Felician Sisters of North America Mission: Haiti

Being in a Trilingual Parish Community is an experience of the Holy Spirit’s power and the workings of the Spirit in the faith community.

Preparing models and samples for flocks of sheep to be made by our Confirmation Candidates as part of the service projects for those preparing for the Sacrament of Reconciliation for the first time…

Empowering those Called by Name and Chosen to be doers of the Word…

On the first Sunday of Lent in every faith community, when there are catechumens, there is the Rite of Sending and Rite of Election. This morning at the 9:30 a.m. family Mass, we had the Rite of Sending. Sister Inga is accompanying the candidates on this journey through Lent to the Easter Vigil.

At 4:00 p.m. the Catechumens with their sponsors met at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Miami. Catechumens from all over the Archdiocese were gathering. This was the second group to meet. The first group had met earlier in the day for the Rite of Election with Archbishop Thomas Wenski.

We have begun our Lenten journey of relationship and hope. In our Felician faith community we gather daily for prayer, adoration, solitude and mission.

We gather with the faith community to walk the journey together with Jesus and the CROSS.

The weekend of February 17-19, St. James had its annual family festival. It included a lot of food and rides. We worked the whole weekend in the raffle and information booth. We also walked around a lot and evangelized! It was blessed weekend and successful because the weather was good and loads of people attended. This was a real community builder! This was also a first for us after 10 years in Jacmel.

Continuing our mission to be about the spiritual renewal of the world and our call to prayer and adoration, we gather daily in our chapel. Already we have welcomed people of the faith community at St. James to join us. Simple, yet holy!

On Wednesday evening, February 15, Sister Inga met with the parents of the young people involved in the Faith Formation at St. James. She reminded everyone that parents are the first teachers of the faith. We gather to walk together to be “doers of the Word.”

On Monday January 30, Sisters Inga and Marilyn began a new journey to North Miami, Florida. The area is know as “Little Haiti.” “We were welcomed to St. James Parish by the pastor, Monsignor Chanel Jeanty. We do not know for how long, but we do know that it will be until we can return to Jacmel to the Felician Mission. We are already meeting and participating in activities with our Haitian brothers and sisters. The convent we live in is called Our Lady of Perpetual Help.”

On Monday, February 6, a pilgrimage statue of Our Lady of the Cape arrived at the parish Church. Mass and a candlelight procession filled the evening as many Haitians came to honor Our Lady.

The sewing school in the Felician Mission has started classes once again as the new month of February arrived. Junior Dessin who has worked closely with Sisters Izzy and Julitta is leading the classes while they are away from the mission. Weekly zoom meetings keep the classes updated and executed by Junior and his assistant, Shelda.

When violent demonstrations spread through Haiti, even charitable institutions were at risk of attack. Worried that their mere presence could endanger their brothers and sisters at the mission, and after strenuous urging from the American Embassy, Sisters. Marilyn Marie Minter, Inga Borko, Julitta Kurek, and Izajasza Rojek decided to return temporarily to the U.S.–but only after going to great lengths to secure what access they could to food and fuel for the mission and empowering local partners to continue their work. 

Felician Mission: Haiti has, from its beginning, worked to empower the Haitians it serves, and this approach has helped to keep the mission running during the current political crisis. The Mother Angela Kitchen has never stopped feeding people, and it continues to provide for all those who are working in the mission. Additionally, those who come to the gate to beg for sustenance always receive something to eat–oil, rice, or beans. 

In contact with clinic workers at least three times per week, Sr. Marilyn continues to manage the Mother Angela Mobile Clinic from the U.S. The clinic continues to serve 60,000 Haitians.

Sr. Inga, in the meantime, continues to oversee school sponsorship. With local partner, Annette, Sr. Inga is able to make sure that school tuition and exam fees are paid. “We work with people who could not go to school if we did not help them,” she says. “So we never stopped, even for a moment.”

Srs. Julitta and Izajasza keep up with the sewing school in collaboration with Junior, their local partner. Even the computer lab, which couldn’t be used for two months because violent demonstrations interrupted internet service, recently has reopened. The sisters look forward to re-starting their online English tutoring program.

For now, Sr. Izzy has returned to her home province in Poland, and Sr. Julitta is studying English in New Jersey. Sr. Inga and Sr. Marilyn will relocate temporarily to “Little Haiti” in Miami, Florida, to minister to the marginalized Haitian immigrant population.

“We have always worked to empower Haitians to help themselves,” says Sr. Inga. “And God gave us this time to adjust, to see how the Haitians can manage without us.” Sr. Marilyn, meanwhile, recalls the verse from Isaiah, “A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse.” She reflects, “As much as we feel like stumps, shoots are sprouting.” In this time of separation from their mission, the sisters continue to see the fruits of their ten years of labor–along with new possibilities for future growth.