“We are two communities but in Brooklyn we come together as one,” said Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio at a special Mass June 24 to pray for a resolution to the threat to deport Haitians from the Dominican Republic.
The Supreme Court in the Dominican Republic recently rescinded a 1929 law that gave citizenship to all Haitians born in the Dominican Republic. The Court declared that from now on Dominican citizenship will require being born of two native-born Dominican parents.
“Rescinding citizenship has caused a moral and civil outcry against this seemingly unjust law,” said Bishop DiMarzio.
The evening liturgy was celebrated at St. James Cathedral-Basilica in Downtown Brooklyn. Among the concelebrants was retired Auxiliary Bishop Guy Sansaricq, the first native Haitian ordained a bishop in the U.S. Also present were Auxiliary Bishops Octavio Cisneros and Raymond Chappetto and Bishop-elect James Massa, along with 26 priests of the diocese, many of them from Haiti.
Assisting the bishop at the altar were Deacon Jose Henriquez, who was born in the Dominican Republic and ordained a priest on June 27, and Deacon Yvon Aurelien, who was born in Haiti.
About 700 people were in the congregation, including three buses of parishioners from St. Brigid’s in Bushwick.
“We come tonight, not to enter into a political discussion, but to support the human dignity of our Haitian brothers and sisters who find themselves in this predicament of being deported to Haiti where the economic and social conditions are a tremendous burden,” said Bishop DiMarzio.
“In our Prayer of the Faithful tonight we will pray for peace and justice in the Dominican Republic and Haiti and in our own country.”
Suffering in Community
“Wherever Haitians are suffering, the whole community in New York or in the country, the diaspora, the Haitian diaspora is suffering,” said Father St. Charles Borno, coordinator of the ministry to Haitians in the diocese. “It’s part of who we are. And whenever one person is suffering, the whole community is suffering.
“And the reason we gather this evening, to truly show that we are with our brothers in Dominican Republic and we are suffering with them and we want to support them and give whatever support we can give.”
“I come here to pray for peace and love, for God open their heart. God is love, let everybody love God,” said Marie Cattegrein, a member of Our Lady of Refuge parish, Flatbush.
“It’s heart wrenching,” said Michele Guerrier, of St. Therese of Lisieux parish, East Flatbush. “You know, Jesus was the Lord of the poor, and the Haitians are the poorest people in the Dominican Republic and to see the poor treated in that way, it’s very un-christianlike.”
Bishop DiMarzio, who is recognized as an international voice on migration policy, said that it has been the position of the Church that “migrants be offered citizenship after fulfilling the requirements of the civil government in the land into which they have migrated.”
Bishop DiMarzio likened the situation in Hispaniola, the island that contains Haiti and the Dominican Republic, to the way undocumented people are treated in the U.S.
“Undocumented workers come, seeking work, finding work that gives labor to a country that has accepted them and now wishes to expel them,” he said.
Prayers for South Carolina
Bishop DiMarzio also prayed for the victims of a racially charged shooting in a South Carolina church where a Bible study meeting was being conducted.
“Acts of prejudice cannot be tolerated anywhere in the world,” he said.
“Tonight as we gather in this Eucharist we too call for a conversion of hearts wherever it is needed in the world today so that the human dignity of all persons can be respected and upheld.”
