Haiti-Bound

Late this afternoon, the New York chancery made the following announcement:

Archbishop Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York and Chairman of the Board of Catholic Relief Services, will attend the funeral Mass for Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, Archbishop of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, who was killed in last week’s catastrophic earthquake. The funeral will be held on Saturday, January 23, 2010 in the plaza in front of the demolished Cathedral.

Because he is the Chairman of CRS, the Archbishop was asked to attend the funeral by the Papal Ambassador to Haiti, Archbishop Bernardito Auza, and the surviving bishops of Haiti. While in Haiti, the Archbishop will also take the opportunity to offer support to CRS workers already working in Haiti and assess the progress of relief efforts being undertaken by CRS so as to help determine how the Church in the United States can best respond. He is scheduled to return to New York sometime late in the evening of Sunday, January 24.

Catholic Relief Services has over 300 employees working in Haiti year-round, many of whom lost loved ones in the earthquake. Additional staff and support have been assigned to Haiti in light of the tremendous need that exists at this time. CRS has been present and working with the people of Haiti since 1954.

Archbishop Dolan will be travelling to Haiti via private jet, which is being donated by a generous benefactor. Accompanying him will be Ken Hackett, President of CRS, and Monsignor David Malloy, General Secretary of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. CRS is the official over-seas aid agency of the USCCB. They will also be bringing some supplies with them on their visit.

Having compared the quake-ravaged country to "the broken, bloodied body of Jesus" in the immediate aftermath of last week's first tremor, Dolan's shown above following the first of two Masses he's celebrated this week for Gotham's Haitian community -- with 400,000 members, the diaspora's largest hub.

PHOTO: AP

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