According to the United Nations, gang violence in Haiti has displaced more than 300,000 children since March. For months now, the country has struggled to control kidnappings and killings.
Here in the Diocese of Brooklyn, Haitians are praying for their homeland, asking for the intercession of Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The Mass, sponsored by the Diocese’s Haitian Apostolate, marked the feast day of the Marian apparition.
Every year, people from the Caribbean island remember and thank the Patroness of Haiti for answering their prayers and saving the country from a smallpox and cholera outbreak in 1882.
During this year’s Mass at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Sunset Park, Bishop Robert Brennan and the faithful prayed for Mary’s intercession again.