The rhythm of the faithful. (The gifts we bring: the fifth in an occasional series celebrating diversity in the U.S. Catholic Church).

It is Sunday, May 12, and several hundred men, women, and children from all over Long Island, New York are gathered in St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre to celebrate Haitian Flag Day. The rices of the women and young gifts dressed in their Kaliko, the national dress of Haiti, are beaming with joy and laughter. The Haitian men who do not often attend Mass show up today out of respect for their wives and children and also because Flag Day is highly celebrated in Haiti. Everyone is in a good mood. Old friends greet each other with such bear hugs that you might think they've just won the lottery. Others mill around, admiring the beautiful altar and artwork. The rhythm of the drum is a prelude to the Mass that will be concelebrated by the bishop and the diocese's Haitian priests.

For a non-Haitian, it is hard to understand why Flag Day would bring so much joy to these worshipers. But for these Haitian American Catholics, their presence at this special Mass is a sign and recognition of the gifts that they bring to the church, as well as the gifts the church shares with them.

Spiritual celebration

Haitian Catholicism is marked by practices different from the rest of the U.S. Catholic Church. For instance, Haitians believe that God is manifested through language, art, and dance, so every Mass is a festive celebration. The length of the ceremony is not important; it's not unusual for a Haitian Mass to last more than two hours. We incorporate rhythmic songs that reflect our cultural history as well as our understanding of Vodou, the indigenous religion of Haiti that developed out of West African tribal religions. This combination of the cultural elements of Vodou and Catholicism has helped Haitians maintain a particular cohesion and national identity despite the tremendous odds that they have faced both in Haiti and the United States.

Before the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church in Haiti rigorously persecuted the Vodou faith and its practitioners. Foreign-born priests often went into the countryside to burn down Vodou temples and destroy artifacts that represented the faith. As a result, a number of precious objects were lost, and Haitians were made to feel inferior because of Vodou. Despite the years of persecution, however, Haitians did not stop practicing that faith after they adopted Catholicism. Instead, they incorporated Catholic rituals and practices in Vodou celebration while they continued to be faithful church members.

Since Vatican II, the Haitian clergy has introduced several elements from Vodou into the church. For example, the drum, which at one time was seen solely as a Vodou instrument, has become an integral part of the church's music ministry. Today the drum is used in some of our most popular and beautiful spiritual songs.

Dances and rituals with movement are part of our worship style as well. In a Haitian Mass, the offertory is an elaborate ceremony where young people dressed in traditional clothes dance to the rhythm of the drum while they bring up not only the wine and bread but also fruits and other local produce. The offering of local crops reflects the belief that we should thank God for giving us the fruits of the earth that sustain us. The sign of peace is sung in a colorful way as the priest and parishioners move through the aisles to embrace each other.

Our ways of worshiping are not limited only to the Mass. Our pilgrimages to holy sites in the U.S. such as the Black Madonna in Harlem often coincide with the celebration of the Vodou spirits. The Black Madonna has been the site of an annual pilgrimage for immigrants who cannot travel back to Haiti to renew their spiritual birth. While the Black Madonna represents the Virgin Mary in the Catholic tradition, in Vodou she represents Erzili, an important deity who is also dressed in blue to symbolize truth and virginity.

The feast of the Virgin Mary is one of the most celebrated events in Haiti because it brings together those who simultaneously practice Catholicism and Vodou. In fact, the most important saints in the church have been associated with Vodou spirits, and many Catholic holidays, including All Saints Day, Assumption, and Easter, coincide with Vodou festivities.

The Haitian community in New York--the largest in the U.S.--has only become visible to the larger society in the past 30 years. Until the middle of the 20th century, the number of Haitians migrating to the U.S. was negligible. However, when immigration law changed in 1965, the number of Haitians in the U.S. skyrocketed. Between 1971 and 1985, more than 100,000 were admitted into the United States. Today Haitian-American groups estimate between 600,000 to 1 million Haitians live in the New York metro area alone.

Long journey to justice

Pain and hope have marked Haitian immigrants' journeys to the United States. Most of those first immigrants were forced to flee their homeland due to the repressive rule of President Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier from 1957 to 1971. During that time, many families were torn apart, homes of opposition leaders were destroyed, and a state curfew was imposed. Government goons known as Tonton Macoute snatched away citizens in the dead of night.

In the 1970s, conditions grew worse: Brutal politics combined with an economic depression and famine. Many people died of starvation and disease. By the 1980s, peasants were encouraged to leave the land to work in the new assembly industries in Port-au-Prince. However, the new industries were unable to absorb the massive number of people who poured into the capital every year. For many Haitians, the only viable alternative to oppression, poverty, and unemployment was migration. Many arrived in Florida by boat, were incarcerated for illegal entry, and spent years in federal prisons in Miami, Guantanamo, and Puerto Rico.

Through those pains, however, hope came. The Catholic Church in the U.S. was one of the first institutions to provide Haitian immigrants with financial and logistical support. When Duvalier exiled the Holy Ghost Fathers because of their critique of his policies in the 1960s, the church in New York not only welcomed these priests but gave them a parish in which to work. These priests offered classes in Haitian Creole, the language of the country, and founded the first Creole magazine to promote the language--bold actions in a time when it was taboo to write Creole or even to speak it in public. But their most memorable contribution was the introduction of the drum in church services and the celebration of Mass in Creole.

Church-supported service centers such as Brooklyn's Charlemagne Peralte Community Center provided support to Haitian refugees in federal prisons in the late '70s and early '80s. Monsignors Guy Sansaricq and Rollin Darbouze became ardent advocates for imprisoned Haitian refugees and obtained church support for their campaign. Eventually, under pressure from the church and other groups, the Reagan administration released most of the refugees.

Haitian Americans have also joined with the church in "hometown associations" to support economic and humanitarian projects in Haiti. Haitian priests travel to the U.S. to raise funds for projects in their parishes and to give reports on their hometowns. Haitian Americans often remark that in the struggles to establish justice in Haiti and to gain equality in the U.S., the church has remained on the side of its people.

Therefore, it was not an accident that St. Agnes Cathedral was chosen by the community to celebrate Haitian Flag Day. The choice affirmed the gifts that Haitian immigrants bring to the church and acknowledged the church's continued companionship in the struggle to preserve our culture while assimilating into mainstream American society.

By FRANCOIS PIERRE-LOUIS, assistant professor of political science at Queens College, CUNY, and consultant for the Pacific Institute for Community Organization.