Additional Missionaries & Local Entrants

With the expansion of the works, additional Brothers from our Mother House in Jamaica also came in. At the same time, local vocations also began to arrive. Within a period of almost 15 years, the Mission in Haiti has sent more than a dozen novices to Jamaica who subsequently made it to temporary and perpetual profession. Of these, some are now missionaries themselves, serving in countries as far away as the Philippines and Uganda!

Special Activities, Outreach & Future Plans

In 2007, the Mission held its first-ever religious profession of vows locally. Up until then, the Brothers who were to take vows were sent back to Jamaica for that purpose. In September of that year, 4 Brothers—2 Filipinos and 2 Indians—vowed their lives to God before a crowd of more than 800, local as well as overseas, in a Solemn High Mass led by Monsignor Hubert Constant, successor to Monsignor Francois Gayot who had retired from his office as Metropolitan Archbishop of Cap-Haitien three years earlier. A year later, 2 other Brothers did the same at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Assumption, with Monsignor Louis Kebreau, newly installed Archbishop of the same See, leading the Solemn Liturgy.

From Brother Eugene Damasusraj, who was the first Superior of the young and fledgling Mission, Brother Murray Goodman of St Lucia took over the torch of leadership. Brother Louima Israel of Haiti later succeeded him who was himself replaced by the Indian Brother James Kullu once his term of office had ended. Since 2007 to the present, Fr Henry Lozano, a Filipino national, leads the Mission. He is helped by 15 other Brothers who are either temporarily or perpetually professed. Of these, 6 are Indians, 5 are Kenyans, 2 Ugandans, and 2 Filipinos. There also 5 local candidates who are presently undergoing their early religious training.

In recent times, the Mission has also seen a steady increase in overseas volunteers wanting to come and work alongside with the Brothers. Ranging from 5 days to a week—and sometimes longer—men and women from places like Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Ohio, Tennessee, Idaho, Colorado and California, as well as Montreal in Canada, have come and served our poor and homeless. A number of American parishes have also been involved in supplying us with food and other essential items we need through the containers they send year after year.

Of the other outreach programs that the Mission has taken on, mention may be made of its School Sponsorship Program which sends to school 70-100 poor children annually, occasional Clothes Line, House Visitations, and its ever-expanding Medical Assistance Program for the very poor of Cap-Haitien. In the near future, the Mission hopes to take on a ministry for HIV/AIDS patients given the growing need for such a home where they can be taken care of physically and spiritually, and eventually die with dignity and respect. Although the construction of the building is not due to begin until January 2010, it is our sincere hope that this new Home will be in operation before the end of the same year.