Maggy Blain, born and raised in Haiti, attended the Friday, March 15 Prayer Service for Peace in Haiti – a gathering of hope held at Church of Our Saviour in Manhattan for people suffering amid deadly gang violence and dire social unrest in the Caribbean nation. 

“This is so sad – you have to really hold on to your faith, to hope for better days,” Blain told The Good Newsroom after the evening service. She said she was grateful for the prayer service, adding that she’s a lifelong Catholic and believes very much in the power of prayer and the mercy of God.  

Blain said her relatives in Haiti have not reported being harmed, but they are constantly concerned for their safety. Blain, 63, is a parishioner of Immaculate Conception Church in the Jamaica section of Queens. She is a social sciences assistant at the United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs.                                                     

“Tonight, we are here to pray – to offer our prayers for our brothers and sisters who are suffering so much,” Father Enzo Del Brocco, CP, priest associate at the parish who led the service and has served in Haiti, told the faithful during his somber homily. “So much can be accomplished when we work together. And I think that tonight it’s important that we unite our souls together for our brothers and sisters.”     

The one-hour service was conducted with prayers and hymns in English and Haitian Creole. Father Del Brocco, a Passionist who is fluent in Creole, noted that New York was once home to Venerable Pierre Toussaint, and that the Church of Our Saviour (38th and Park) offered the service together with the Community of Sant’Egidio.                                  

Toussaint was born a slave in Haiti in 1766, and died a freeman in New York City in 1853. The Community of Sant’Egidio is a Rome-based, worldwide lay Catholic association dedicated to prayer, the poor, and peace.

“One thing that I learned during my years in Haiti is that the power of prayer is something that is very important to them,” Father Del Brocco said in his homily. Quoting a Haitian proverb, first in Creole then in English, he said, “With many hands, the work is light.” He also noted the service’s reading from the Book of John (5:1-18), when Jesus, at the Pool of Bethesda, healed a man who was crippled for 38 years. “This is what our Haitian brothers and sisters want – they want to heal from their situation,” the priest said.  

Father Del Brocco, born in Pittsburgh, has been a Passionist priest since 1991, and is currently a Passionist order vice-provincial in the United States. He served in Haiti for nearly six years, until December 2019.  

Adenald Fleury, 35, a Haitian-born Passionist seminarian based at Immaculate Conception Monastery in Jamaica, Queens, told The Good Newsroom after the service that his relatives in Haiti have not been harmed but he remains in constant contact with them. “The people are suffering a lot, and they are prisoners in their own country; we need to pray for Haiti, for the international community to help find a solution,” Fleury said.

Several dozen people attended the multicultural prayer service, including Paola Piscitelli, leader of the Manhattan chapter of the Community of Sant’Egidio, who led the praying of the Intentions. Father Del Brocco acknowledged the presence of Monsignor Kevin Sullivan, who is pastoral administrator of Church of Our Saviour and executive director of Catholic Charities of New York.   

Since the 2021 assassination of Haiti’s President Jovenel Moïse , the kidnapping of clergy and other Church staff by gangs has become a common occurrence. Political uncertainties have included last week’s resignation of Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and others are discussing possible solutions to halt Haiti’s worsening crisis and put together a transitional council.