Irish lay missionary, child among several kidnapped from orphanage in Haiti

A longtime Irish missionary in Haiti has been kidnapped in what may be a targeted attack amid that nation’s long-running armed gang violence and instability.

Gena Heraty was among several people — including a three-year-old child — taken in the early hours of Aug. 3 after gunmen breached the Saint-Hélène orphanage in Kenscoff, near Haiti’s capital of Port-au-Prince.

Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste claimed that the attackers were believed to be gang members.

The facility, which Heraty headed up, serves 240 children and is operated by Nos Petits Frères et Sœurs, established in 1995 as the expansion of Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos, an international outreach founded by Father William Wasson to serve vulnerable children. The network of charities spans 22 countries, and supports 3,200 children in Bolivia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru.

Both the NPFS and NPH offices issued statements on the attack, with the former describing the situation as “evolving” and “particularly delicate.”

NPH International confirmed that Heraty, director of its Haiti special needs programs, was among those abducted. It demanded “the immediate and safe release” of the group.

The organization said Heraty “has been supporting NPH and the most vulnerable populations in Haiti since 1993, with unwavering commitment to children and youth with disabilities.”

While NPFS and NPH put the total number kidnapped at 7, several media outlets reported 8 or 9 had been captured.

Tánaiste Simon Harris, Ireland’s deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs and trade, said in an Aug. 4 statement that Heraty has for over 30 years “dedicated her life to supporting the most vulnerable people in Haiti and it is imperative that she is released immediately.”

Harris said his office was “in close contact with the Heraty family, local authorities and Nos Petit Frères et Soeurs.”

The Tánaiste said he had “a good conversation with Gena’s sister Noreen and I assured her that all is being done to ensure Gena’s release.”

Harris also noted that “the country’s two ambassadors are also in close contact.”

“We will continue to leave no stone unturned to ensure Gena and her colleagues are released,” he said.

Heraty — a native of County Mayo, Ireland, and an acclaimed humanitarian who joined the lay missionary group Viatores Christi — told The Irish Times in a 2022 interview she remained committed to serving in Haiti, even as that nation has spiraled into chaos.

“The children are why I’m still here. We’re in this together,” she said at the time.

According to the University of Limerick — which conferred on her a 2006 humanitarian award — Heraty graduated with honors from the school in 1991 with a business degree. Following volunteer service for the Dublin Simon Community, she moved to Haiti in 1993 to care in particular for children with mental and physical disabilities.

Haiti has been plagued by multiple, sustained crises such as political instability, natural disasters, foreign intervention and international debt.

Some 5.4 million Haitians face “high levels of acute food insecurity” due to the armed gang violence, with 6,000 residents experiencing “catastrophic levels of hunger and a collapse of their livelihoods,” according to a report released in August 2024 by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.

In an exclusive April 2 statement to the pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need, Archbishop Max Leroy Mésidor of Port-au-Prince said the nation’s entrenched violence is constraining the church’s ability to serve.

“Twenty-eight parishes in the Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince are closed, while around 40 are operating at minimum levels because the neighbourhoods are controlled by gangs,” the archbishop said. “The priests have been forced to flee, finding refuge with their families or with other clerics. They need help. The archdiocese is also in difficulty.”

The archbishop also addressed the archdiocese’s men and women religious in a March 30 letter, telling them, “We are going through one of the worst periods in our history as a people.”

In reflections posted May 14 to the website of the St. Luke Foundation for Haiti — a Catholic nonprofit that collaborates with NPFS — Heraty lamented local gangs’ horrific murder of a young man named Emmanuel, who had served as a security guard at the home and had been active in a Catholic parish.

“You died standing up against evil,” wrote Heraty. “You died a martyr’s death.”

In a second post titled “Dark Days,” Heraty mourned that “Haiti doesn’t make the news,” even as there is “too much violence,” “too many senseless deaths,” “too many rapes,” and “too much sadness.”

She noted Pope Leo XIV’s “plea for unity” and his “call for peace and inclusion.”

“Let’s make it happen,” she wrote. “To have peace You and I must be peaceful.”

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