As an estimated 350,000 Haitian immigrants to the United States face losing their Temporary Protected Status and confront the possibility of having to move back to their country that is plagued by gang violence and political instability, Cardinal Chibly Langlois of Les Cayes, Haiti, celebrated a Mass of Solidarity on July 28 with the Haitian community and those impacted by changes to immigration policy.
Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy along with bishops from across the United States have decried the Trump administration’s policy of mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, and Cardinal McElroy along with Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori and Bishop William E. Koenig of Wilmington, Delaware have joined U.S. bishops urging the Senate to pass the extension of Haiti’s TPS designation.
The concelebrants at the Mass at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Takoma Park included Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami; Archbishop Robert G. Casey of Cincinnati; Bishop Jacques Fabre-Jeune, CS, of Charleston, South Carolina; and 10 priests, including priests from Haiti serving Haitian immigrants in the United States, priests whose religious orders serve in Haiti, and priests whose parishes have longstanding outreach programs there.
The Mass was celebrated in French, with the choir singing songs in Haitian Creole, French and Latin.
As he opened his homily, Cardinal Langlois said, “Today we gather to bring before God the pain, sorrow, and anxiety of the Haitian community in the United States as they face the consequences of the end of Temporary Protected Status (TPS). This celebration is a profound gesture of solidarity by the Church in the United States and the Church in Haiti with more than 350,000 people who now find themselves in this difficult situation. We gather not only to pray, but also to remind one another that we are one family in Christ. When one member of the Body of Christ suffers, the whole Body suffers with it.”
Referencing the reading at the Mass from the prophet Jeremiah, the cardinal said, “Many families are living with fear and uncertainty. Yet Jeremiah teaches us something important: even when God’s people feel abandoned, they never stop turning to Him. They lift up their eyes to the Lord, asking for healing, mercy, and deliverance. We bring our anxieties before God, but we do not lose hope.”
Cardinal Langlois gave his homily in Haitian Creole, and an English translation of his remarks was shared by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The USCCB’s Secretariats of Migration and Cultural Diversity helped coordinate the Mass along with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington’s Secretariat for Evangelization and Synodal Renewal.
Earlier that day, the Haitian cardinal and the three U.S. bishops participated in meetings on Capitol Hill with U.S. senators and their staff, to urge passage of a Senate bill that would extend Haiti’s TPS designation, following the passage of a bipartisan bill in the U.S. House of Representatives in March that would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to extend that designation to 2029.
A Supreme Court ruling on June 25 paved the way for the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Syrian immigrants. TPS protections were first granted to Haitian immigrants in 2010 following a catastrophic earthquake that devastated Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and then the protections were extended several times over the years. Trump administration officials have vowed to end those TPS protections for Haitian and Syrian immigrants, and analysts say the Supreme Court’s ruling could impact 1.3 million immigrants from more than a dozen countries.
The work permits for Haitians with Temporary Protected Status expired on July 24.
In a statement on June 26, Bishop Brendan J. Cahill of the Diocese of Victoria, Texas, who serves as the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration, said, “Revoking the legal status of hundreds of thousands of people residing in our country creates a moral crisis when returning to their country of origin is not a safe or reasonable option. If we are truly to affirm the God-given dignity of every human person, we as a nation cannot turn a blind eye to such an injustice and the impossible choices it will create for families and communities.”
On June 29, the USCCB Office of Government Relations sent out an advisory encouraging people to contact and urge the U.S. Senate to pass that legislation extending Haiti’s TPS designation.
David Spicer, the policy and engagement director for the USCCB’s Secretariat of Migration, said the Haitian cardinal and the three U.S. bishops went to the Senate offices “to discuss the situation facing many Haitians in the United States, especially those who have experienced the loss of TPS, and to help increase understanding of the conditions in Haiti from the Church’s perspective.”
