Our Sister Parish

In 1987, 85% of the parishioners of St. Francis voted to support twinning with a parish in Haiti. The parish chosen for us was St. Paul's, located in the small village of Leon, in the western part of Haiti. In 1988, four members of our parish, including our pastor at the time Father Don Worch, went to Leon to visit St. Paul's parish. In 1989, the pastor of St. Paul's came to Derwood to visit us. Since that time, numerous parish groups have traveled to Haiti. The pastor of St. Paul's usually visits us once a year. This past year, the children in Religious Education exchanged Christmas cards with the children of our parish.

A collection is taken up four times a year to support our sister parish. The money collected is used to fund projects that will benefit the people of St. Paul's parish and the wider community. These projects are decided upon by the Haiti Committee in consultation with the pastor and pastoral counsel of St. Paul's. This past year we subsidized the teacher's salaries at the parish school, Bon Pasteur (Good Shepherd), to make a quality education affordable to as many people as possible. What is more, individual parishioners sponsored 88 children who could not afford to pay the reduced tuition at our school or the books and uniform necessary, through Sister Davina, a Belgian sister, beloved by the community, who works with Caritas.

This past year we also built a second school building with a computer classroom. The computers will be donated by St. Francis of Assisi parishioners. The youth of the parish are also in the process of raising money through their "Hoops for Haiti" project for a basketball court for the school. They are hoping to sponsor a fundraising basketball game between D.C. Hood and the youth of St. Francis for this cause. We also are in the process of initiating a Clean Water Project for Leon, with the help of volunteers from Resurrection Parish in Burtonsville.

Through our personal relationship with our sister parish, we have grown in our awareness of poverty throughout the world, and in particular, Haiti. Every year parishioners who have visited Haiti speak at the masses to tell of their experience and the harsh realities of everyday life there. In the United States, being the richest country in the world, we take so much for granted. It is a blessing to be reminded of all that we have been given and of our responsibility to those less fortunate than ourselves, our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Please remember to keep our sister parish in your prayers, as they keep us in theirs!