The cries of Haiti.....

(AFP)

I saw my first video images coming out of Haiti when I got home last night just before 7:00pm.  As with many of you, I have seen many images of earthquakes before.  However, I have never seen devastation like this.  I literally sat and cried with pity for the extensive suffering there right now - suffering that will go on for a very long time.  Some are suffering because they are injured, or because they have lost loved ones and friends.  However, there couuld be countless people trapped alive beneath that rubble who will never see the light of day again.  We have seen cases of people pulled out of such rubble after 10 days, barely alive.  Over the next two weeks, pray especially for those who are living and dying a very slow death in these conditions.  As some of them are pulled out, there is no helicopter waiting to take them to a nearby hospital - that too collapsed, taking with it skilled health care workers.  There is also word that an orphanage collapsed, along with a nursing home. 

Remember, this is an island.  There is no backroad into town.  There is no way to get a specially trained team to swoop in with survivor-scenting dogs, or delicate listening devices, robots and the like.  Nations who want to help in this way are hampered by a lack of infrasture.  It was difficult to move around Haiti before this earthquake, and now it is even worse.   Our countries, no matter how much they want to help, can't even get basic things like water or fuel in there in order to move things. 

Earthquakes do not discriminate.  Among the dead is the Archbishop of Haiti and other priests.  Along with the dead in the poorest of slums, are many diplomats from foreign countries. 

The Archdiocese of Detroit has a page set up for the Haiti earthquake relief effort.  Catholic Relief Services is already on the ground there in the stricken country.  You can send money through a provision they have on the web, or by check. 

Related:

• Papal Appeal Following Earthquake in Haiti
• Statement of Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron

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