Haiti's brief hour of hope:

...Too superficial a view leaves out the fact that the Haitian bishops, as well as the nuncio, supported the Ti Legliz, and supported Mission Alpha...

...In 1983, their pastoral letter, The Haitian Church's Charter for Human Promotion, launched the ambitious plan "to open the eyes of Haiti's poor" and to teach them how to read and write...

...A grass-roots but still publicly timid church inspired by Vatican II, Medellin, and Puebla gained tremendous impetus when John Paul II declared in 1983 in Port-au-Prince that "things must change...

...The events Wilentz describes numbed the bishops...

...I have much sympathy for most of Wilentz's retelling of these events and the dashed hope they represent...

...When I arrived in Haiti in February 1987, every crisis brought Haiti's masses to the nearest radio to listen to Radio Soleil to hear what the bishops would say...

...The problem of the exploited masses drew a compassionate response out of only a small minority of the clergy and religious...

...A number of threads run through these events: the brutal killing of opposition leaders...

...The scenario, however, does not lend itself to a good guy/bad guy picture...

...God looks at us, the people have their eyes on us...

...The name of the textbook and driving metaphor behind the campaign was Goute Sel, the Creole for "Taste Salt...

...What we have now is Duvalierism without Duvalier...

...It doesn't matter which actor is playing the role, it is still always Namphy and Manigat, the army and the corrupt politicians...

...In light of all this, Wilentz too readily accepts a vague conspiracy theory which neatly packages the enemy under the "American plan" and links the Vatican and the hierarchy to the ancien regime...

...Nonetheless, in spite of the bishops' pleas for unity in the church, their credibility is at a low ebb among active Christian and Catholic peasant groups...

...and the tradition of the church, a deviation...

...Keeping silent today is betraying God, the people, the church, and our mission...

...The Haitian bishops still claim "to walk with the people...

...In cruder circles they are dismissed as Macoute bishops...

...Jean Bosco are particularly well done...

...Baby Doc left and Haiti was ruled by a military-controlled junta under Generals Namphy and Regala...

...In spite of daily protest marches by thousands of young people and letters of support from a large segment of the Haitian clergy, Aristide was expelled from his order on November 8, 1988...

...Even Bishop Romelus, the courageous preacher of the Rache Manyok movement, remained silent...

...Instead she found herself amidst "priests (who) were openly at the vanguard of an uprising, the Macoutes were frightened, insecure, and the government informer was no longer sure who was bankrolling him...

...the arrest, harassment, and killing of community leaders and peasant organizers...

...in April 1988, they halted Mission Alpha...

...A broader historical view of the church would have avoided some oversimplifications which appear to lump the nuncio at once with Colonel Jean-Claude Paul and American imperialism, and simplistically identify the Haitian bishops with Duvalierism...

...The time has come to make a choice which will be a turning-point for the Haitian church...

...THE SALT HAS LOST ITS SAVOR Haiti's brief hour of hope JOHN P. HOGAN Much of the hope for a post-Duvalier Haiti can be summed up in the central theme of the Catholic church's literacy campaign, launched in 1985...

...We are indebted to Wilentz...

...While the book suffers from cheap shots, fired, for instance, at Protestant missionaries and the papal nuncio and too much journalistic banter picked up at the Hotel Oloffson bar, it provides a window on the complex reality that is Haiti...

...It is these groups that heeded the 1980 warning of the Haitian Conference of Religious: Woe betide you and us if we do not preach the Gospel...

...While the nuncio and the bishops have reneged on their earlier stand and lost their leadership roles, the picture is more complicated than Wilentz allows...

...In truth, however, the credit for the downfall of Jean-Claude Duvalier belongs to other elements in the church: Radio Soleil, Cari-tas, Ti Legliz, the Conference of Religious, and Mission Alpha...

...Peasant leaders in the central plateau, priest activists in the Artibonite, as well as Mission Alpha and Justice and Peace lay workers were threatened and arrested by military and Ma-coute forces...

...The Duvaliers left Haiti in a zombie state and the heir-apparent generals have proven totally inept at bringing it back to life...

...She gradually realized that the palace is not all of Haiti and that the legacy from Toussaint L'Ouverture and Dessalines to the Duvaliers lives on in the deep divisions of class, culture, race, and religion...

...Wilentz recounts their first meeting...

...on election day, November 29,1987, the day has been known as "Bloody Sunday...

...He is, for many Haitians, a prophet...

...The fast pace of violent events, fear of Communist infiltration in the church, as well as pressure from Rome and the Haitian military have all taken their toll...

...Salt is given to the comatose, enslaved zombie, the walking dead, to help one come alive and return to free human existence...

...Many Haitian Catholics, at all levels of the church, thought they were involved in, if not leading, a much needed revolution...

...This summed up Haitian hopes, especially since the forced departure of Jean-Claude Duvalier on February 7, 1986...

...However, no form has yet been mapped out for that "real change...

...Although this is only one part of her book, it is an important part...

...from the plan of salvation of Jesus Christ...

