"I cannot imagine Haiti Could Suffer Even More"

Over 100,000 dead. What a sad day.

The National Catholic Reporter has more first hand harrowing details. Tom Roberts reports.

The Jan. 12 news that a 7.0 earthquake had hit Haiti near the capital city of Port au Prince held a special poignancy for me because I had just finished writing a story for NCR about an October trip I took to Haiti’s northern section and the Dominican Republic.

It would have been difficult to imagine anything getting worse in the poorest country in the hemisphere, where very little works, where 80 percent of the population lives in poverty, where a series of tropical storms battered portions of the country in 2008 and where chaos, violence and political instability are everyday fare. And in an instant things got much worse.

The trip in October was sponsored and planned by Catholic Relief Services, which has worked in Haiti for 55 years. It’s one of CRS’s largest operations and includes dozens of international staff and more than 200 Haitians. John Rivera, director of communications for CRS in Baltimore, said Jan. 12 that all of the staff in Haiti appeared to be safe.

Karel Zelenka, CRS country representative in Haiti who has had experience bringing relief to war zones and areas affected by natural disasters, send a communiqué calling the earthquake “a disaster of the century,” adding, “we should be prepared for thousands and thousands of dead and injured.”

Experts say that an earthquake of this magnitude would cause significant damage in most places. It is reasonable, then, to expect the effect to b e multiplied in a place like Haiti where there is negligible infrastructure, poor communications and where building standards are lax, if not non-existent.

“We have a terrible problem with communications – only incoming calls,” wrote Zelenka. “We tried to organize this morning and contact UN, OFDA and Caritas. We might be running out of supplies ourselves – water and food. … No organized rescue efforts yet– all done by individuals with bare hands. Damage incredible all around, but our offices seem fine. Some major buildings are gone – the hotel Montana, the National Palace etc.

All (American Airlines) flights canceled until this weekend. UN has only 4 helicopters, two were seen early this morning doing surveys, otherwise no movement of any rescue vehicles / people. Most in a shock. …On radio stations only wild music. People have been screaming and praying all over the place throughout the night. It is a disaster of the century, we should be prepared for thousands and thousands of dead and injured.”

Read more about it here.

NCR Touts Googling God Blog

Heidi Schlumpf formerly of US Catholic and now writing for NCR has an excellent piece on progressive Catholic bloggers including Deacon Greg and yours truly amongst others in the National Catholic Reporter.

My theory is that those who feel outside the mainstream are more likely to take advantage of alternative media like blogs. And traditionalist Catholics are still outside the mainstream of American Catholicism (if you look at the entire church, not just the hierarchy). Most prominent national Catholic publications are still moderate-to-progressive and feature more liberal bloggers, including National Catholic Reporter’s own NCR Today, whose writers include NCR editors and contributors from all over the country, including yours truly. (Commercial break: If you haven’t checked out NCR Today yet, you’ll find lots of interesting news and opinion there, including a “Morning Briefing” first thing every day.)

Other progressive bloggers write for America’s In All Things, Commonweal’s Dot Commonweal and U.S. Catholic’s blogs. But there are also a number of individual bloggers who favor a post-Vatican II type of Catholicism. Here are some of my favorites:

The Deacon’s Bench (deacbench.blogspot.com), by Greg Kandra, a deacon in the Brooklyn, N.Y., diocese who used to work for CBS News, now for the diocese’s cable channel. His blog is very newsy and updated daily. If you read this blog, you’ll be up on most of the major Catholic news stories.

Googling God (googlinggod.blogspot.com), by Mike Hayes, an expert in young adult ministry who cofounded BustedHalo.com, an online Catholic site for young adults. Blogging since 2005, Hayes just took a job as campus minister at St. Joseph’s University Parish in Buffalo, N.Y. He has a nice mix of personal stories and links to other Catholic and religious material.


Ad Dominum (ad-dominum.com), by “Thom,” a secular Franciscan and reference librarian whose blog description promises “progressive theology, traditional liturgy.” I know you’re thinking, “A librarian and a liturgist?” But trust me, he’s interesting -- even if he does like to dissect every Mass (most recently Ted Kennedy’s funeral).

Catholic Anarchy (catholicanarchy.org), by Michael J. Iafrate, a singer-songwriter working on his doctorate in theology. With the tagline “vox victimarum, vox dei” (“the voice of the victim is the voice of God”), Iafrate’s blog covers politics, liberation theology and social justice movements. Anti-capitalism is a category; Dorothy Day is mentioned frequently.

The Ironic Catholic (www.ironiccatholic.com), by an anonymous professor of theology at a small Catholic university in Minnesota. The only female on this list, she is currently pregnant with her fourth child. This blog isn’t necessarily liberal, but it is funny with its fake news reports, “strange but true” notices and bad theological jokes.

Humbled and honored is all I can say to be mentioned with such prolific bloggers and by someone who is an excellent writer and reviewer of all things Catholic who I have admired for years.

Today may we all rediscover the gift of surprise, which I was indeed floored by today.