Fr. Mário Boies, C.Ss.R., provincial superior of the Province of Sainte-Anne de Beaupré (Quebec, Canada), of which Haiti is a Region, left a message at the General House today:
1 – No Redemptorists died in the recent earthquake. All are alive.
2 – One Redemptorist was slightly hurt.
3 – One Redemptorist lost his mother and sister. (There may be more fatalities among family members.)
4 – St. Gerard church in Port-au-Prince is in ruins.
5 – The new part of the student house was destroyed; the students are living in the garden.
This is the latest we have heard regarding our confreres in Haiti. Fr. Boies did not cite his source, but we presume this information is reliable.

Statistics
The Region of Port‐au‐Prince has 41 confreres: 19 priests (of whom 2 are foreigners) 1 deacon; 2 perpetually professed Brothers; 19 professed students and 5 pre‐novices.
The median age of the confreres is 34
1 confrere over 60
6 confreres over 40
18 confreres over 30
14 confreres under 30

The confreres live in six houses, five in Haiti and 1 in Guadeloupe, in llle Marie‐Galante. The residence of the regional superior is in Port‐au‐Prince, in the parish of St. Gerard, which serves a large population of about 100,000 of modest means. St. Clement house is the studentdate with thirteen students studying philosophy and five studying theology. A student brother lives in St. Gerard and is in his final year at the University where he has been studying com‐puter science. St. Alphonsus house at Jérémie, at the seaside, houses the novitiate and pre‐novitiate. Five pre‐novices entered in 2008. We have two parishes, Château and Fonfrède, in the diocese of Cayes. The community of Grand Bourg (Ile Marie‐Galante) has three confreres on mission in Guadeloupe, an island where we serve three parishes: Immaculée in Grand Bourg, Saint Louis in the town of Saint Louis and Sainte‐Anne in Capesterre. Two confreres are doing further studies, one in Rome and one in Canada. Two others are living in the international community and working at the Shrine of Sainte‐Anne de Beaupré, near Quebec. One confrere works with the confreres of the Province of San Juan for the Hai‐tian people. Two professed students will soon begin their studies in the studendate in Quiroga, Colombia. This will serve to unite us more with the northern sub‐region of Latin American. One of our priests died on August 3, 2008, at the age of 56. He worked in Belle Fontaine, considered the most difficult area of the country. An‐other confrere has been appointed to replace him for a year.

New initiatives – 2002‐2008
With an increase in our numbers we have been able to amplify our pastoral work. We accepted work in two chapels, which we had to construct, with much difficulty, in the Diocese of Cayes. This has been an enriching experience. In September, 2007, at the request of Mon‐signor Ernest Cabo, of the Diocese of Basse‐Terre and Pointe‐à‐Pitre, we accepted three new parishes on l’Ile Marie‐Galante in Guade‐loupe. This ministry has been very successful, according to the eccle‐siastical authorities. Two other new initiatives in 2008: participation in the international community of Sainte‐Anne de Beaupré in Canada and collaboration with the Province of San Juan. Two students were sent to Colombia to strengthen our links with the Hispanic world.

Apostolic work
We have given parish missions in more than ten parishes of the Arch‐diocese of Port‐au‐Prince. Parish missions bring us into contact with the poor and those who cannot or do not go to Church. The students help in the parish missions, which are coordinated by one confrere.
Parish ministry in St. Gerard is one of our principal apostolates. Our students are also involved in working with young people and a good number of our priests give generous service. This work also gives us the opportunity to work among the poor and abandoned.
We continue to accompany the Holy Family group. This is a group of lay people formed to strengthen Christian families and to conduct missions among the most abandoned in the Haitian countryside. We cooperate with them in the task of evangelizing.
The celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation is very significant in our Region and some people associate us particularly with this ministry.

Together with the broader Alphonsian family that includes lay peo‐ple, we organize the pre‐mission, which prepares people to partici‐pate in the mission. Then the main part of the mission lasts two or three weeks, followed by a renewal that seeks to consolidate what was achieved during the mission proper.

The new mission in the Dominican Republic has made us aware of the too often inhuman conditions in which our compatriots are liv‐ing. We are continually reminded of the motives that inspired the foundation of the Congregation, most abandoned poor.
The mission of Guadeloupe has expanded the Region, giving it a more international dimension. Because of these initiatives, our men‐tality has evolved, opening the Region to the world and to other Units of the Congregation.

Problems and challenges
The challenges we face are concerned with the formation of our young students, the mission, youth ministry, financial independence and becoming too quickly scattered.
Formation
Formation is still one of our main priorities. The intellectual forma‐tion of young people has suffered due to the breakdown of the edu‐cation system in the country. The Region, in spite of its scanty means, makes great efforts and mobilizes a lot of human and mate‐rial resources for this purpose. There is a need of more space so that the students can be separated into two houses, one for philosophy and one for theology. There is also a great need for better discern‐ment at all stages of formation.
Mission
Since 1998, we have begun again to conduct parish missions, both in our own parish of St. Gerard and at Carrefour‐feuilles, where the month of July is declared ‘mission month’, and in other parishes of the Archdiocese of Port‐au‐Prince, with the collaboration of the greater Alphonsian family. The strengthening of this group, through more and better formation, is urgent. The discernment of new methods of evangelization, adapted to modern reality, is also a chal‐lenge to be faced.
Youth Apostolate
Half the population of Haiti is composed of young people and they are among the most abandoned. We cannot speak of mission with‐out reference to this segment of the population. For this we need a concrete commitment, with a dynamic ministry adapted to their present situation and in accord with our Alphonsian charism.
Dispersion and financial independence
The dispersion of confreres abroad and self‐financing are major problems that must be solved.

The future
The future of the Region is very promising. It is in full expansion and already has 41 members, not counting the pre‐novices and about one hundred others who are interested in becoming candidates. The Region of Port‐au‐Prince, if it can develop the necessary structures for its development, will play an important role in the new evangeli‐zation of the Congregation.