On Friday, the American Archbishop Thomas Wenski, delegate of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of the United States (USCCB), and his counterpart in Port-au-Prince, Mgr. Guire Poulard, joined the father Hans Alexander, pastor of the Church of the Sacré-Cœur in Turgeau, for the symbolic ceremony of the laying the foundation stone for the reconstruction of the church, completely destroyed during the earthquake of January 2010.

With a surface area of nearly 2,000 m2, with in the basement several mixed-use areas, this new temple will accommodate nearly 1,500 worshipers. The project designed by the American firm MSAADA, will be managed by the Operational Unit of Construction of the organization "Catholic proximity to Haiti and its Church" (Proximité Catholique avec Haïti et son Eglise - PROCHE). This reconstruction is funded to the tune of U.S. $ 2.3 million, mainly by the USCCB with a local contribution of the parish.

The project engineer Stephan Destin, said the building will be done in strict compliance with the seismic standards adding that the construction of the Church of the Sacré-Coeur, will serve as a model for other buildings of its kind to be implemented in Haiti, recalling a list of projects was approved in March 2012 by the Subcommittee on the Church in Latin America of the Episcopal Conference, which mention the reconstruction of several Catholic churches in Haiti.

The ceremony was followed by a Mass celebrated by Mgr.. Thomas Wenski attended by many faithful.

TB/ HaitiLibre