Haiti - Religion : Mgr Guire Poulard new archbishop of Port-au-Prince
Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday named, Mgr Guire Poulard, 69 years, as the new Archbishop of Port-au-Prince to replace Joseph Serge Miot, who was killed in the earthquake of 12 January. Moreover, the Supreme Pontiff chose to appoint Mgr Glandas Marie Erick Toussaint as auxiliary bishop of Port-au-Prince.
"It is now time to rebuild, not only physical structures but also civil, social and religious coexistence" said Benedict XVI in a message read at a Mass celebrated in front of the ruins of the cathedral by his envoy, the Cardinal Robert Sarah.
Born on January 5, 1942 at Lévêque (Petit-Goâve), Guire Poulard has spent the first twenty years of his Episcopate in Jacmel. Since March 2009, he was in charge of the Diocese of Les Cayes, where he succeeded to Mgr Jean Alix Verrier, who retired. Bishop Guire Poulard is known as a figure committed of the Catholic Church [the only representative of Haitian clergy to have taken public political positions against the drifts of Jean-Bertrand Aristide] it is the symbol of a commitment political and social of breakdown, which often disturbs.
