Archbishop feels Haiti's pain

As he stared at the sky above, he kept thinking, what if an epic earthquake had ripped apart San Fernando Cathedral or pulverized the Oblate School of Theology like seminaries here in Haiti? Imagine if dozens of parishes were suddenly erased.

The sense of destruction hit deeper as he pondered the lives lost, upward of 220,000, including scores of Catholic clergy. Among them was the beloved Port-au-Prince Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, who fell to his death from a balcony while trying to calm his flock feeling the trembling ground.

On Tuesday, Gomez and two other U.S. bishops paid homage to this devastated city and took a fast-paced tour of the most damaged Catholic-owned properties.

While they looked into the eyes of injured children at a Catholic hospital and listened to stories of tragedy from surviving Haitian bishops, they began to deliberate about the best use of a U.S. Catholic collection for Haiti's recovery that now tops $35 million.

Gomez, as chairman of the subcommittee for Latin America for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, is at the helm in determining how to spend it. A portion already has gone to immediate needs through Catholic Relief Services, a fixture here since the disaster.

But months of meetings and negotiations are ahead to sort out ideas for long-term needs. By the end of Tuesday's tour, Gomez put his finger on education as the most potent remedy for generational poverty wreaking havoc in Haiti.

“We could spend the whole thing in six months, but the needs aren't going to disappear in six months,” he said. “We need to find a way to be more deliberate. I have no doubt in my mind we need Catholic schools. Education is what gives hope.”

The schools would be a key part of rebuilt parishes also equipped with community centers, he said, but more money would go toward immediate relief as well.

With his profile growing in the international Catholic community, Gomez said he envisions coordinating relief funds from other national bodies of bishops — Latin America, Canada and Germany — so they agree on the same plan for spending in Haiti.