Multicultural Events

The Haitian people are the poorest in the Hemisphere (per capita income: $380. per year) and they know it. Often they complain that the Lord has abundantly blessed the USA but that He has apparently forgotten Haiti. A few months ago, almost 70 Haitians from the greater Boston area came for three days to Immaculata Retreat House where they heard Archbishop Louis Kebreau, SDB, Archbishop of Cap Haitien in Haiti, tell them to stop complaining and stop envying Americans, because they were really the richest people in the hemisphere. He told them that maybe the Lord hasn’t blessed them with many material things, but that he had blessed them with something much better, a superabundance of faith, and that they were really, in the eyes of the Lord, the richest people in the hemisphere.

Fr. John Morin, OMI who is on the staff at Immaculata, and who spent 40 years in Haiti, works to bring the various Haitian communities of southern New England to Immaculata. The Oblates were founded to bring the Good News to the poor, and for more than 190 years they have done just that, missionaries leaving their country to work in foreign lands – today, they work in more than 70 countries. But now, the situation is reversed: the peoples the Oblates went to evangelize are now immigrating to the USA and the Oblates continue to evangelize those peoples, but here in this country. Today, Immaculata Retreat House conducts retreats for Americans, but also for Hispanics, Brazilians, Haitians, Polish immigrants and other ethnic groups.