Father David’s July 2026 Newsletter
July 1, 2026
"Naje pou soti..." ("To keep one's head above water...")
This Haitian proverb has become increasingly popular in recent years in Haiti, and especially in recent weeks in Cité-Soleil, as the gang war has resumed, then stopped, but for how long?
Keeping one's head above water... This is the mindset of Haitians who are enduring these fratricidal battles, with hidden but well-known motives: money, politics, and drugs.
In April, armed men invaded northern Cité-Soleil, causing more than 10,000 people to flee into the streets and makeshift camps. The situation has temporarily calmed down, but many are afraid to return home.
Three weeks ago, south of Cité-Soleil, just a few hundred meters from our chapel, two groups clashed, taking advantage of the World Cup festivities, but always with an underlying desire for financial control of certain areas in order to tax the businesses operating there. And always the same victims: ordinary people fleeing. Two months ago, we received 60 teenagers at the rectory from the Kizito Family's shelters. They left after a month. Then, two weeks ago, 15 children fled another neighborhood and are still here.
Mother Teresa said that indifference was the greatest sin. We see it here. The indifference of armed men, of leaders, and of the powerful, for whom human life seems to be measured solely by the money they can make from it.
Kidnappings are on the rise again. To keep one's head above water...
In just three days over the past few weeks, more than 20 people around the chapel have been hit by stray bullets, including a four-month-old baby who underwent emergency surgery by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and will survive. A four-year-old child was shot in the leg while sleeping. The bullet pierced the fragile, rusty corrugated iron roof. So I went back to my job as an ambulance driver for a full night shift. Approximately five people have lost their lives to these stray bullets, not counting those killed in the immediate aftermath of the fighting.
And meanwhile, more than 100 baptisms were held in the chapel two months ago, and about 40 First Communions took place two weeks ago. Fifty baptisms were celebrated last week, and another 60 First Communions are scheduled for next Sunday. Young people are thirsting for God and peace in the midst of this hell. From July 13 to 19, fifteen teenagers will travel to another neighborhood for a six-day silent retreat, all of them volunteers.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has proven its effectiveness in recent weeks by helping us feed several thousand families, the sick, and refugees. Every morning brings its share of emergencies and unforeseen events, with dozens of people waiting outside the rectory door for all kinds of assistance.
I ask the Holy Spirit to give me a listening heart when I cannot help. It is always moving to see how much people need to be heard, for someone to take a little time for them each day. They leave feeling a little more at peace, even if no tangible help is given, simply because someone listened. And that is often the most difficult thing.
It's as if God allows us to struggle to keep our heads above water so that we understand we can do nothing without Him. We want efficiency, to get out of the water, to change the world so that we can better forget Him. Yet it is much harder to listen and empathize than to try to change the world.
It's very tiring to always be living in a state of constant struggle to keep your head above water.
Please pray that we don't fight the wrong battle, and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us not to sink!
Father David’s February 2024 Newsletter
Wednesday afternoon, some parishioners came with me to visit sick people at their homes. One of them, a man in his forties, was particularly weak. He was lying on a blanket on the ground and there was not a single piece of furniture in the damp room that serves him as a house. He confided in me that he has tuberculosis and is living alone and without family. For several weeks he no longer takes his treatment because he has not had enough to eat. After praying together, giving the sacrament of the Sick, and making an appointment to take him to the sisters of Mother Teresa, I returned to the Chapel.
Yesterday Thursday at 8 a.m., the man arrived on a motorcycle accompanied by a neighbor so that we would go together. The lady tells me that she has forgotten something, leaves quickly, and never comes back, leaving me alone to "manage" the poor gentleman with tuberculous, who was in great respiratory distress. Time to find a parishioner with a good heart who knows this gentleman, we leave on 2 motorcycles to cross Brooklyn and its trash to reach the car parked to “Doctors without Borders". While there I met another French priest like me. His name is Fr. Xavier and he is here to visit Haiti for a few weeks. I was surprised he chose to come to Cite Soleil with its deep-seated unrest. Is it because he is French, perhaps a little crazy, or saint, or all of these!
This day will be his Baptism by fire... The heavy rains of the previous days which flooded part of Brooklyn left mud on the paved road. Arrived at the crossroads "Konbit", which delimits the two gangs, my driver slides on the mud, and we made a beautiful fall by sliding on the macadam which leaves me some blessed memories on the arm and the leg. Nothing broken. We go up quickly on the motorcycle, the patient is on the other motorcycle fortunately, and we leave because this crossroads is "fragile", the shots can happen anytime. We pass the other penalty zones without incident, and we reach the car, then the patient is taken to the missionaries of charity who will take care of him.
After that, I will find the children of a school and a house of Sister Paesie who celebrate their patroness Saint Josephine Bakhita. Around 200 children participate in joy and a real atmosphere of prayer. Saint Bakhita, who was an African slave who became a nun, gives us a powerful testimony about Confidence, Humility, and forgiveness.
