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Gerard Jean-Juste, spiritual leader of Haitian Americans, dies

Fr. Gérard Jean-Juste dies at 62
Related Content
Statement by Haitian Lawyers Association
Rev. Jean-Juste’s Guest Book
BY ELINOR J. BRECHER AND JACQUELINE CHARLES
ebrecher@MiamiHerald.com
The spiritual and political leader of the Haitian community in South Florida died in Miami after suffering a stroke. He was 62.

The Rev. Gérard Jean-Juste, the Roman Catholic priest whose passionate, relentless, 30-year human-rights crusade on behalf of his fellow Haitians cast him as their spiritual and political leader in South Florida, has died.

Jean-Juste was a liberation theologist, controversial in both the United States and his homeland, who battled the unequal treatment of Haitian refugees in the federal courts, in Miami’s streets and in the media.

He suffered a stroke recently, according to Ira Kurzban, the Miami attorney who represented Jean-Juste’s Haitian Refugee Center in several lawsuits against the U.S. government, and died Wednesday evening at Jackson Memorial Hospital. He was 62.

His death apparently was unrelated to the leukemia that Jackson doctors treated three years ago.

”The Haitian-American community has lost a visionary and a central figure who helped to establish the Haitian community in South Florida,” Kurzban said. “They lost a. . .friend whose arms and heart were always open.”

Marliene Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women of Miami, called Jean-Juste “an icon, someone who gave himself wholely, selflessly to others without any need to’’self-promote.

‘He was the greatest champion of refugees’ and immigrants’ rights, and he showed that we, as a country, could do better in the way we treat people who leave their native land to come here.”

Bastien said that Jean-Juste “goes all the way when it comes to defending the rights of the less fortunate. He fights with all his might in the pursuit of justice. He doesn’t stop to eat.”

Jean-Juste was an unflinching supporter of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and his Fanmi Lavalas Party. On learning of his death, Maryse Narcisse, a Lavalas leader and spokeswoman for Aristide — who is in exile in South Africa — said, “This terrible, terrible news. A big loss for us.”

Jean-Juste’s demands for Aristide’s return after a 2004 violent revolution, and his attacks on government corruption, earned him two prison terms in Haiti.

Unafraid to confront anyone, including Church superiors in two countries, he was suspended by the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince — and prevented from having his own South Florida church by the Archdiocese of Miami.

Some admirers called him ”St. Maverick.” He once said, “The taste of freedom for somebody else is a great victory for me.”

Former Aristide government Prime Minister Yvon Neptune has known Jean-Juste since 1965. They exchanged notes from adjacent jail cells after both had been arrested by the interim government of Gerard Latortue.

Neptune remembered how Jean-Juste’s passion for Haiti led him to return from Miami to work closely with Aristide’s administrations.

”He’s going to be missed a whole lot, and he’s going to be remembered in a very positive way even by some of his detractors,” Neptune said in Port-au-Prince. “Especially. . .in the 1980s, he was very instrumental in having the U.S. government consider the case of the Haitian refugees. He was very much involved in social work not only in helping the Haitians solve their legal problems but in helping them in many ways.”

Check out the full AP story here: www.news.aol.com/article/bill-clinton-haiti/488666
The United Nations named former President Bill Clinton on Tuesday as its special envoy to Haiti, with a mission to help the impoverished nation achieve some measure of stability after devastating floods and other crises.
Clinton — who will be paid $1 a year and travel to Haiti several times annually — said he was honored to accept the post.
“I believe Haiti is better positioned to make progress for all its people than at any time since I first visited in 1978,” he said in a statement.
“Last year’s natural disasters took a great toll, but Haiti’s government and people have the determination and ability to ‘build back better,’ not just to repair the damage done but to lay the foundations for the long term sustainable development that has eluded them for so long,” the former president said.

Congratulations! Thanks to your tireless advocacy over the past several years, the Obama Administration pledged $20 million yesterday to cover Haiti’s remaining debt payments to the World Bank and Inter American Development Bank.

In a speech yesterday at the Haiti Donors Conference, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced: “We will provide 20 million to help Haiti’s debt service obligations and to free up other resources.”

