On Saturday, June 15th, the Haitian Ministry program in La Sagrada Familia Parish celebrated its fifth anniversary. As you may know, the Dominican Republic has a great flux of Haitian immigrants. There lives about 5000 Haitian immigrants in the parish territory, most of which are undocumented and work as agricultural and construction laborers. The Haitians in the Domican Republic suffer many abuses when they try to get a step ahead in the neighboring country. Due to cultural differences including language and complicated historical and socio-economic differences, the fact is there exists a strong distrust towards Haitians in the Dominican society, resulting in discrimination in many different ways. In La Sagrada Familia Parish we give priority to the pastoral and social work in the local Haitian population and their integration into the country, respecting their culture and traditions. We are proud that the parish, and thus Church, is a place where they can encounter security, dignity and support, and is also a setting for intercultural dialogue. This is why the celebration is a significant event for the entire parish community.
No comments:
Post a Comment