...The complexities surrounding the expulsion of Aristide from the Sale-sians, however, are not as clearly spelled out, perhaps because they were still unfolding at the time Wilentz wrote...

...Her grasp of voodoo is both serious and sensitive...

...Neutrality is taking a stand...

...It is apparent that the church, from the late seventies until roughly mid-1987, was the principal institution in Haiti giving impetus to peasant organization and development, literacy training, human rights, and support for the 1987 Constitution...

...Jean Bosco Church...

...I can't say why, but I too share that hope...

...Haiti's bloody history and most especially recent events are filtered through the lens of Aristide's political and theological positions...

...Haiti, like Caribbean rains, is unpredictable...

...I, too, saw the bodies left in the street for hours as an example to other would-be "agitators...

...It seemed like a joke at my expense...

...In spite of the fear and misery, Haitians still hope for the rain...

...Wilentz unfortunately seems to slip into this trap...

...Bishop La Roche's recent defense of Chavannes Jean-Baptiste and the Papaye Peasant Movement in the face of government threats is an eloquent example of this...

...We have to decide...

...She offers an eyewitness account of some of the major public events and fills page after page with direct dialogue...

...That would also be Aristide's view and probably the only one with any long-range hope...

...Haiti has long been wedged between fear and hope...

...An overwhelming turn-out to vote on a progressive constitution on March 29,1987, was followed by a bloody summer and fall of strikes, military repression, massacres, and mass arrests...

...confusion and despair are growth industries...

...But this is not the end of the affair, by a long shot...

...From 1983 to 1987, the bishops spoke out forthrightly...

...Rural community efforts were slowed down...

...Only after Francois Duvalier pushed the church out of the water and into the sunlight, did pastoral action on behalf of the poor in Haiti become prevalent...

...As a friend pointed out to Wilentz, "[t]he long view kept discouragement at bay...

...Therefore, the bloody attack on St...

...her depictions of ceremonies are graphic and illuminating...

...I also visited the twelve-year-old-boy who had his arm blown off...

...We're glad Duvalier is gone...

...Apparently Leslie Manigat was the only candidate willing to prostitute himself totally to the barracks...

...Since 10 A.M...

...She has given us a dazzling, multi-faceted portrait of Haiti...

...Jean Bosco's can only be interpreted as a final attempt to pull the umbrella of cover from church militants and in particular the diminutive, outspoken Salesian priest, Father Jean Bertrand Aristide, firebrand preacher, opposition leader, and chaplain to the street kids...

...In some cases they were, but a few eventually chose a different course...

...Kelly states, "During the first century of its institutional presence in the Republic of Haiti, the church shared the wealth and status of the elite segment of the population...

...She soon found herself with little to joke about and much to write about...

...Local church activists felt they could no longer count on the church for their umbrella of cover...

...The effort on behalf of the rights of the poor, development, and democracy grew so strong that many credited the church, particularly the bishops, with a large share in the downfall of Baby Doc...

...Institutional self-interest, the period of dechoukaj, and the events of 1987, however, appeared to burst the institutional seams...

...Namphy proceeded with his own agenda and set the stage for the bogus elections of January 17,1988...

...Aristide turned out to be right...

...When conflicts within the church erupted, especially Aristide's confrontation with his superiors and the bishops, and dialogue was needed, condemnations were issued...

...Central to the book is the place and role of Father Aristide or Pe Titid, as he is called in Haiti...

...This symbol of the church's commitment to Haiti's poor was silenced...

...Haitians are not interested in solutions manufactured in Washington...

...Namphy's thirst for power and, apparently, for rum, finally led to his collusion with the worst of the old Duvalierist forces...

...I saw Jean Bertrande Aristide a few weeks ago and he appeared hopeful and more relaxed than he had for months...

...Kelly uses the Haitian proverb, "Roche nan dlo pa konnin lapenn roche nan solez" ("Rocks in the water don't know the pain of rocks in the sun...

...The choice is clear: it is the preferential option for the poor...

...Although the book is short on analysis, a strong point in this almost stream-of-consciousness account is the author's willingness to put Haiti's political present in a long-term perspective...

...My eleven-year-old daughter became an expert on identifying the difference between M-16, Uzi, and regular rifle fire...

...They suddenly found themselves rerouted to a "restoration...

...I spoke to Radio Soleil staff members and they too still had hope that the bishops would back off...

...One day they will you know...

...But there is no doubt about it, pastoral action on behalf of the poor and oppressed did become the thrust of a large portion of the Haitian church, and the bishops, even if at times reluctantly, courageously supported such pastoral action...

...Beginning roughly in 1976, the Haitian church entered into a strong commitment to evangelization, social justice, and defense of the poor...

...The Duvaliers were on their way out...

...My only disagreement with Wilentz's account comes from its lack of analysis concerning the church's role in social change...

...Thus the title...

...This is certain and is a bone in the throat of American policy in the Caribbean...

...Fundamentally different vi sions of church coexist: one, decentralized, open to lay leadership, and provoking the upsurge of the Spirit from the lived reality of the people...