The $20 million pledge should cover all of Haiti’s remaining debt payments for 2009. Before the end of this year, Haiti is expected to achieve permanent cancellation of most of its debts by reaching “completion point” in the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) program.

This victory would not have been possible without your activism and advocacy for Haiti. Literally thousands of you have called, written, and met with your members of Congress, filled paper hearts and plates with messages for policymakers, organized and attended public education events, and given money to support Jubilee’s work.

Thanks and appreciation are also due to Representative Maxine Waters (D-CA), who working with Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) and more than 70 other Members of Congress, has been a tireless champion for Haiti in the US Congress. We also highlight the leadership by staff at the US Treasury and State Departments for their work to secure yesterday’s historic commitment. Check out our press statement and more background on Haiti.

As we celebrate and appreciate this victory, a note of caution — we’re not entirely out of the woods yet. The Obama Administration may require approval from Congress in order to obtain the $20 million needed to cover Haiti’s debt payments. And Haiti has not yet received permanent debt cancellation. The projected date for this has been pushed back more than once and it could happen again. We’ll need your continued support to assure these commitments are met.

Still, yesterday’s announcement is a victory for the people of Haiti and demonstrates the power of your solidarity and advocacy. Thank you!

From all of us at Jubilee,

Here are more pictures and videos from the 2009 mission team. This year we were able to visit four of the chapels in our sister parish. Our first stop was Bassin Medor which has been “base camp” for the last four trips. Bassin Medor is located by the river on a plateau.
One of the projects Father Jecrois would like to do is a solar powered water lift station and holding tank. The pump will lift water to a 500 gallon tank which will be used to provide irrigation for the plateau along with a tap to feed a water purification tank.
Our next visit was to Crois Lourdes on Saturday for a wedding, several baptisms, a first communion and a confirmation. The chapel at Crois Lourdes was a simple stick hut with a thatch roof and was decorated with white sheets for the wedding.
On Sunday we traveled to Mare Minerve which is the chapel the very first mission team visited in 2002. Mare Minerve is where Father Jecrois would like to make his home.
Mare Minerve is in need of several repairs. The church was damaged in the hurricanes of 2007 and needs some structural repair as well as re-installation of the main doors which blew off. The rectory needs a new roof, a kitchen and some indoor toilet facilities.
Our next stop was Ducrabon on Monday. The radio station “Radio Ave Maria” is still in operation and is used each Sunday to broadcast services and music. The projects Father would like to work on in Ducrabon are solar power and “fountains”. The solar power will provide lights in the classrooms to make it easier for the students to study. The school runs two shifts of classes Monday through Friday. The first class is from 7am to 1pm and the second from 1pm to 7pm. Since many of the students have a 2 hour walk to school and a then 2 more hours back home, they are either walking to school or back home in the dark through the mountains.
The other project at Ducrabon is the “fountains”. We discovered that the villagers had run 8 kilometers (that’s 4.9 miles or over 26,000 feet) of 2 inch plastic pipe up into the mountains to a spring. The elevation drop from the mountain spring to Ducrabon is approximately 600 feet so gravity is doing the work now.
Father would like to install “fountains” or faucets along this 5 mile run of pipe to give all the villages along the pipe route access to the water. At each faucet would be a storage tank to hold the water and provide irrigation.done

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 Our four person team from All Saints, Cedar Rapids and St. Mary’s, Vinton is back from a very successful mission trip. Our goals were to meet our newly appointed pastor, Father Jean Bellisson Jecrois, to visit with him about his priorities and our history with the parish of Notre Dame de Lourdes in Belle Fontaine Haiti and to visit four of twentyfour chapels in our parish.

Father Jecrois is very energetic and already very connected in his parish. Everywhere we traveled with him he was greeted with smiles and hugs. One significant thing we noticed was that we saw and were introduced to quite a few more local authorities such as mayors and territory representatives.

The roads were much improved and as we drove from Fermanthe to Bassin-Medor we saw nine road crews repairing the mountain roads. This is quite a drastic change from 2007 and 2008. Because of this work we were able to drive to Crois Lourdes (pronounced Kwa Lu), Mare Manirve (the first chapel visited by our first mission group in 2002), Bassin-Medor (the village we usually home base at) and Ducrabon (the large educational center for our parish). We were actually able to drive right up to the front door of Ducrabon which is a bit of a miracle considering what we saw for roads in 2005 and 2007.

