AMERICA/HAITI – No news of the Clerics of Saint Viator missionary kidnapped while celebrating a funeral
Thursday, 16 March 2023
Port au Prince (Agenzia Fides) – “Father Jean-Yves is still in the hands of his kidnappers. They are not answering our phone calls and the pressure is increasing”. This is what Father Nestor Fils-Aimé, Provincial Superior of Canada of the Clerics of Saint Viator, reports to Fides about the story of the confrere kidnapped at Croix des Bouquets (see Fides, 14/3/2023).
“I arrived in Haiti on a pastoral visit on Wednesday March 8, 2023, he says, and it was Father Jean-Yves who came to greet me at the airport, then on Friday the 10th, he was kidnapped by an armed mob while celebrating a funeral”.
“Unfortunately – adds Fr, Nestor – kidnappings by armed gangs are the order of the day here in Haiti. I am always there to support and accompany my brothers in this very delicate moment. All our communities are united in prayer and we offer our Eucharistic celebrations for the liberation of our brother. We continue to receive many testimonies of solidarity, both nationally and internationally, and we are grateful to all for their support”.
The Congregation of the Clerics of Saint Viator, CSV, was founded in Vourles, near Lyon (France) by Father Louis Querbes on November 3, 1831. The Clerics are engaged in education at various levels and in church ministry, with an emphasis on liturgy and catechesis.
The Congregation currently
has just under five hundred religious, spread across thirteen countries on four continents. Lay people (men and women) joined the religious, sharing the charism of the Congregation. The Viatorian community has about two hundred associates.
The CSVs of Canada founded the mission in Haiti in 1965. They came to replace the Jesuits who ran the Major Seminary of Port-au-Prince and who were expelled from the country by the dictator François Duvalier.
Today, there are nearly forty CSVs in Haiti. They work mainly in the field of education through eight schools. They also administer two parishes in the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince. Father Jean-Yves Médidor is parish priest of Christ-Roi in Croix-des-Bouquets, stronghold of a criminal gang called ‘400 mawozo’. (AP) (Agenzia Fides, 16/3/2023)
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Publish date : 2023-03-16 03:00:00
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