Let us turn to Our Lady of Perpetual Help, patroness of Haiti, to entrust to her the island nation, which has suffered Saturday morning a magnitude 7.2 earthquake. The country, the poorest in the Western world, has yet to recover from the destructive quake of 2010.
No death tolls have yet been reported, but heavy damage was reported in at least two cities. The quake was centered near Petit Trou de Nippes in the western part of the country, about 80 miles west of Port-au-Prince.
Haiti is already in crisis after President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated on July 7.
Haiti has one cardinal, its first ever, Chibly Langlois, bishop of Les Cayes and president of Haiti’s Bishops’ Conference. Pope Francis named him a cardinal in 2014.
In addition to Our Lady, let us also call on the intercession of Venerable Pierre Toussaint (1766-1853) who was born into slavery in Haiti, where he was baptized Catholic. He was brought to New York City, and is the only layperson to be buried beneath the main altar at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
