Chicagoland

Seeing the face of God

By Joyce Duriga and Daniel P. Smith | Editor and Contributor
Sunday, January 31, 2010

Dawn Ribnek was on a hillside 10 miles from Port-au-Prince in Haiti when the now infamous 7.0 earthquake hit the poor country on Jan. 12. The nurse practitioner and St. Mary of the Angels parishioner, was part of the Little By Little medical mission team from Chicago that just closed up shop after seeing 1,000 patients at a small mountain clinic for six days.

Shortly after the quake the group climbed into all-terrain vehicles and made their way to a small hospital nearby to begin treating the wounded that were coming for help.

“Immediately someone in the group said ‘We need to start praying,’” Ribnek said. Someone said an Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be and they asked God for help with what they would face in the coming hours.

“Our group was definitely very prayerful. Everyone knew that was the only way we were going to get through,” she said.

They saw patients until early morning when an aftershock forced them out of the building.

In the midst of all of the chaos and tragedy, Ribnek said, they could see the face of God. It was there in the trust the Haitian people gave to these medical missionaries to help them. It was there in the grace the missionaries felt in doing whatever they could to help the wounded, using pipes for splints and ripped T-shirts for bandages when supplies ran out.

The group spent two more days in Haiti before they left.

This was the fourth medical mission trip to Haiti for Ribnek. She said she feels God put her group there for a reason.

“I feel privileged to be there when it happened. God put us there where we needed to be,” she said.

She wants to return but in the meantime is processing everything that happened.

“These [Haitian] people have suffered so much as it is, and to add this — it’s taking a lot of thought and prayer to get through this,” Ribnek said, adding that she often thinks about the people buried alive. “In my own personal prayer, I’ve been asking God: ‘I don’t know where every person is but you do.’ I feel like I’m able to reach all of the Haitians I have in my heart through God.”

Established help

The relationship between the Catholic Church in the United States and Haiti is not new. For the last half century, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has been in Haiti, gathering a strong familiarity with the people and landscape of the Caribbean nation.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, CRS has been distributing food and medicine at various sites throughout the country as well as helping with medical care at six clinics near Port-au-Prince.

“There’s a capable group of CRS staffers down there, many of whom are well-versed in the nation’s needs and issues,” said Adrienne Curry, Catholic Relief Services director for the Archdiocese of Chicago. “All of our workers have been accounted for and the work continues.”

While Curry’s office has fielded calls as far ranging as adopting orphaned children to organizing mission trips, she reminds that the recovery effort remains in its early stages. At this point, less than one month after the devastating quake, the needs of CRS are basic: volunteer medical personnel and donations of specialty goods, such as tents or medical equipment.

“We’re just not there yet,” she said of advanced rebuilding efforts. “We understand that people have well-meaning hearts, but the need is for prayer and money right now.”

A second collection for Haiti taken at recent weekend Masses entered Curry’s office and was forwarded to Baltimore, the national headquarters for CRS. As of Jan. 25, Catholics in the archdiocese had donated $230,958 through the local CRS office (Cardinal Meyer Center, 3525 S. Lake Park Ave., Chicago, IL 60653).

Local Haitian Catholics

Members of the archdiocese’s Haitian Catholic Apostolate have been praying for their loved ones in Haiti since the earthquake.

From his base at Our Lady of Peace Church, 7851 S. Jeffery Blvd., Harry Fouche directs the apostolate, which hosts approximately 300 active parishioners. Since the quake rocked the Caribbean nation, Fouche and his staff have been on overdrive.

“With this new crisis, we’ve become an information center for Chicago’s Haitian Catholics, so many of them looking for loved ones and wondering how things are progressing,” Fouche said.

With its regular Sunday Mass as well as social and cultural programs throughout the year, the apostolate functions as a parish within a parish while seeking to serve as the primary cultural and spiritual gathering place for the area’s Haitian Catholics. In the wake of the earthquake’s devastation, the apostolate has worked to be a conduit for information as well as comfort and prayer. On Jan. 17, Bishop Joseph Perry presided over a Mass at Our Lady of Peace Parish to intercede for the earthquake victims and survivors.

“The spirit of prayer and counseling has been a big plus for our community,” Fouche said. “So many of our families are struggling with this crisis and trying to cope with the news of loss and devastation.”

The Catholic Church in Haiti, Fouche confirmed, has been hit hard, with “no less than 13 to 14 parishes” going down. Many of the nation’s clergy were regular visitors to Our Lady of Peace. Haitian Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot died when the impact of the quake hurled him from a balcony.

“This is a tragedy that has really come home in so many ways,” Fouche said.

“We’ll continue much as we have — being a place for information, prayer and comfort,” he said.

Dealing with the fallout

In the weeks and months to come, the people of Haiti will need help coping with the mental effects of the tragedy. This is an area where Renate Schneider of St. Basil-Visitation Parish, 843 W. Garfield Blvd., hopes to help.

Schneider narrowly missed the earthquake herself. When the Hyde Park resident boarded a plane home from Haiti on Jan. 12 she had no idea that 45 minutes after her plane was in the air a violent earthquake would hit a country she has come to love and a people she has come to serve.

Schneider lived in Haiti for six years only returning to Chicago this summer after the worldwide economic crisis forced her job to be eliminated. She is taking classes at Chicago Theological Union and plans to return to Haiti in June.

In Haiti, she helped found Haitian Connection (see www.haitianconnection.org), which provides educational opportunities for children.

Since the earthquake Schneider said she has been in contact with friends in Haiti by phone. She said the people are feeling trauma now.

“They’re like in a daze,” she said.

Haiti’s poverty has made its people resilient and able to live on little so Schneider said she is hopeful they will bounce back from this tragedy.

But in the coming months they will have to deal with the effects of post-traumatic stress, said Schneider, who has a background in clinical psychology. That’s one of the areas she hopes to focus on when she returns to Haiti in June.

Even though her first impulse upon hearing about the earthquake was to immediately return to the country, Schneider said in times like these you don’t want to be more of a burden on the Haitian people.

“You really want to make sure if you go that you really have something to contribute,” she said.

Advertising