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DeFede: Remembering Father Jean-Juste http://cbs4.com/defedecolumn/defede.jean.juste.2.1022579.htmlMIAMI (CBS4) ―
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"He spent his entire life fighting for Haiti," Kernst said early Thursday. "Fighting for Haiti to be better than it is now. Fighting for the people, fighting for the children to have a better life; that was his mission and he died for that cause."
Kernst told me his brother had been on a ventilator for more than two months and that doctors still were not certain why he died.
Three years ago, Rev. Jean-Juste battled leukemia but had made a full recovery. He was contemplating a return to Haiti but on March 8 was admitted into Jackson Memorial Hospital complaining of trouble breathing.
Shortly after entering the hospital, the respiratory problems worsened and he was placed on the ventilator. Two weeks ago, while still on the ventilator, he suffered a massive stroke and ultimately died Wednesday evening.
He was 62.
"It's a terrible situation," Kernst said. "It's just so sad."
A Catholic priest, Jean-Juste was not without controversy. He subscribed to a brand religion known as liberation theology and believed that priests had an obligation to play a role in the politics of their country to help the poor and oppressed. He was twice jailed in Haiti.
"He was for the people," his brother said.
His views also led the Catholic Church to strip him of his parish in Haiti and placed him frequently at odds with church leaders in South Florida, who he frequently criticized for ignoring the needs of the people.
But it was largely because of that passion that ordinary Haitians both in Haiti and in Miami revered him. And it is why he was often mentioned as a possible successor to former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who began his political journey as a Catholic priest, as well.
During one interview, I asked Rev. Jean-Juste if he wanted to be president of Haiti.
"I am a religious person," he told me. "I love the church work we are doing. I'm not interested in doing any other role, but what the people say is another thing. I never said I was a candidate, but if that is what they want, I can not rule it out because of the pressure I might get."
One of my fondest memories of the Rev. Jean-Juste was back in 2005. Supporters in the storefront headquarters of Veye Yo, the Haitian community organization he helped form in Miami more than a decade ago, surrounded him.
"I love it here," he told me on that day. "I love being here at Veye Yo. I love being on 54th Street again. I spent 20 years on 54th Street. This is a place Haitian militants will never forget."
At the time we spoke, he had just been released from a Haitian jail. Government troops had dragged him from his church in the slums of Port-au-Prince at gunpoint while he was feeding nearly 600 neighborhood children. He was charged with myriad crimes, including inciting violence.
But those who understood Haitian politics knew that his only real crime was being a supporter of President Aristide, who had been forced into exile several months earlier. When Aristide left Haiti in 2004, it was Jean-Juste who took over the call for change. And it was Jean-Juste's voice and personal appeal that threatened those who were in power.
Ultimately, after international pressure mounted, (Amnesty International described him as a "prisoner of conscience") all of the charges against Jean-Juste were dropped and he was allowed to leave the country to seek medical treatment in Miami.
The United States was familiar territory for Jean-Juste. He had lived here for years during the brutal reigns of "Papa Doc" and "Baby Doc" Duvallier.
And it was here in Miami where Jean-Juste's greatest accomplishments may have been made. He was the first ordained Haitian priest in the United States and became a larger than life force in the fight to help his fellow countrymen who were fleeing Haiti in ever-growing numbers in the Seventies. In 1978 he created the Haitian Refugee Center, whose headquarters were on NW 54th Street in a neighborhood that was quickly becoming known as Little Haiti.
Through his work at the Haitian Refugee Center, he sued the United States government, demanding it treat the arriving Haitians with decency and respect and that they be given fair and proper hearings on their asylum claims. He brought more than a dozen class action lawsuits into federal court on behalf of Haitians. And on three separate occasions, the cases he spearheaded were argued before the United States Supreme Court.
"His impact was monumental not only for Haitians but for anyone else seeking asylum," said Ira Kurzban, a Miami attorney who represented Jean-Juste and the Haitian Refugee Center. "The grassroots work that he was doing on behalf of Haitian refugees dramatically changed the law on political asylum."
Despite all of his work in Miami over the years – in the Seventies, Eighties and then again more recently – the Archdiocese of Miami refused to give him his own parish, fearing the controversy that would follow him.
"The Archdiocese of Miami refused to give him a church of his own," Kurzban noted, "so he ended up becoming a priest for the entire community wherever he went that was his church."
Community leaders were still reviewing plans for a memorial service, which will likely be held on June 6. He will also likely be buried in his hometown of Les Cayes, in southwestern Haiti.
As news of Rev. Jean-Juste's death spread through Little Haiti Thursday, the offices of Veye Yo were swamped with calls as people gathered to grieve for a man many believed was the spiritual leader of the Haitian community. A candlelight vigil was being planned in front of Veye Yo for 7 p.m. Thursday.
"He was a good guy," recalled his brother, Kernst. "He loved everybody, even if you did him wrong he still loved everyone." |
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