Haiti Archbishop Killed in Quake as Churches, Cathedral Reduced to Rubble

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot, the archbishop of Port-au-Prince, was killed in the devastating earthquakes that rocked the Haitian capital Tuesday, Church sources said.

The archbishop of Port-au-Prince was killed in the devastating earthquake that has demolished the Haitian capital and taken untold lives since striking Tuesday, according to a dispatch from the Vatican.

The body of Msgr. Joseph Serge Miot, 65, was found under the rubble of the archdiocese, and may be one of only hundreds of victims trapped in the ruins of Church buildings on the island.

The apostolic nuncio in Haiti, Msgr. Bernardito Auza, said that the cathedral and all the major churches and seminaries in Port-au-Prince were leveled by the most powerful temblor to strike the island in two centuries. Hundreds of seminarians and priests were trapped in the rubble, he told Vatican Radio.

A priest at the French headquarters of Archbishop Miot's order, the Missionaries of St. Jacques, cofirmed to Fox News what he called the "sad and terrible news" of the Haitian archbishop's death. He had no further details of the status of clergy working in Haiti.

Click here to read a translation of the Vatican Radio report.

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"Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them.
A hymn becomes you, O God, in Zion,
and to you shall a vow be repaid in Jerusalem.
Hear my prayer; to you shall all flesh come.
eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord,
and let perpetual light shine upon them."