May 27, 2014 marks the 5th anniversary of the passing of Haiti freedom fighter, Father Gérard (Jyeri) Jean-Juste (February 7, 1946 – May 27, 2009). Jyeri was a Roman Catholic priest and rector of Saint Claires church for the poor in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He left the rest to us... Ezili HLLNetwork and Free Haiti Movement re-MEMBERS Father Gerald Jean Juste...Tribute to Father Gerard Jean Juste - Father of the Just by Professor Bell Angelot, May 27, 2009 (Translated from French original into English by Ezili Dantò/HLLN) * A powerful spirit has left this earth, and our mourning darkens the whole city. A griot left for eternity and the whole tribe is in tears. But though the prophet is gone, his light remains. The Haitian community of Miami has just rung the toll to announce in pain, and in a flood of tears the departure from this planet of Reverend Father Gérard Jean-Juste. Father Jean-Juste was one of the pioneers of Liberation Theology alongside Jean Bertrand Aristide of Haiti, Leonardo Boff of Nicaragua and Oscar Romero of Salvador. Father Jean Juste was the spoke-person of the poor, the homeless, and for all who thirst for justice. Father Jean Juste was a megaphone for the victims of exclusion, those hungry for love, those suffering from the selfishness of others and inequalities of all sorts. Father Jean Juste was the flag bearer for Haitian immigrant rights, for those without papers, for those who braved the shark-infested seas and for whom Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is still denied. Father Jean Juste was a man of justice, his very name called forth what’s just. One can well compare the struggle of Father Jean Juste to that of the biblical Moses who delivered his people from the persecution of slavery. (Let my people go! Moses said to the Pharaoh of his time). This cry of Moses came often of the lips of Father Jean Juste, the Prophet from Petite Place Cazeau, Haiti: “I have certainly seen the affliction of my people, I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows.” (Exodus 3:7). Father Jean Juste was a martyr. While distributing food to hungry children, he was arrested and tortured by the political dictators in 2005. Some months later, even in the deepest bowels of a church, the Sacred Heart Church of Turgeau, the very same church where Izmery was assassinated, drape in his priest cassock, Father Jean Juste was brutally beaten almost to unconsciousness, manhandled and humiliated, afterwards waking up in prison. Like Jeremiah the prophet, he knew the inside of a prison. Like Martin Luther King, Jr. he preached love. Like Mahatma Gandhi he lived non-violence and overcame violence. Just as Moses never reached the Promised Land, he too, did not see the day of complete liberation for the Haitian people... margueritelaurent/pressclips/JJTribute.html
Posted on: Mon, 26 May 2014 13:56:09 +0000
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