The Voice of the suffering and persecuted​

Bishop Rehmat said, “More than 300 people were arrested [following the attack], but it is unlikely that they will face justice. Slowly, they have started releasing them. Nobody has been charged.”

Though a minority, the Church has always been a “safe harbor” for the population, and at the start of the war, . Now this refuge is fragile.

“For over six hours, the bandits continued to plunder, burn, and steal. Finally, the religious and the staff members managed to escape. Some of them took refuge in the formation house, a 30-minute walk from the seminary, and others went into the streets, or in the cathedral, beside the school,."

Jesus was executed. Nailed to a cross. Inna felt her husband die twice. He was killed in the first stages of the war in 2014, and the city of Irpin put up a poster in his honor. She later learned that occupying soldiers shot through the poster. She felt like they killed him a second time.

"I realized later that I had been quite lucky. The driver of the car immediately after mine was shot dead, and if the priest who had wanted to accompany me had been in the car, he almost certainly would have been killed as well."

According to the United Christian Forum for Human Rights (UCF), an Indian ecumenical organization that tracks incidents of persecution against Christians of all denominations, at least 161 cases were reported in just the first three months of 2024.

"I am now starting my sixth year as the archbishop of Port-au-Prince, and it is really very difficult. Until now, I have not been able to achieve even a quarter of what I had intended, because one must cope with daily life – and this daily life consists of suffering, violence, gunfights, poverty, and deprivation."

"Good Friday has a very strong meaning because you see the suffering. We see the cross. Once we had a 24-hour prayer vigil in our church, and we prayed all the Psalms. We called the celebration ‘the Church under the cross.’ This is our place as Christians. We are the Church under the cross."

In their message, the bishops encourage all national agencies and players to find a solution to the current crisis and to restore peace and security for all Haitians. They also ask for the establishment of an inclusive transitional government, capable of ensuring true national harmony.

Both Muslims and Christians are leaving, but the number of Christians in Syria is so small that their departure would call into question the very existence of Christianity in the country. According to current estimates, only around 175,000 Christian families remain.