The bishop of Haiti, Jean Zache Duracin, reflects on challenges which face his earthquake-ravaged nation, and where he finds God as he works to help rebuild his country.
10 minutes with … Jean Zache Duracin
By Tracy Simmons of Religion News Service
An excerpt:
Q. People here seem to be resilient and hopeful. How do you sustain
that hope?
A. Usually Haitian people are people of hope. They hope for a better
future. The church has lost everything that it has; all the buildings
are down. In all this, at the site of churches, you can go every Sunday
and find many people gathered for worship. The church is there even
though there are no buildings. We are there, the people are there.
Q. Where is God in all of this?
A. I think God is there. We’ve always been taught that we live in a
fragile world. Our existence is fragile; that’s why we always ask God to
be with us, to protect us. Even in the Lord’s Prayer we ask God to
deliver us from evil –it is not that there is no evil just because God
is there. God is there, and that’s why I think we have hope and why I
think many people are alive, because God is with us and God has his plan
for us.
Q. What positive things do you think can come out of this disaster?
A. Any time something bad happens, we have to look for the
opportunities it has created. Bad things happened, yes. Many people
died, yes. We have lost everything, but we have to look beyond that. We
have to correct the hatred, divisions, fighting one against another and
work together for the benefit of all Haitian people. We have to fight
against our individualism, selfishness, and learn how to talk about
sharing what we have and what we have to do to rebuild the country.