The full extent of the damage from the earthquake in Haiti yesterday is still unknown — the death toll has been estimated in the thousands already. Tragically, among those confirmed dead is the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Joseph Serge Miot, along with perhaps hundreds of priests and seminarians throughout the region:
“Port-au-Prince is totally devastated. . . . The archbishop’s office, all of the big churches, all of the seminaries have been reduced to rubble. The same luck for the ministry buildings, the Presidential Palace, the schools,” Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Vatican’s top diplomatic official in Haiti, told the Vatican’s Fides news agency.
The Port-au-Prince cathedral, a large 18th-century building with stained glass windows that was popular with tourists for its architecture, also collapsed during the earthquake.
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
Sign up to get Crisis articles delivered to your inbox daily
“The parish priest of the cathedral, who was spared, told me that the archbishop of Port-au-Prince would have died under the rubble, together with hundreds of seminarians and priests that are under the ruins,” Auza said.
Every life lost is a tragedy, of course — and on this scale, the tragedy becomes almost incomprehensible. Our prayers are with all the victims of this disaster.
There are various ways you can help get aid directly to those in need — donate online at:
You can even text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to the Red Cross. If you know of other relief sites or organizations, please leave them in the comments, and I’ll add them to the list.
Â