our Lady of the Lake Parish in Sparta.
On his first trip to Haiti, Dempsey saw that “the poverty was so deep.” He was moved by the graciousness of the people and the joy in their eyes. Since then, St. Vincent’s has supported rebuilding the church that was damaged by an earthquake in 2010, installing a solar-powered water purification system, making extensive exterior and interior rectory repairs, and building the school.
The school has two pre-school classes. Father Cèlestin plans to add a grade each year. He is proud of how students develop linguistically, socially, emotionally, and cognitively, thanks to their “valiant teachers.”
“Our school is and will be a valuable tool in training the country’s future leaders, who should focus on giving the country a new face, starting in the most remote areas, such as Nanpol,” Father Cèlestin said.
Father Cèlestin expressed gratitude for St. Vincent’s support. The collaboration encourages St. Paul’s to “live the faith together in communion with our sisters and brothers at St. Vincent’s.” At Mass on Sunday, they pray for the St. Vincent’s community.
Father Cèlestin said that life’s difficulties require St. Paul’s parish and school to cling to Jesus.
“The children don’t know, but we know what [can] happen. In the meantime, we place ourselves in the hands of the Good Lord. For only he can pull us out of this quagmire,” Father Cèlestin said.
