St. Joseph's Monastery Parish

Dear Friends,

We are very appreciative of your concern, prayers, and support.  Today the workers started to break up and haul off the tons of cement and iron that used to be our Fr. Wasson Center in Petionville.  It is very important to us that this location is cleaned up and a new initiative is started there.  I still admire the teams of twenty to thirty people who dug without stopping until they found the bodies of Dr. Castro, Erin, Molly, and Ryan.  We are not sure what we will rebuild there yet, but for sure we will make a prominent memorial dedicated to Molly, Ryan, and all of our Haitian friends and staff who died elsewhere in the tragedy. 


We estimate that we are missing about 20% of our Haitian staff.  Some have gone to the United States; others are dead or are still absorbed in their tragedies.  We are not sure of the total deaths yet.  When we have a good idea we will have a memorial ceremony for them and a page dedicated to their memory on the Passionist website.  We have offered many Masses for them already.


Things at the orphanage in Kenschoff have been fine.  Bus loads of our children from St. Helen have come to the hospital so they can have an idea of the problems, pray for the suffering and the dead, and also visit the injured children.


The situation at the hospital has calmed down and we are now better organized with an infrastructure in place.  Patients sent to the USS Comfort for surgery will return to recuperate at our facilities.  We will also accept patients from the general public hospital.  We are anticipating as many as two hundred post-operative patients. 


Medical teams from many countries are doing all they can and are working together in the best capacity.  Four medical teams are going out daily to work in the poor areas.  The team working at Christ Roi are working in the only standing building in the area.  We have a team that went to Leogane and Jacmel - two cities that were destroyed - to assess how we might be able to help.  Alfonso Leon and his team have been working in parks to offer food and other assistance to children on the street.  They are also starting to search for orphans and other vulnerable children.  We have begun free water deliveries with the St. Luke and St. Helen water trucks with food distributions to start tomorrow. 


Gena Heraty and Norma Lopez are developing a team for the rehabilitation of the many children and adults who have lost limbs.  It is bittersweet to walk through our hospital and see so many children missing an arm or a leg - yet still with a big smile on their face.


We have many homeless employees who prefer to live in a tent rather than taking them onto our property.  It is important for them to keep their social and family networks vibrant, and our hope is to help them build their own homes in the future with blocks we make ourselves at our Francisville industrial center.  There are also many ex-orphans with nowhere to live.  We are working to provide tents for them and to have stations set up where they can get food.  Hopefully, we can also help them build their own homes one day. 


The problems are overwhelming.  In relation to health, education, family, life, employment, and social stability, the earthquake will have severe ramifications well in the future.  Please keep up your prayers and much needed support.  Thank you again and God bless you.


Fr. Rick Frechette