Haitian Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot's Funeral

Funeral Held For Haitian Archbishop


Throngs of mourners turned out Saturday for a funeral Mass for the archbishop of Port-au-Prince, whose body was found in the ruins of his residence across from the cathedral after the massive earthquake in Haiti.

Haitian President Rene Preval was among those at the service outside the cathedral, and he prayed in Creole for Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot. Mourners lined up to pay their respects to the Roman Catholic archbishop, who was laid in an open white casket.

The cathedral's roof caved in during the January 12 earthquake, and a large pile of rubble blocked the front entrance.

A Mexican rescue crew pulled Miot's body from the rubble two days after the quake.



Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot


The funeral for Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot will not be held inside his cathedral, Notre-Dame de l'Assomption, because there is barely any cathedral left.

On Thursday, young men and women hacked at weeds in the courtyard in front of the cathedral's wounded pink facade, swept away rubble with straw brooms and cleared the way for rows of folding chairs. Saturday, the funeral Mass will be said here. The spot is not far from where Monsignor Miot's body was found. He died in the rubble of his residence on the cathedral grounds.

Monsignor Miot, 63, was a humble Roman Catholic philosopher-priest who shepherded a community of clergy ruptured by Haiti's political turmoil and a flock of faithful burdened by poverty. He was born in Jeremie, a town on Haiti's western finger. He was ordained as a priest, studied in Rome, served in a Catholic university in the capital and in 1997 was named co-adjutor archbishop of Port-au-Prince-a sort of deputy archbishop. He took over the archdiocese in 2008.

His archdiocese encompassed more than two million Roman Catholics. Fellow priests described a man of simplicity and piety. He ministered to Port-au-Prince's poor. He labored to make care cheap at Port-au-Prince's big Catholic hospital.

"He was a martyr all his life," said Father Edouard Ducarmel, the archdiocese's financial administrator. "When he was a seminarian, he lived with only two pairs of pants and three shirts."

The archbishop was found the day after the quake. Father Ducarmel helped drive his body to the morgue.

"His passion was prayer," Father Ducarmel said. "He was a simple man. Very simple." He added: "He had no other house but at the archdiocese. That's why he died here."

No one ever needed an appointment to see Monsignor Miot, said Father Yves Gerald Richmond, who had known the archbishop since 1992. "He always listened to his priests." Monsignor Miot was Father Richmond's philosophy professor.

The cathedral itself is, like most of Port-au-Prince, a sad ruin. There is no more roof. The tower is collapsed. A huge slab of masonry dangles from the north transept, as if it had been sliced from the building's body with a giant carving knife. "I think it can't be saved," said Father Richmond. "We have to rebuild everything."



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Sources: CNN, Wall Street Journal, Google Maps