Miami's Haitian community gathers in prayer as crises escalate in homeland and US

MIAMI (AP) — Packed pews, rollicking singing and emotional devotions have marked Lent worship services at Notre Dame d'Haiti, the Catholic church at the heart of the largest Haitian diaspora in the United States. For a community caught in the crossfire of growing violence in their island homeland and disappearing humanitarian protections in the U.S., clinging to faith in God is one of the few lifelines left.

“We believe in him. We pray for possibilities,” said Kettelene Fevrier. She fled Haiti two years ago under a temporary humanitarian program created by the Biden administration and canceled by Trump's, effective later in April.

At the weekend Mass closing a Lent revival program, Fevrier sang with the choir that kept more than a thousand congregants dancing in the aisles well past midnight. Singing is praying, she said, and she has two main intentions.

“First, that I stay here,” she said. “Second, that God will lead me on the right path.”

Among those swaying to the Creole hymns was Sandina Jean, an asylum-seeker who fled Haiti in 2023. In her increasingly gang-controlled homeland, such a celebration would be hard to safely hold, she said.

“Haiti is getting worse. We don’t have a home to go back to,” Jean said. “When you pray, when you come to Mass, it helps you to keep moving.”

Notre Dame d'Haiti was founded nearly 50 years ago as a mission of the Catholic Church in Little Haiti, a neighborhood near downtown Miami that grew as people fled waves of turmoil. About half a million Haitians live in Florida, making greater Miami by far their largest home away from home.

“Notre Dame d'Haiti is the point of rallying of this community,” said the Rev. Reginald Jean-Mary, who has led the parish since 2004. “We accompany Haitian migrants to integrate in U.S. life.”

Today, their greatest need is a sense of peace.

“People are very desperate, broken, hopeless and at the same time, they continue to believe," Jean-Mary said.

The gangs that control the vast majority of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, have stepped up the attacks that have killed thousands of people across the country and left more than one million homeless. Sixty thousand were displaced in a single month — a record — according to a late March United Nations report.

So growing numbers of Haitians have fled to the United States. More than 200,000 came under a “humanitarian parole” program created in late 2022 that the Department of Homeland Security said it would revoke in late April.

Earlier this year, the U.S. government also announced that in August it would end “temporary protected status” for about half a million Haitians. Their status had been renewed by the Biden administration, which had widely expanded that type of humanitarian visa.

Some Notre Dame congregants felt that these new arrivals strained available resources — and voted for President Donald Trump, whose immigration policies have found support among many in Miami’s long-established Latino communities, too.

But most congregants are still stepping up to help their compatriots who often sold what little they had in Haiti to take advantage of legal protections in the United States, Jean Souffrant said. He leads the Pierre Toussaint Leadership and Learning Center, Notre Dame’s social services hub, which offers free day care, job training, and language and tech classes.

Last week, one immigration session — held by Catholic Legal Services on church grounds — lasted until 1 a.m. because so many people lined up, desperate for advice, Souffrant said.

“It’s never been this bad” for Haitians in the U.S. and on the island, he said. “What a heavy burden, being told you’re no longer allowed in a country that welcomed you.”

Octavius Aime said the new arrivals’ difficulties affect the entire community, which he’s seen grow over 40 years at Notre Dame. Many are terrified to lose their work permits, which came with humanitarian protections, since their U.S. salaries are lifelines for families in Haiti.

“We’re hurting,” Aime said. "We are so worried, we don’t know what to do.”

The uncertainty makes it especially important to gather and uplift all Haitians at events like the revival, at which Aime volunteered. It centered on the biblical story of the Jewish people’s miraculous escape from slavery in Egypt after Moses parted the Red Sea.

The event’s motto was that nobody can close a door opened by God — or “Bondye” in Creole, which is derived from the French for “good God.”

“We all need it at this moment,” Savio Magloire said of the biblical message as he and his fiancee watched Mass projected on a screen outside the packed church. A few folding chairs were set up under the palms.

In normal times, the grounds would be full with the overflow crowd, but now many are too afraid because of their immigration status to be seen in public, said Sandra Monestime, who was sitting near Magloire.

She’s been coming to Notre Dame for more than 40 years, since she was a teen, and trusts that the intergenerational congregation with more than three dozen ministry groups will survive this latest period of turmoil because it’s “like family.”