As the calm apparently continues, I take this opportunity to go to the market and make other purchases in Port-au-Prince, where the streets are quite empty and certain stores cautiously open. Around 1 a.m., I come back to Doctors Without Borders and learned that Sister Paësie, her sisters and Fr Xavier are blocked in Ste Bakhita school because the roads are barred because of violent clashes between Gangs on “Terre-Noire”. Doctors without borders hospital is found in the middle of two fire zones, Terre-Noire on the left, Brooklyn on the right. The sisters are stuck but in relative security., I received a call from Brooklyn to say that there are 3 injured, including a serious one, a 17 -year -old girl with a ball in the head. Furthermore, the dispensary, near the chapel, who welcomes emergencies no longer has drugs. I tried to confirm with the doctor there, but no one answered the phone. Deciding to go to the most urgent, I let the sisters and Fr Xavier "manage" themselves on the left (“Terre-Noire”) to go and give the drugs to the right (Brooklyn) and evacuate the girl.
Arrived by car in Bois-Neuf, the shots start again, and I must shelter the car between two barracks while waiting for the injured. After 30 minutes, calm returns and a motorcycle arrives from the dispensary to take the drugs for the dispensary but without the injured ... The doctor was able to remove the ball and the wound was superficial.
I turned back to Doctors without Borders to park the car there, and when I arrived there, the shots started again on both sides. After more than an hour of waiting, Sr Paësie passed through the barricades and “gave” me Fr Xavier. We decide to go back to “home sweet home” in Brooklyn on foot, in a relative calm by reciting the rosary for all the people raped or murdered on this road these past years... Arrived 20 meters from "Carrefour Lanmo", the shots resume, very violently, we are forced to pass in the thickets by raising our hands and shouting : "It’s me, Fr David, we are friends ..." A few meters further, a motorcycle driver stops, and we leave with him. He goes too fast, wants to take a more dangerous road, and seems drunk, the scent of alcohol arrives to my nostrils while he rides without brake. He admits to me ingenuously "it's true Father, I drank but I am not drunk!". A good boy, victim of the madness of men who make him live in hell. I have time to bless him and change motorcycles for safety to finally arrive at the chapel, fifteen small children are running to eat, as usual for a few weeks.
Civil war is here now, you can see the evidence. Anger and frustration are in the hearts of the people and in the streets. One sentence of Saint Josephine Bakhita came to mind yesterday for mass, a piercing sentence about forgiveness who is the painful but liberating light for Haiti today and tomorrow:
“If I was to meet those slave raiders that abducted me and those who tortured me, I’d kneel down to them to kiss their hands, because, if it had not have been for them, I would not have become a Christian and religious woman”.
November-December 2023 Newsletter from Father David January 5th, 2024
November 1st and 2 are still very special in Cité-Soleil. All Saints' Day reminds everyone that real life, if it has already started in our hearts, is still cruelly absent around us and we are all called to become true saints ... "The only misfortune is not to be saints" said someone. A beautiful Creole expression says that to be really holy you have to be "cooked"! On November 2, for the commemoration of the deceased faithful, the faithful bring dozens of prayer intentions for the deceased of their families, and during the 3 masses of the day, it takes long minutes to quote and remember all these faithful and especially the people who died during the fights in previous months.
Two days later, the joy of celebrating 59 baptisms again invaded the chapel. After the ceremony, I went to visit the most dilapidated and flooded areas of the city with some NGO members, and in the middle of the heaps of filth, a 6 -year -old girl who had just been baptized returned home in a white dress while holding the hand of her mother. She called me insistently to thank me by smiling in the way that only children know how to offer. It reminds me of the bible verse that says “Consider the flowers (lilies) of the field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these”. A little girl’s smile reflected back to me the love Jesus has for her and each one of us.
The month of December was punctuated by the beautiful festival of the Immaculate Conception and then by Christmas preparations.
Traditionally, I'm going to celebrate Christmas mass with our imprisoned brothers. On December 22, in the National Penitentiary, which brings together more than 3,700 people, the director agreed to select 200 brothers to attend this mass, prepared for several weeks by novices of the Paësie sister community who made the penitentiary choir.
On the day of the celebration, we had the authorization to bring 5 little girls for dances during mass and to deliver some poems during the distribution of gifts. Some of our brothers were moved to tears when they saw the innocence of these little dancers, they who have not seen their own children for sometimes more than 15 years ...
At the Christmas vigil, young people and adults sang Christmas songs and played Christmas tales. Mass ended after midnight and we shared hot chocolate, rolls and peanut butter for the 1200 faithful who had hurried.
The following days gave their special tones, St Stephan, St Jean and the innocent saints. Traditionally this day of babies killed by Herod who was afraid of a child, has a special aspect in Haiti. We often organize a party for children. This year, we chose 250 children from the poorest to share the joy of Christmas innocence together. Meal, peanut butter, songs, dances, and gifts made the children's joy during the day and the most beautiful was the thanks of the children. They know how to mix the candor of innocent people and the maturity of the adult to thank by looking right in the eyes.
Finally, once again this year, hope vibrated in the hearts of the faithful, the thirst to live and have a better life animated their souls. In the various homilies and meetings at year’s end the focus is towards innocence, humility, and light that shines stronger than the darkness. Meditations on these topics often increases our understanding of the gifts of faith, hope and love.