Fr. Peter Arteaga anoints girl with head injury in Port-au-Prince hospital.
Times Online photo by Chris Harris
During long hours of relief work in a Port-au-Prince children’s hospital, Father Pedro Arteaga often looked to the Eucharist housed in a makeshift tabernacle. It was the only way to get through the constant suffering.
Father Arteaga, a Missionary of the Holy Spirit who serves at St. Matthew Parish in Hillsboro, rushed to Haiti in mid-January with food, water and medical supplies. A friend of his father founded an agency that operates the children’s hospital and orphanages in the country. After bumping to the Haitian capital from the Dominican Republic, the priest helped run an emergency pharmacy, led prayer, counseled the bereaved and spent hours anointing injured and dying youngsters.
The hospital, meant for 140 children, was filled with almost a thousand patients.
“The floors were crowded with children, women and men, old and young, most of them very poor, all with terrible injuries waiting for someone to help, to assist, to heal, to comfort,” the priest said during his homily back in Hillsboro Jan. 24.
Father Arteaga — who is fluent in English, German, Spanish and French — felt aftershocks and saw the intense fear of survivors, whose homes turned into projectiles and traps on Jan. 12.
Haitians often asked him why God allowed the earthquake to happen.
“I have to confess that I don’t have an answer to that,” Father Arteaga says. “These people were not more sinful than anyone else of us. But I know now that we all were called to become the answer.”
Aid for Haiti continues to be collected by Catholics in Oregon.
In the early stages of a count, the Archdiocese of Portland has tallied almost $120,000 given at Masses Jan. 23-24 to be sent to Catholic Relief Services. The Diocese of Baker has sent CRS its first distribution of money collected in parishes — more than $33,000. The diocese plans to send weekly disbursements.
Students at St. Francis School in Bend are collecting more funds.
“We strive to teach children that they are part of one human family and that we have a responsibility to help others, here and abroad,” says Julie Roberts, the head teacher.
The crisis in Haiti hits close to home for the school. Two St. Francis School students were adopted from Haiti at ages 1 and 5 and their parents know first-hand the oppressive poverty the island nation endures.
“Eighty percent of the people in Haiti live below the poverty line,” said Ryan Peters, who adopted two boys from Haiti with his wife three years ago. “There’s no real infrastructure, no stable economy. It’s horrible that this could happen to people who are so vulnerable.”
In Eugene, play rehearsals began in November for Marist High School’s musical, set on a storm-battered Caribbean island. Within hours of the magnitude 7 earthquake that struck Haiti, Tony Rust, Marist’s theater teacher, knew he and his cast had to take action. All proceeds from ticket sales have gone toward disaster relief and the 30 cast members collected donations at each performance. About $2,500 has been raised so far and sent to a medical disaster relief crew.
At Central Catholic High in Portland, a student committee has been meeting to decide on the best means of offering aid. Activities are being planned that will raise money for Medical Teams International and the Haitian Project. In one effort, students will forego new clothes and dinner out before a weekend dance, donating the money instead for Haiti.
Students at Catholic grade schools around Oregon have been collecting spare change for earthquake relief and have been learning about the crisis online. At some schools, fundraisers have emerged, from bake sales to paid-for greetings delivered to other students and teachers.
The University of Portland has accepted more than $12,000 in contributions to its Haiti Relief Fund. The university will split all money received evenly between Catholic Relief Services and the Holy Cross Community.
Cappella Romana, a choir that specializes in sacred music and that often sings at St. Mary Cathedral, gave a Haiti benefit concert last week.
