MIAMI – On Sunday mornings at the Cathedral of Saint Mary, there is always an 8 a.m. mass in Creole.
This week, however, mass was a little different.
The leader of the Archdiocese of Miami, Archbishop Thomas Wenski, came to show his support for the victims of Saturday’s earthquake in Haiti.
Archbishop Wenski led the congregation in prayer as parishioners reflected on the tragedy.
“We come to pray and ask the Lord to give us the strength that will allow us, allow the Haitian people, to find the resilience that they have deep within themselves to survive this latest challenge to them,” said Archbishop Wenski.
North Miami Beach elected City Clerk Vanessa Joseph said the home her family in Haiti lived in crumbled.
Some of her family members’ lives were spared, but she’s worried about the relatives she hasn’t heard back from.
“I’m really thankful for the fact that my family, at least my aunts, made it out alive,” said Joseph. “I know that there are family that we have still not yet heard from.”
Saturday, folks gathered in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood to remember the hundreds of lives lost in the earthquake.
“We just can’t get a break when it came to COVID and the lack of vaccines that were being sent into Haiti, with the assassination (of President Jovenel Moïse) and now we have another earthquake,” said congressional candidate Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick.
The archbishop told Local 10 News’ Madeleine Wright that lots of people donated winter coats to support the victims in Haiti during the last major earthquake 11 years ago, but in a tropical nation, winter coats really weren’t that useful.
He said cash is the most effective way to help the victims.
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