Spicer said those conversations included encouraging support for the Senate bill that would extend Haiti’s TPS designation, “as well as how immigration enforcement should be carried out in a humane and targeted way, with respect for human dignity, families, and communities… This is consistent with the call made by the body of bishops in November when it adopted its special message on immigration and what the USCCB’s Committee on Migration has been repeatedly asking of policymakers in the months since.”
In his homily at the Mass of Solidarity, Cardinal Langlois said, “God’s people are not governed by fear but by faith. We proclaim our trust in a God who opens a way even when every human door seems closed.”
Haiti’s cardinal added that “Temporary protections may come to an end, but God’s grace never ends. Human decisions may bring uncertainty and suffering, but God’s love and His faithful presence never cease. As disciples of Christ, we are called to be signs of that love by standing with those who are vulnerable and by working for justice with hope, charity, and perseverance.”
As he concluded his homily, Cardinal Langlois sought the intercession of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the patroness of Haiti, and he prayed that God would help Haitians remain steadfast in their faith and comfort families living in fear and uncertainty. He also prayed that God would “grant wisdom, compassion, and enlightenment to the leaders of nations, so that they may always protect the dignity of every human person and work for the common good, especially for the Haitian people.”
After Communion, Archbishop Wenski – who is a member of the USCCB’s Committee on Migration – spoke to the congregation in Creole. He has worked with the Haitian community in the Archdiocese of Miami since 1979, serving as the associate director of the Haitian Apostolate there and then as its director and as the pastor of the Notre Dame d’Haiti Mission in Miami from 1985 to 1998.
In an interview after the Mass, Archbishop Wenski said, “I tell people I still dream in Creole. That’s how it shaped me. It left an indelible mark on me.”
As he spoke to the congregation, he emphasized that Haitians are a resilient and a deeply religious people. “We have to have hope,” said the archbishop, who led the congregation in singing a song in Creole, with its verses emphasizing that through life’s struggles, don’t be discouraged or give up, but continue to move forward.
Archbishop Wenski in the interview said that ending the TPS status for Haitian immigrants will hurt them and their families back home whom they send money to, including to help children in Haiti go to school, and if they lose their jobs in the United States, it will have an economic impact on the communities where they worked.
Some of those immigrants, he said, had lived in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, where many homes were destroyed by the 2010 earthquake and in subsequent years by marauding gangs. The U.S. State Department’s travel advisory for Haiti recommends “do not travel to Haiti due to crime, terrorism, kidnapping, unrest and limited health care.”
If those Haitian immigrants losing their TPS status can’t work in the United States, “they won’t be able to pay their rent, so when they are sent back to Haiti, they’ll go back with nothing, and basically, they’ll have no place to go to,” Miami’s archbishop said.
Meeting with senators and their staff, he and the other bishops urged them to pass the three-year extension for Haiti’s TPS designation. “That will give us a reprieve, and hopefully give us some time to find other solutions,” he said.
Archbishop Wenski noted that if the Senate passes the legislation, it could be vetoed by the president, and a supermajority of two-thirds of the votes in Congress would be needed to override the veto.
“Getting that bill passed in the House was a small miracle… We’re looking for a big miracle now to get it passed in the Senate,” he said.
In another interview after the Mass, Archbishop Casey told how the issue hits very close to home for him. After being appointed as Cincinnati’s archbishop last year, “I realized Springfield, Ohio is in my diocese. They’re my flock. So this is important to me.”
During the 2024 presidential election campaign, then-former President Donald Trump and Ohio Senator JD Vance, then the Republican vice presidential candidate, amplified an Internet rumor that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pets, a rumor that local and state officials said was untrue. In recent years, more than 10,000 Haitian immigrants legally in the United States have resettled in that area.
Since then, Archbishop Casey has visited Springfield, talking to the Haitian community and other residents there. Describing the Haitian immigrants in Springfield, he said, “They’re good people. They’re hardworking. They’re family focused. They contribute to the well-being of the city that they now call home.”
