Pope appoints new Haiti archbishop one year after quake

VATICAN CITY (RNS) Pope Benedict XVI marked the first anniversary of
the Haiti earthquake on Wednesday (Jan. 12) by naming a new archbishop
for the country's capital city.


Archbishop-elect Guire Poulard will lead the Catholic Church in
Port-au-Prince, succeeding Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, who was killed
in last year's quake.


Recalling the disaster, which killed more than 230,000 people and
left more than 1 million homeless, the pope on Wednesday offered
Haitians a word of "hope in the current particularly difficult
circumstances."


"The time has come to rebuild, not only material structures but, and
above all, civil, social and religious coexistence," Benedict said, in a
statement read at a Mass in Haiti by the Vatican's Cardinal Robert
Sarah. The quake destroyed Port-au-Prince's Catholic cathedral along
with dozens of other churches.


The pope's message also noted "international aid which has already
demonstrated great generosity with economic support and volunteers
coming from all parts of the world" to rebuild the country.