Dressed in bright white with soft pink flourishes, a youth group called “mimers” — a Haitian tradition, they mime some of the liturgy through dance — led the Mass entrance processional. The children are both U.S.-born and new arrivals, coordinator Asencia Selmon said.

“That’s what the church brings,” Selmon said, of youth participation. “We help them to be involved in church, not only spiritually but socially. When the priests preach, they show people not to despair.”

That’s the message that Helene Auguste, a parishioner for the past 40 years, tries to convey to her brother, a teacher in Haiti. Every time the phone rings, she fears it’s with news he was killed in the escalating violence.

“There’s no life for the people of Haiti,” Auguste said, adding only the power of prayer remains. “Now you can’t talk to any people, you speak to God.”

And speak — and sing, and dance — to God is just what the congregants of Notre Dame do.

At the closing revival event, the faithful had lined up before 5 p.m. to enter the church — to get splashed, one by one, with holy water by a visiting Haitian priest. Eucharistic adoration followed, then a more than four-hour-long Mass and a reenactment of the ancient Israelites crossing the Red Sea to the promised land.

That's when music surged, and the faithful jumped to their feet, singing, as the celebrating priests pumped fists, clapped and swung to the rhythm.

Even the ushers, demurely dressed in white shirts, started rocking to the beat.

“If you want a stronger faith, an energizer, you come here,” Suzie Aristide, an usher, said. “Then you get out and you’re ready — your soul, your body, your mind. That’s what we are: our faith.”

The story has been updated to correct the spelling of Jean Souffrant’s last name.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Members of the "mimers" youth group dance as they process before Mass into Notre Dame d'Haiti Catholic church Saturday, March 29, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto)

Members of the "mimers" youth group dance before the altar as Rev. Reginald Jean-Mary diffuses incense on it before Mass at Notre Dame d'Haiti Catholic church, March 29, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto)

A woman in the traditional Haitian dressed called karabela carries a basket of fruit during the Mass offertory to Rev. Reginald Jean-Mary at Notre Dame d'Haiti Catholic church, March 29, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto)

Suzie Aristide, center, and other volunteers dance at the conclusion of a more than four-hour-long Lent revival Mass at Notre Dame d'Haiti Catholic church, early March 30, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto)

Faithful pray as the Blessed Sacrament is carried among the pews during a Lent revival faith service at Notre Dame d'Haiti Catholic church, March 29, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto)

Parishioners of Notre Dame d'Haiti process outside the Catholic church during a Lent faith event that reenacted the biblical story of the Red Sea passage March 29, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto)

Rev. Leonvil Canois sprinkles with blessed water the faithful as they line up to enter Notre Dame d'Haiti Catholic church for a Lent revival service March 29, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto)

Rev. Leonvil Canois sprinkles with blessed water the faithful as they line up to enter Notre Dame d'Haiti Catholic church for a Lent revival service, March 29, 2025 in Miami. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto)

A woman holds a rosary as she prays during an eucharistic adoration event at Notre Dame d'Haiti, the Catholic church at the heart of the Haitian diaspora, March 29, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Giovanna Dell'Orto)

Members of the choir at Notre Dame d'Haiti, the Catholic church that's the spiritual center of the Haitian diaspora, sing during a Lent revival Mass, March 29, 2025 in Miami. (AP Photos/Giovanna Dell'Orto)

BRUSSELS (AP) — A Russian missile strike Friday on the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih killed at least 12 people and injured more than 50, Ukrainian officials said, as U.S. and European leaders pressed Russia to accept a ceasefire in the conflict.

Three children were among those killed in the strike on the Dnipropetrovsk region city — the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — in what the regional leader Serhii Lysak described as a “fight against civilians.”

It followed a drone attack late Thursday on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, that killed five civilians. Emergency crews carried black body bags from a burning apartment building as onlookers wept and hugged in the dark.

Some of the 32 wounded, bloodied and in shock, limped out into the street or were carried on stretchers as flames shot from the windows of their homes.

“Now, I think it is obvious who wants peace and who wants war,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said at a NATO meeting in Brussels, referring to the Kharkiv strike. “We must get Russia serious about peace. We must pressure Russia into peace.”

Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for a full and immediate 30-day halt in the fighting, and the U.K. and French foreign ministers on Friday accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of dragging his feet in ceasefire talks to halt Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine.

