Haitian Archbishop Recounts Burial of Seminarians

(February 06, 2010) The president of Haiti’s Bishops’ Conference has mournfully recounted the burial of seminarians killed in the country’s massive January quake. Describing the strains and torments in the disaster’s wake, he says the surviving seminarians will help other grieving victims despite their own suffering. “I cannot hold back the tears when thinking about their burial. We could not even provide them with a coffin, only a pathetic plastic bag,” Archbishop Louis Kébreau of Cap-Haitien. The earthquake killed 16 diocesan seminarians, and another 10 from the Montfortian order died when the earthquake destroyed their seminary. Most were under 25 years old. Those whose bodies were recovered were buried on the grounds of the devastated major seminary. The bishops are concerned that they may never find all the bodies. The 200 seminarians who survived the quake lost their formation centre and are now in severe need of help and support. The archbishop said he feels responsible for the seminarians’ physical health and spiritual well-being. “It shakes me to the core when I think about how I had to give the go ahead to the amputation of a leg of a seminarian and of an arm of another,” he explained. He now wants to focus on caring for the surviving seminarians so that they can help other disaster victims. “A lot of people have lost relatives, some are now completely alone and all of them are in complete misery.”