The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Haiti issued a pastoral letter in January 2019 calling on political leaders to pursue peace and accountability as the country faced what the bishops described as one of its most serious crises in decades. The letter, read in churches across the country, urged both the government and opposition to prioritize the welfare of the Haitian people over partisan interests.
The bishops did not shy away from naming corruption as a root cause of Haiti’s troubles. They explicitly called for a full and transparent investigation of PetroCaribe funds and for those found guilty of misappropriation to face justice. The letter also warned against political violence and called on all sides to reject tactics that endangered innocent lives.
The Catholic Church has historically played an influential role in Haitian society and politics, and its interventions in times of crisis have often carried significant moral weight. The pastoral letter was seen as an important signal that the church would not remain silent while the country suffered.
Protestant churches and the Voodoo community also issued statements in similar vein, reflecting a broad consensus among Haiti’s religious institutions that the political class needed to find a way forward before the crisis caused irreversible damage.