“Our judgment is that Putin continues to obfuscate, continues to drag his feet,” U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy told reporters at NATO headquarters, standing alongside French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot in a symbolic show of unity.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Russia’s real intentions in the negotiations will become clear within weeks.

“We will know from their answers very soon whether they are serious about proceeding with real peace or whether it’s a delay tactic,” Rubio told reporters. “Now we’ve reached the stage where we need to make progress.”

A Kremlin envoy who visited Washington this week for talks with Trump administration officials said Friday that further meetings would be needed to resolve outstanding issues.

Kirill Dmitriev told Russian reporters that “the dialogue will take some time, but it’s proceeding positively and constructively.”

He criticized what he called a “well-coordinated media campaign and attempts by various politicians to spoil Russia-U.S. relations, distort what Russia says, and cast Russia and its leaders in a negative way.”

Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, was sanctioned by the Biden administration after Moscow launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. The U.S. had to temporarily lift the restrictions to allow him to travel to Washington this week.

Civilian areas in three other Ukrainian regions were also hit in Russian attacks overnight, officials said. The Ukrainian air force said that Russia fired 78 strike and decoy drones. Russia’s Defense Ministry said that its air defenses destroyed 107 Ukrainian drones.

"We see you, Vladimir Putin. We know what you are doing,” Lammy said.

Russian forces are preparing to launch a new military offensive in the coming weeks to maximize pressure on Ukraine, and strengthen the Kremlin’s negotiating position in the ceasefire talks, according to Ukrainian government and Western military analysts.

The planned multipronged ground offensive along the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line comes as muddy fields dry out, which will allow tanks, armored vehicles and other heavy equipment to roll into key positions across the countryside.

The United Kingdom and France are helping to lead a multinational effort known as the “coalition of the willing” to set up a force that might police any future peace agreement in Ukraine. A senior Ukrainian official said earlier this week that between 10 and 12 countries have said they are ready to join the coalition.

Barrot said that Ukraine had accepted ceasefire terms three weeks ago, and that Russia now "owes an answer to the United States.”

U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with Putin and Zelenskyy, after he promised last year to bring the war to a swift conclusion.

“Russia has been flip-flopping, continuing its strikes on energy infrastructure, continuing its war crimes,” Barrot said. “It has to be ‘yes.’ It has to be ‘no.’ It has to be a quick answer.”

He said that Russia shows no intention of halting its military campaign, noting that Putin on Monday ordered a call-up intended to draft 160,000 conscripts for a one-year tour of compulsory military service.

The two foreign ministers pledged to continue helping to build up Ukraine’s armed forces — the country’s best security guarantee since the U.S. took any prospect of NATO membership off the table.

Moscow’s measured approach to the ceasefire negotiations hasn't surprised Western observers, because its army has momentum on the battlefield.

A U.S. intelligence community annual threat assessment, published last month, noted that for Russia, “positive battlefield trends allow for some strategic patience.”

“Russia in the past year has seized the upper hand in … Ukraine and is on a path to accrue greater leverage to press Kyiv and its Western backers to negotiate an end to the war that grants Moscow concessions it seeks,” the report said.

Coalition army chiefs were due to meet in Kyiv on Friday. Defense ministers from the group will meet at NATO headquarters next Thursday.

Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the top U.S. general in Europe, said at a hearing before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington on Thursday that Russia is also rebuilding its military strength.

Russian forces on the front line in Ukraine now number more than 600,000 troops, he said. That is the highest number in the war and almost double the size of the initial invasion force, he said, and Russia is on track to replace all the tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and air defense systems it has lost so far.

In addition, Cavoli said, Russia is set to produce 250,000 artillery shells a month, allowing it to build a stockpile three times bigger than those of the U.S. and Europe combined.

Illia Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio boards to the plane after his trip in Brussels, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

People mourn over the body of a victim following Russia's drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Yevhen Titov)

Rescuers carry the body of a killed resident following Russia's drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Yevhen Titov)

Firefighters put out a fire following Russia's drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Yevhen Titov)

A resident responds to a fire following Russia's drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Yevhen Titov)

Rescuers carry the body of a killed resident following Russia's drone attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, late Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Yevhen Titov)

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy, left, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot arrive to address the media during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot addresses the media during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy addresses the media during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy, left, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot address the media during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy, left, and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot address the media during a meeting of NATO foreign ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)