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June 13, 2010
Two Redemptorist priests from Haiti will be visiting parishes in Boston, Brooklyn, NY, and Annapolis, MD, this month to celebrate the Feast of Our Mother of Perpetual Help, the patroness of Haiti.
Rev. Gladimir Gerard, C.Ss.R., and Rev. Jean Claudel Pierre, C.Ss.R., will preside at several events leading up to the June 27 feast day celebrations. Both Redemptorists are from Port-au-Prince and survived the January earthquake that leveled much of the city.
Redemptorists from the Baltimore Province, and from all over the world, have responded to the needs of their confreres, sending donations and prayers as they begin to recover from the disaster.
Rev. Pierre will arrive in Boston June 18, and will visit a Haitian parish the weekend of June 19-20. He will be the guest homilist for the triduum celebrations June 24-26 at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Mission Church) in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood. The triduum will be celebrated in French Creole.
Rev. Gerard will visit St. Mary’s Church in Annapolis to speak at the Masses the weekend of June 19-20. He will then travel to the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Brooklyn, NY, to participate in novena services leading up to the feast. He will speak at the weekend Masses June 26-27, and preside at a special Mass at 6 p.m. June 27 for the Haitian community.
The Feast of Our Mother of Perpetual Help is a significant one among Haitian Catholics. For that one day, the basilicas in Boston and Brooklyn become the spiritual home for hundreds of immigrants.
“On that one day, they fill the church,” said Very Rev. Joseph Tizio, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Brooklyn.
Redemptorists serving in Haiti are part of the Redemptorists’ Sainte-Anne deBeaupré Province based in Quebec, Canada. The Redemptorist church of St. Gerard and the parish school in Port-au-Prince were demolished in the quake. The Redemptorists and the people they serve continue to live in the streets.