Searching Among A Haitian Cathedral's Ruins

LATimes ^ | January 16th 2010 | Tracy Wilkinson

[Steelfish]

Searching Among A Haitian Cathedral's Ruins The collapse of Notre Dame Cathedral in Port-au-Prince struck at the heart of a religiously fervent people.

By Tracy Wilkinson January 16, 2010

Reporting from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti - The woman wailed outside the ruins of the Notre Dame Cathedral of Port-au-Prince, the iconic Roman Catholic church that symbolized Haiti's religious fervor. "This is what God did!" she cried Friday morning. "See what God can do!"

Tuesday's earthquake brought down the roof of the enormous pink-and-cream church, filling the apse and nave with tons of rubble. The quake punched out its vivid stained glass windows, twisted its wrought-iron fencing and sliced brick walls like cake. The western steeple, which had soared more than 100 feet, toppled onto parishioners praying at an outdoor shrine to St. Emmanuel. Flies buzzed around the pile of copper, plaster and felled columns.

The senior Catholic figure in the country, Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot, was killed in the magnitude 7.0 earthquake. As many as 100 priests were still missing, sacristan Jean Claude Augustin said.

By the cathedral's ruins lay a small blue copy of the New Testament. Sheet music for Christian hymns was scattered through the street.

Haiti is, officially, predominantly Catholic, with some Protestant faiths. But across the board is an underlying belief in, or respect for, voodoo and other indigenous traditions, which are often mixed in with those religious practices.

[smokingfrog]

Before...

After

[dfwgator]

Seeing those before and after pics just further proves how foolish Pat Robertson’s statement was.

[muawiyah]

Sounds like the LATimes agrees, more or less, with Pat Robertson. Hmm?

Will they be criticized for this?

Hey, just in case nobody does, remember that LATimes cheated on its postage for mailed copies and lied about its circulation to cheat its advertisers. A regular old den of thieves.

There, I criticized them.

Does that change anything in Haiti? Does that make it better?

[smokingfrog]

I don’t know anything about that particular church, but it sure doesn’t look like a place of devil worship.

[livius]

Haiti is only technically Catholic. One of the biggest problems of Haiti is that the Church let voodoo and Marxism get established.

Many people may laugh about the Inquisition, but one of the reasons voodoo or syncretist religions were less successful in Spanish Latin America was because of the activities of the Inquisition, which really sought out syncretism. In Mexico, many priests who had permitted the mixture of native beliefs with Christianity were punished and even put to death.

Generally, the natives were considered such “new Christians” that they couldn’t be held responsible. Only one native was put to death by the Inquisition in Mexico, and it was because he had been educated in Europe and should have known better.

But the French were less demanding. The upper class may have been moderately aware of their faith, but the poor African majority was permitted to do whatever it wanted. And when “Liberation Theology” and Marxism (as represented by the former priest Aristide) arrived, the Church completely abandoned the Faith and turned Haiti over to voodoo and Marxism. One of Haiti’s biggest problems is the fact that its population is not really Christian.

[AnalogReigns]

After Robertson's big gaff, I did a little research about Haiti's religions. HAITIAN sources readily admit, in a joking (but real) fashion, that while over 80% are Roman Catholic, almost 100% practice or respect...some form of Voodoo.

Voodoo isn't usually open "devil worship" rather it is a mix of old African Animism (appeasing various spirits) with certain Roman Catholic elements. So it's a mixed (syncretistic) religion. Practitioners don't think they are worshiping the devil, however, from a biblical Christian world-view, any religion that "appeases spirits" other than God Himself, is messing around with demons.

Does that make Pat Robertson right? No. However, Haiti in reality is, the world center for Voodoo.

[RegulatorCountry]

The western steeple, which had soared more than 100 feet, toppled onto parishioners praying at an outdoor shrine to St. Emmanuel.

Such an explict sounding, specific thing, like being struck by lightning.

Makes me wonder what vodou spirit is syncretized with St. Emmanuel. Best I can tell, it's Shakpana, associated with pox, illness, disease and madness. Also known as Babalu-Aye under Cuban Santeria.