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Posted on Sat, Dec. 16, 2006

Notre Dame D'Haiti Catholic Church in South Florida celebrates its 25th anniversary of services.

RELIGION: Spiritual hub for Haitians marks 25th

Notre Dame D'Haiti Catholic Church -- which has helped thousands of Haitians -- celebrates its 25th anniversary Sunday.

It was nothing more than a school cafeteria, but to South Florida's Haitian immigrants it would soon become the place to celebrate their faith, fight for their rights and mourn those swallowed by the sea.

Boniface Laurent, 48, a respiratory therapist and volunteer choir director, remembers the inaugural picnic for Notre Dame D'Haiti Catholic Church in that cafeteria on the feast day of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in 1981.

More than 100 people celebrated Mass that day. There was feasting at the picnic -- and mourning. Thirty Haitians had drowned off the Florida Coast.

''The only thing that belongs to the Haitian community now is Notre Dame. . . . The church is our treasure. We put our heart there,'' he said.

Notre Dame still embraces the joy and calms the fears of the Haitian community in that old cafeteria, once part of a Catholic girls school at Northeast 62nd Street and First Avenue. Today, the church serves more than 4,000 parishioners and hundreds of others who come seeking more mundane services, too -- from children's day-care to legal counsel on immigration matters.

SUNDAY CELEBRATION

On Sunday, Notre Dame will celebrate its 25th anniversary with the return of its most beloved priest -- Pè Thomas Wenski, or Father Wenski, now the Bishop of the Orlando diocese, who was instrumental in establishing Notre Dame.

''Establishing Notre Dame was a way of giving people a place where they could be at home. Haitians in the 1980s were having a rough time. Immigration was hostile to them. Back then, we gave them English classes and job placement help,'' Wenski said.

It's largely because of Wenski, the son of Polish immigrants, that Notre Dame has become the spiritual hub of South Florida's Haitian community.

The church not only continues to serve struggling new arrivals from impoverished Haiti, it has inspired a generation of now-middle-class Haitian-Americans.

A TURNING POINT

Sunday's outdoor Mass will mark a turning point for Notre Dame.

A fundraising campaign to build a new church just steps away is almost two-thirds complete.

And many hold out hope to turn Notre Dame into a national shrine the way La Ermita de la Caridad in Coconut Grove has been designated a shrine for Miami's Cuban community.

''Whether we are Catholic or not, we are very proud of the church. It is part of our history in Miami,'' said Marleine Bastien, executive director of Haitian Women of Miami.

''When Haitians arrived in the early 1980s fleeing the Duvalier regime, they were rejected everywhere. The church recognized the need right away,'' she said.

At the center of it all was Wenski, who served as Notre Dame's pastor from 1984 to 1997.

When people's relatives died at sea en route to Florida or from political violence, he held their funerals. When things seemed better in Haiti, he held celebrations.

''We allowed them to express anxiety and hope about what happened in their homeland,'' Wenski said.

Wenski, then a priest at the Haitian mission at St. Mary's Cathedral, convinced then-Archbishop Edward McCarthy to start a Haitian church. Wenski and the late Rev. Marcel Peloquen, got the cafeteria at the former Notre Dame Academy.

''My job was to make the church visible to the Haitian community and make Haitians visible to the broader community here. I was always trying to tell people Haitians are part of the American story,'' he said.

SUNDAY CROWD

On Sundays, it is impossible to find a space in the parking lot, which doubles as an overflow chapel.

Haitians, Catholic or not, come from everywhere -- Pembroke Pines, Key West, even Fort Myers, said the Rev. Reginald Jean-Mary, Notre Dame's administrator.

The Mass provides the spiritual uplift the mostly blue-collar parishioners seek. Many Haitians work two or three jobs, or they struggle with unemployment, which is seen as a curse.

There are immigration woes, too.

For several hours on Sunday, Haitians forget about their worries. Everyone is equal in the eyes of God.

''People here are so rich with their love of Jesus. You would never know they had a problem,'' said Marie Boule, 26, of North Miami.

Fundraising to build a new church has been slow but steady.

Since last year, church officials raised $900,000. They need $500,000 more to meet their goal. In the past year, parishioners have helped pay for a new ceiling, tile floors, lights and chairs in the main sanctuary, as well as a new roof, new air conditioning and an alarm system.

`GENEROUS HAITIANS'

Gepsie Metellus, executive director of Sant La, Haitian Neighborhood Center, said Haitians are generous despite tough economic times for many.

'When you see people giving their time and money to the church, you say, `My God, this person has no business to be giving to anyone because they have nothing for themselves,' but they do and they are so generous,'' she said.

Wenski has seen a generation of Haitians thrive despite the tremendous challenges.

''I met people with their clothes still wet after they arrived by boat. Ten years later, I was blessing their homes. Now, they are seeing their children graduate from college,'' he said.

BITTERSWEET REMINDER

On Sunday, he will celebrate the outdoor Mass with Jean-Mary and Archbishop John Clement Favalora. It will be a bittersweet reminder to parishioners of all that Wenski has meant to the little church.

He was recently applauded by Haitian President René Préval for coming to the aid of Haiti with U.S. lawmakers in favor of a textile bill to create jobs.

He is also among top church officials who lobby for equal treatment for Haitians, said Cheryl Little, executive director of the Florida Immigrant Advocacy Coalition.

''He was of enormous help time and time again in advancing the cause of Haitian refugees and helping us call attention to the unfair and inhumane practices targeting Haitians,'' Little said.

WINNING TRUST, HEARTS

A generation ago, the young Polish-American priest who had lived in Haiti and speaks impeccable Creole still had to win over the hearts of some Haitians when Peloquen retired from Notre Dame in 1984 and some parishioners demanded a Haitian pastor.

But with time Pè Wenski won their trust and their hearts.

''He was always telling us that the God we served in Haiti is the same God here,'' Laurent said.

On Sunday, thousands will come to celebrate not only the church's 25th anniversary but to embrace the man who gave Haitians a home away from home.

Wenski has prepared his message for the faithful.

''Christmas is a bittersweet holiday. Jesus was turned away by the people who should have received him,'' Wenski said.

At Notre Dame, Wenski said, ``we opened doors. Here you have a place. Here, you have a home.''