Here are a few videos and enjoy the pictures below.

Look for more updates and the mission team members have a chance to type up their notes.
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Father Jean Bellisson Jecrois and Sister Yola

Food market on the way to the beach

Water taxi at the beach

Haitian public beach

St. Gerard’s church

St. Gerard’s church

Fr. Antonio Fele’s burial site at St. Gerards

Fr. Antonio’s resting place

St. Gerard’s church – Port au Prince Haiti

“drive-in” movies at Ducrabon

water main in Ducrabon

large field outside of Ducrabon

Field cultivator in Ducrabon Haiti

walking back from the Ducrabon water main spring

Field plots outside Ducrabon

Where the Ducarbon water main starts – 8 kilometers from Ducrabon

Ducrabon water main crossing a gap in the mountains – we thing the overal drop in altitude from the spring to Ducrabon is 600 feet.

sometimes the Ducrabon water main is above ground

beautiful gardens and gardener near Ducrabon

The nurses and first aid clinic in Ducrabon

Solar power which fed the tailoring school at Ducrabon

corn grinding “factory” at Ducrabon

School of St. John the Baptist at Ducrabon. Fr. Antonio had hand painted this sign.

The chapel of St. John the Baptist in Ducrabon

the “drive-in” movie screen at Ducrabon

newly added rooms and baths at Ducrabon

Starter plant groupings at Mare Minverve school

Mare Minverve school

Father Jean Bellisson Jecrois contemplating at the original site of the Mare Minerve chapel

oranges at Mare Minerve

Site of the original chapel at Mare Minerve

watershed catch basin at Mare Minerve – one of several at this site

Mare Minerve school and the mountain vista

looking outside from inside Mare Minerve chapel

interior of Mare Minerve chapel

Mare Minerve school

mingling after church at Mare Minerve on Sunday 2/22/2009

Father Jecrois celebrating Mass on Sunday 2/22/2009

Mare Minerve Mass was packed

Mare Minerve church

the rectory at Mare Minerve – much repair needed

exploring the road from Bassin-Medor to Mare Minerve

the view of the road to Mare Minerve from Bassin-Medor (squiggle at center top)

view of the river as it flows down to Bassin-Medor

Bassin-Medor as viewed from the top of “Radio” mountain

We will be visiting Mare-Minerve, Croix Lourde, Bassin Medor and Ducrabon during our Feb 18 – 26 mission trip. The primary purpose of this trip is to meet our new pastor, Father Jean Bellisson Jecrois and to learn from him what he sees as the needs in our sister parish and how we can help him accomplish his mission.

Where we think the chapels in our sister parish are located

http://haitisupport.gn.apc.org/fea_news_main.html

2009
JANUARY
1 January – President Rene Preval told Haitians to avoid rosy expectations for 2009 following the hardships of 2008, as he celebrated the 205th anniversary of the country’s independence from France. “We can’t forget how 2008 shook Haiti,” Preval told government officials and the public at a square commemorating the heroes of Haiti’s independence, in Gonaives, 153 kilometers (95 miles) north of Port-Au-Prince. Last year, the impoverished nation was hit by April food riots that killed six people, followed by four devastating hurricanes in August and September that killed 793 people and caused half a billion dollars in damages. A school collapse in November killed 91. “Due to the global economic crisis, Haiti will suffer in 2009,” Preval said. But he offered several proposals “to change the situation.” “First, 2009 will be the year of big road building in Haiti; and second, we must continue to build peace, because peace is the way to end foreign troop presence in Haiti. It is also the path to investment.”

Preval also said he would beef up government assistance and implement a program of public works for recovery in Gonaives, the city hardest-hit by the four storms in 2008. Among the hundreds who heard Preval’s speech in the city square were a group of teachers and students holding up billboards demanding government assistance to raise the city’s standard of living. (AFP)

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This couple was married by Father Antonio Fele February 17th 2008. We were fortunate to witness this ceremony during our mission team’s visit to our sister parish. The mission team was made up of members from All Saints and St. Mary’s parishes in Cedar Rapids and Vinton Iowa respectively.