Religious freedom festival in Haiti highlights peaceful coexistence

From left: John Graz, secretary-general of the International Religious Liberty Association; Elie Henry, executive secretary of the church’s Inter-American Division; and Theart St. Pierre, president of the Haitian Union Mission at Haiti’s first festival of religious freedom. The IRLA regularly sponsors festivals worldwide to thank government leaders for preserving freedom of belief. [photo courtesy IRLA]


Advocates recommend National Day of Religious Freedom in country

March 06, 2014 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | ANN staff

A festival of religious freedom in Haiti last month cements the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a leading proponent of free expression of belief in the country.

Organized by the church’s Haitian Union Mission and sponsored by the International Religious Liberty Association, the event drew more than 3,000 supporters to Port-au-Prince to celebrate freedom of belief and help raise the profile of religious liberty in the Caribbean.

The city of Port-au-Prince is still recovering from a devastating earthquake that in 2010 dealt $7.8 billion in damage to a nation already considered the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. Two hurricanes in 2012 complicated rebuilding efforts.

“The people of Haiti have shown great courage and an extraordinary capacity for survival. Religious freedom is a right that Haitians treasure, and are determined to keep,” said John Graz, IRLA secretary-general.

The festival was part of the first Congress of Religious Freedom in Haiti. Hundreds of lawyers, human rights activists, government leaders and faith representatives joined in two days of lectures and workshops that highlighted the largely peaceful coexistence of religious groups in Haiti and resulted in several recommendations.

The group pledged to organize the Haitian chapter of the International Religious Liberty Association and negotiate with the Haitian government to establish a National Day of Religious Freedom in the country.

Other recommendations:

• The Congress calls on government to preserve separation of church and state.
• The Congress condemns every act of intolerance, discrimination and violence directed in the past against individuals or groups because of their religion or belief.
• The Congress expresses solidarity with all groups and individuals who are victims of violations of religious freedom worldwide.

Marie Carmelle Rose Ann Auguste, Minister of Human Rights for the Haitian government, called religious liberty an “essential” human right during her remarks.

“It is through the free exercise of conscience that the individual soul and the soul of the nation is strengthened,” she said.

Francois Clavairoly, president of the French Protestant Federation, and a group of faith leaders from Paris brought an “international dimension” to the event, Graz said. Haiti is the only predominantly French-speaking independent nation in the Americas.

Other Protestant denominations, the Catholic Church, Salvation Army and syncretic religions were also represented. Syncretic religions such as Voodoo are widely practiced in Haiti.

Another festival of religious freedom is planned for Port-au-Prince in 2015.

Adventist News Network

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Voodoo Brings Solace To Grieving Haitians

by Barbara Bradley Hagerty
January 20, 2010

Listen to the Story
All Things Considered
[4 min 32 sec]

Thony Belizaire/AFP/Getty Images
A Haitian woman observes a moment of silence after putting coffee and beer at the grave of her family during celebrations of the Day of the Dead in November 2006. The two-day celebration honors ancestors by visiting their graves and bringing their favorite foods and drinks.





January 20, 2010

Erol Josue lost more than two dozen friends and extended family in Haiti's devastating earthquake. The Voodoo priest, who lives in New York, says he has spent the past week saying traditional Voodoo prayers.

"We thank God that we are still alive," he says, "but we also pray to give a good route, to give a good path for the people who passed away. And also we pray to ask the question, 'What happened?' "

Spirit Worship And Revelations

Voodoo is playing a central role in helping Haitians cope with their unthinkable tragedy. Outside of Haitian culture, few know what Voodoo is. Elizabeth McAlister, a Voodoo expert at Wesleyan University, says at its core, the philosophy is really pretty simple.

"Voodoo in a nutshell is about the idea that everything material has a spiritual dimension that is more real" than physical reality, she says. "So everything living — but even rocks and the Earth — is considered to have spirit and have a spiritual nature."

McAlister says there is no unified Voodoo religion. There's no "Voodoo Pope" or central authority, no Voodoo scripture or even a core doctrine.

Thony Belizaire/AFP/Getty ImagesVoodoo priest Max Beauvoir (right) and another man pray in December 2008 during a Voodoo demonstration in Port-au-Prince against sectarianism, neocolonialism and the presence of the U.N. in Haiti. Scholars believe that Voodoo is a derivative of African religions thought to be over 10,000 years old.


"It's a religion that really operates through revelation," she says. "So people can receive dreams or visions, and even be possessed by spirits, and that spirit can tell them something, and that's the revelation."

Widespread Below The Surface

And yet, Haitian Voodoo blends many of its rituals and beliefs — which came with the slaves from Africa — with Western Catholicism. For example, Voodoo believers worship Le Grand Maitre, or Grand Master, who is the equivalent of the Christian God.

They pray to loa, or spirits, who then intercede with God on their behalf — just as Catholics pray to saints. Voodoo believers also revere their ancestors, who guide them through their daily difficulties.

On the books, 80 percent of Haitians say they are Catholic. But Josue says Voodoo is widespread — just under the surface.

"Haiti is not a Catholic country," he says. "Haiti is a Voodoo country."

Apparently that's what Pat Robertson thinks as well. Less than a day after the earthquake, the televangelist declared that Haiti has been cursed since 1791 when, he said, Voodoo practitioners "made a pact [with] the devil" to rid themselves of French occupiers.


"They said, 'We will serve you, if you'll get us free from the French,' " Robertson said last week on his Christian Broadcasting Network. "True story. And so the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal.' "

Josue and others say that claim is outrageous. They never made a pact with the devil, and Voodoo does not engage in devil worship. And yet, he says many Haitians are asking why the spirits, who are supposed to protect their country, let so many die. He believes the spirits are angry with how Haitians have denuded the forests and mistreated the Earth.

"Haitians believe Haiti, she's a woman," Josue says. "We believe she's a mother, and [when] that woman got that pain, she [said], 'Enough.' "

Offering Comfort In Death

But even as Haitians mourn the death of tens of thousands of people, Voodoo gives them an eternal perspective, says Max Beauvoir, the supreme servitor of Voodoo, or the highest priest, in Haiti.

"The Haitian people do not get afraid of death," he says. "We are sure that we come back again."

After a person dies, he says, he or she goes underwater for a year and a day, then passes on to the next life.

"We believe that everyone lives 16 times — eight times we live as men, and eight times as women. And the purpose of life is to gather all kinds of experiences," says Beauvoir.

During those 16 lives, a person moves from body to body, country to country, attaining wisdom until he or she merges with God.

To help souls pass easily from death to new life, Voodoo priests like Josue preside over requiem ceremonies with water, candles, coffee and songs. But when death comes unexpectedly, Josue says, it's confusing to the souls. And now the earthquake has yielded another spiritual tragedy: mass graves.

"We have to make sure we bury our ancestors," he says. "We have to show respect to them. And to put them into a mass grave is no respect for our culture, no respect for our ancestors."

So today, Josue prays and sings, to help those souls find their way.

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Source:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122770590

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