Dominican Rep. Now we will present several letters of great interest, of the communications interchanged by our brothers in their visits to Haiti, which have been arriving to our office.

Greetings, Fr. Héctor Cuadrado:

We arrived in Puerto Príncipe (Haiti) very well with our EIGHT Haitian seminarians: four who are living and studying in Santo Domingo and four others from our hostel of San Francisco de Macorís (D.R.). We were accompanied in the trip by Bro. Ysaac, and the non-Haitian seminarians José Miguel Genao and Luis Enrique Ortiz. In Jimaní, Fr. José “Pepe” Rodríguez joined us.

When we arrived in Puerto Príncipe and to our Claretian house in the Delmás sector, we met Fr. Anistus (Nigerian) and some other persons who were at that time in the courtyard of the house. It was evident that Fr. Anistus was very happy to see us and showed us the much damaged house after the earthquake. I think he is more encouraged now. After that we went to Nazon, where the relatives of two of the seminarians live. We visited these two families and we shuddered with sadness when we saw the worst: that the mother of one of them had died, as well as a small nephew of Jean Edouard.

On our return to Jimaní, we were leaving the other Claretian seminarians along the way, according to the location of the houses of their families. Last Friday night, Remy received news from his family in Kazal; thanks to God, all are well in general. Fr. Beauplan (first Haitian Claretian, ordained priest only a few months ago) is in the other Claretian community, in Kazal, some 40 km from the capital. Unfortunately we were unable to see him. Fr. Anistus has also not been able to communicate with him since he departed from Puerto Príncipe the day after the earthquake. The electronic mails are beginning to enter Haiti little by little, according to Fr. Anistus himself. The seminarians will be communicating with Anistus the news about their families as they get to know about them. What has happened in Haiti is unheard of, incredible, but certain. We saw many groups removing debris already. Now we are and will stay in our community of Jimaní (border with the Dominican Republic) supporting Frs. Roselio and Pepe in the attention to many wounded who are being attended in the town hospital and in the Social Centre of our parish; I will stay here until Tuesday, January 19. Greetings to all. Let us continue united in prayer, in missionary solidarity.

Receive a fraternal embrace
José Camilo Minaya, cmf