Mother Mary Lange and Us - Heeding the Call of Providence : The Haitian-American Experience

Summary

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Around the same time, Fr. André [Pierre Toussaint], then Director of the Haitian Apostolate for the Archdiocese of Washington was discovering Mother Lange, thanks to an invitation by Father Cyprian Davis to attend a conference he was giving on "Black Catholics in the United States" for Black History Month. Like Fr. [Maurice Elder Hyppolite], he took action, and in March 2000 he organized a "Pilgrimage to the Sources on the step of Mother Lange." That inspiring first contact was me catalyst for me formation, in September 2000, of Haitian-Americans United (HAU) for Mother Mary Lange, Baltimore- i Washington . Fr. André later traveled to Cuba to do research on the Lange family. He was also a witness in me Diocesan Tribunal. Although he went back to Haiti in 2003, he has remained actively involved in the promotion of the cause of Mother Lange.

Again around the same period, Mr. Max Auguste of New Jersey had been promoting me cause of Venerable Pierre Toussaint, the former slave from Haiti, for 10 years, through his "Pierre Toussaint Center" and its trilingual newsletter (English, French, and Spanish) when he read about Mother Lange in books and articles about Pierre Toussaint. He contacted the sisters, became a member of the Mother Lange Guild and added a column about her in his newsletter. Recently, he renamed the center the "Pierre Toussaint and Mother Mary Lange Information and Services Center" and provides information on both of them. In 2006, Fr. Marc-Arthur François, the new Haitian chaplain of his parish, St. Patrick's Church in Jersey City, became an enthusiastic supporter of Mother Lange's cause, after Max told him about her. He instituted a commemorative mass in February to mark the anniversary of her death. In June 2007, he led a group of Haitian members of the parish on a pilgrimage to Mother Lange m Baltimore that Max had organized. Afterwards, the interest and excitement were so great that they already have plans for a 2008 pilgrimage that will include parishioners of all ethnic groups.

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Extract

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Mother Mary Lange and Us - Heeding the Call of Providence : The Haitian-American Experience

"The finger of God was at work!" As a Haitian-American, that's the only explanation that comes to my mind when I think of how we became involved in the promotion of the cause of Mother Lange.

It started when Father Maurice Elder Hyppolite of Haiti suddenly came across letters mentioning "Soeur Marie" and the "Oblates Soeurs de la Providence," in the correspondence of Venera...

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