PROSPECT HEIGHTS – According to Archbishop Thomas Wenski of Miami, Haitian Bishop Pierre-André Dumas of Anse-à-Veau and Miragoâne, who was injured in a Feb. 18 explosion, will soon arrive in the archdiocese to receive additional treatment and recover.
The cause of the explosion remains unknown. Archbishop Wenski said he has spoken to a few priests in Haiti who are suspicious of the explosion, and believe it may have been a targeted attack. However, local police have suggested it was a gas explosion.
Bishop Dumas was severely burned in the explosion, which is part of the reason he will come to Miami, where there are better resources to provide him the medical treatment that he needs.
Archbishop Wenski expects Bishop Dumas will return to Haiti when his health permits.
“I’m sure he’ll go back as soon as his health permits him to go back, and really, he needs to go back,” Archbishop Wenski told The Tablet Feb. 22. “The church needs him.”
Already in a precarious situation, Haiti has been in a sort of free fall since the assisination of President Jovenel Moise in 2021. To this day there is great political instability, as the nation’s parliament was dissolved. And much of the nation is controlled by criminal gangs or organizations.
“As somebody said to me after I informed him of the situation, he said ‘could hell be worse?’” Archbishop Wenski said. “Everybody is frustrated with the lack of progress in trying to find a solution that will allow Haiti and Haitians to return to some level of normalcy.”
“As I remind people here in Miami, we’re surrounded by islands of pain — Haiti, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua — and that all of us in Miami have connections with one or more of those countries so I think it’s important that we have a sense of solidarity with our brothers and sisters,” Archbishop Wenski said.
At a turbulent juncture, the church in Haiti is really the only source of stability.
“The church in Haiti is still, perhaps right now, the best hope of Haiti because it’s an institution that is present throughout the island,” Archbishop Wenski explained.
“You can’t be in a part of Haiti and not be in somebody’s parish, and so that shows the breadth and the depth of the church in Haiti, and the churches are doing a lot of the healthcare that is happening in Haiti, most of the education, and so when government agencies are not functional or very weak the church is stepping up,” he added.
Bishop Dumas is the vice president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Haiti (CEH)
Archbishop Wenski has known him for many years, and described him as a “good preacher,” who has worked hard trying to encourage the various parties to work together and to resolve the political impasse that has now gone on for several years.
The CEH announced that Bishop Dumas was injured on Feb. 19, describing it as “an explosion which reached the house where he was staying” while he was visiting Port-au-Prince.
“For the moment, Dumas’ health is stable,” reads the statement, signed by CEH vice permanent secretary, Father Jean Rodney Brevil. “We entrust him to your fervent prayers for a speedy recovery.”