HI FRIENDS!
Rene Bauer sent me some statistics that I think that we all need to see.
Even before the earthquake...
QUICK FACTS
Haiti is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere
95% of aid to Haiti has been reduced since the early 1990s
70% of Haitian people live in poverty-annual income of $400 per year
15% of all children in Haiti are orphaned or abandoned
200,000 orphaned Haitian children live in institutions (the rest are fostered, live with relatives, or are street children)
40% of the population is under the age of 15
A history of an extremely high maternal mortality rate contributes to the number of orphans
Child-headed households are becoming more common as potential guardians succumb to AIDS or other causes of death
(source UNICEF)
Your generosity to the victims of the earthquake in Haiti is astounding. From the donations that have come in through last weekend our three parishes sent in nearly $29,000 to help relieve the suffering that is going on in Port au Prince. But they are going to need our help for a long time. We have received emails from Fr. Alcide and Sr. Mary of St. Marc’s Parish there. They say that even though their city was not damaged, floods of people are coming from Port au Prince to St. Marc’s for food, shelter, water and other essentials. Fr. Alcide also says he is busy burying parishioners and relatives who were killed in the earthquake, including two of his nieces who were only 4 ½ and 5 years old. My hope is that we continue to be generous and support the folks in Haiti and St. Marc’s for decades to come. They will continue to need us.
In the Gospel today Jesus gets ran out of His hometown because he preached that the gates to God’s Kingdom were wide enough for the poor, the blind, and the rejected of the world to fit through. This angered the folks in the synagogue in Nazareth because that was not their idea of who should be included and invited to receive blessings from God.
The Gospel of Christ constantly calls us to open our eyes, our arms, our minds, our hearts, and our lives to include those we don’t want to include into the family of the Children of God. We may think it is unsafe, risky, and even illegal to live with the same limitless boundaries of God. And it is definitely not easy to do so in this militantly individualistic culture we live in. But that is the call of the Gospel and the measuring stick of our discipleship these days. Let’s continue the openness and generosity that we’ve demonstrated for more than 150 years here. Let’s also pray that God continue to open us up to be better able to serve Him and all others.
Peace and Blessings,
Fr. Chuck Walker
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