...We have grown numb to statistics that tell us that the real average income in Haiti is less than one dollar a day, that almost 50 percent of its children die before the age of five, and that 80 percent of the population cannot read or write...

...One is easily caught up in the sweat, rum, and relief its happy exhaustion can offer the desperate peasant...

...This Creole proverb sums up much of the relationship between the church and Haitian politics...

...It will come...

...Bishops, priests, sisters, brothers, and lay activists who had defended the poor from hiding places were now able to fight in the open...

...Diocesan Caritas offices and a number of church-sponsored training centers honed their own version of Paulo Freire's liberating pedagogy...

...The Soleil team, which let the Haitian people know what was happening to them, seems to be the next target of the Episcopal Conference...

...Between 1985 and 1987, an almost complete about-face can be noted on the part of the Haitian Episcopal Conference...

...the other, a top-down approach with initiatives coming almost exclusively from the hierarchy...

...That revolution has been boiling in our blood for too long now...

...James Kelly, who lived in Haiti in 1987, does a much better job of capturing the nuances in the senior thesis he wrote at Harvard...

...Wilentz seems unaware of this evolution...

...She does this by a series of flashbacks into Haitian history...

...The church in its own Charter paved the way for a new Haiti, but its own institutional interests proved too strong to deal with a splintered ecclesiastical policy, internal conflict, and a divided and shifting military and oligarchic political system in the aftermath of Baby Doc...

...Haiti is another example of the pressures pushing local churches toward a conservative, uniform model of ecclesiastical organization...

...They could count on cover from the official church...

...coups usually occur when least expected...

...The opposition usually functioned under a broad protective umbrella of Catholic church organizations...

...Papa Doc had replaced the foreign bishops with what he thought were safe men...

...This led to his downfall and on September 17, 1988, he was given a one-way ticket to the same suite in Santo Domingo that Manigat had occupied...

...To speak about prudence can be a way to say no to the Spirit...

...Having lived in the same neighborhood as Wilentz during the events she describes, I found myself deeply moved by her account...

...It is getting late...

...But maybe there is still a chance that the bishops will realize that the church's moment in the sun was a glorious one- like that of the church during the first century.he church during the first century...

...State Department by preaching "the road to democracy," "Duvalierism without Duvalier" was the rule...

...When the rotund professor opposed Namphy in June, 19 8 8, he quickly found himself at the Concord Hotel in Santo Domingo and Namphy found himself back in the presidential palace...

...This time around, Haiti found itself being led by yet another of Papa Doc's proteges, General Prosper Avril...

...Their responses were few and diluted with ambiguity...

...Although placating the U.S...

...Uniformed soldiers and Tontons Macoute with machetes mowed down people waiting in line to vote...

...In The Rainy Season, Amy Wilentz captures these events in a kind of psychedelic walk, or, better, run, through Haiti's house of mirrors...

...In August 1987, a pastoral letter on the "popular church" used an old Duvalier tactic for dealing with opponents: leaving the impression that the progressive elements of the church had been infiltrated by Communists...

...She, like Wilentz, learned quickly where the good places to hide were...

...There is a kind of prudence which is a betrayal of Christ...

...In September 1988, he collaborated with the notorious Macoute major of Port-au-Prince, Franck Romain, in the gruesome murders at St...

...Until we change things for real...

...That's why we seem so happy...

...That they have reneged on that support, of course, is all the more tragic...

...Today hope is in short supply...

...But, like a Haitian primitive painting, The Rainy Season contains both wisdom and naivete...

...Until the people move...

...They also supported a Haitian version of basic Christian communities, the Ti Legliz, and a variety of peasant movements...

...The Salesian press communique, confirmed by the Vatican's Congregation for Religious, accused the priest of inciting the faithful to violence and class warfare and profanation of the liturgy...

...With obvious reference to the Gospel's injunction to be the salt of the earth, the phrase was also readily recognizable in Haiti's voodoo context...

...It is an evangelical option which in its radicalism, required our conversion and which will make us lose the support of the powerful...

...Wilentz arrived in Haiti expecting to write on the brutal reign of Baby Doc and the Macoutes...

...Today their messages evoke little response...

...the shooting of peaceful demonstrators...

...One characteristic stands out...

...By August 1987, after the Jean Rabel massacre, their message had shifted from "liberty and dialogue" to authority and orthodoxy: "A 'popular church' opposed to the church presided over by its legitimate pastors is, from the perspective of Jesus and the Apostles...

...Her accounts of the attack on the group of priests at Frecyneau in August 1987, and the massacre at St...

...While I write this, the most important program for Haiti's poor, Radio Soleil, is under fire...

...As one news magazine put it, "Le soleil ne brille plus a Radio Soleil...

...While such theories, I admit, become very attractive given the bizarre sociopolitical culture of Haiti, they leave out too much of the picture...

...While it cannot be denied that Aristide was acerbic and outspoken, it likewise cannot be denied that the church's umbrella of cover for opposition, development, and democracy had been by then torn to smithereens...