Jan 26, 2010

CPC Fellow Margarita Mooney wrote to the Miami Herald editorial board about communities of faith in Haitian culture and the role they will play in the recovery from the January 12th earthquake.

An excerpt from the letter:
“As I write about in my book, Faith Makes Us Living: Surviving and Thriving in the Haitian Diaspora, because Haiti is so poor, others often interpret Haitians’ boundless faith in God as simply a crutch to rely on. However, as I found in my research in three Haitian Catholic communities of the diaspora (Miami, Montreal and Paris), the expressions of faith such as those Grimm describes — people coming together to pray, to ask for forgiveness, to thank God for miracles — help communities renew from within.

Clearly the Haitian people need all the material and logistical help they can get right now. But let us not forget that this inward renewal and community strength will greatly magnify any external help we send to Haiti.”

Access the complete Letter to the Editor (Jan. 24, 2010) “Source of strength and renewal” at http://www.miamiherald.com/456/story/1441250.html

Mooney has written other commentary on the crisis in Haiti on her blog at http://margaritamooney.blogspot.com/