He added that “for the most part, the employers have been grateful for this influx of hardworking individuals” who have served in a variety of jobs, including in the health care field as aides in hospitals and nursing homes, and in manufacturing and construction jobs.
Cincinnati’s archbishop said that if those workers from Haiti are forced to leave, Springfield may struggle to find other workers to fill those jobs.
Reflecting on the day that the bishops has spent on Capitol Hill, Archbishop Casey said, “I finished the day with a lot of hope, even though it’s not a hope that this bill is going to be passed. It’s a hope that there’s still an opportunity to support this community, and not just this community, it’s migrants across the board.”
In remarks after Communion, Bishop Fabre-Jeune – who was born in Haiti and serves as the liaison of the Haitian Apostolate in the United States and as a bishop consultant on the USCCB’s Committee on Migration – thanked Catholic institutions and community members for their support of Haitians in these challenging times, and he encouraged them to continue their advocacy and prayer.
“All of you are friends of Haiti,” he said to the congregation, which included representatives of some of those Catholic outreach programs.
He noted that day as the bishops visited the Senate offices, at times the effort seemed hopeless, but they came to the realization that “It’s not on us, it’s on the Holy Spirit,” and later in the day, a senator told them, “This is unjust. This is not humane. Count on me (to support the bill).”
In an interview after the Mass, Bishop Fabre-Jeune said it was fitting that their day of advocacy concluded with prayer. “Everything that we experienced today, we brought to the altar,” he said.
At the church named for Our Lady of Sorrows, he emphasized that Mary is also Our Lady of Hope, and that as people of God, they had come together “to have hope in the midst of sorrows.”
Charleston’s bishop also pointed out that he is a member of the Scalabrinian Fathers religious order. “Our charism is to care for immigrants and refugees,” so whenever he faces those issues, “it touches me personally,” he said.
In an email interview after the Mass, Father Luc Philogene, the chaplain of the Haitian Catholic Community of Washington, said the support of the Church for the people of Haiti is essential, “reminding our people that they are not forgotten and that God continues to walk with them.”
Haitian Catholics attend parishes across the Archdiocese of Washington, and Father Philogene celebrates weekend Masses for about 400 families in Maryland at St. Camillus Church in Silver Spring and Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Takoma Park, and in Washington at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart. He noted that in the Washington metropolitan area, several hundred Haitian families are enrolled in the TPS program, including many in the Catholic community.
“These are incredibly difficult times for our community,” he said, adding that Haiti is not in a position to receive those immigrants back at this time. “Our brothers and sisters who are beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) are good, honest, hardworking people – professionals who have contributed positively to this country and to our communities.”
Msgr. Pierre-André Pierre, one of the Haitian priests who concelebrated the Mass, serves the Haitian community at two parishes in the Diocese of Brooklyn, St. Clare and St. Pius X in Rosedale, New York.
Reflecting on Haitian immigrants losing their TPS status, he said, “It’s very, very sad. People have been here for many years, 10, 20 years. All of a sudden overnight, to learn they will be separated, husbands and wives, parents and children… It is not only sadness. It is a situation of despair for many. This is a disaster for many.”
The priest – who has served Haitian immigrants in the United States for decades, including starting that ministry in the Archdiocese of Washington – said, “I do not lose hope.”
Msgr. Pierre said the people of Haiti throughout their history have demonstrated resilience despite losing everything, and have relied on their faith and mutual support.
“That mutual support is something instilled in the Haitian soul,” he said, noting how the immigrants working in the United States send money to help their family members back home in Haiti.
He noted how those immigrants face returning home to Haiti, where gangs have burned everything down in parts of cities and towns.
Expressing admiration for the United States and its history of helping people in need throughout the world as they faced natural disasters, Msgr. Pierre said he hopes the country will remain true to that legacy as Haitian immigrants face a potential disaster.
“If we are indifferent to suffering, we become a dead society. Indifference is a death sentence,” he said.
The Haitian priest hopes that the American people will once again “respond in solidarity to those in need.”
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