Pope Leo meets with Haiti’s prime minister

Walter Sánchez Silva By Walter Sánchez Silva for EWTN News

May 9, 2026 Walter Sánchez Silva News Briefs 0 Print

Haiti continues to experience a complex situation of violence and insecurity, particularly in the country’s capital of Port-au-Prince.

Pope Leo meets with Haiti’s prime minister
Pope Leo XIV greets the Prime Minister of Haiti | Credit: Vatican Media

Alix Didier Fils-Aimé, prime minister of Haiti, a country which continues to suffer from a wave of violence and insecurity, was received by Pope Leo on Saturday.

Following the meeting, the Holy See Press Office reported that the discussions between the two men focused on “the good relations between the Holy See and Haiti” and “the valuable contribution that the Church offers to the country at this particular time.”

The meeting’s readout indicated that various current issues facing Haiti were also addressed during the meeting, including “the socio-political situation and challenges in the humanitarian matters, migration, and security” as well as “the necessary contribution of the international community in addressing the present difficulties.”

Following his meeting with the Holy Father, the prime minister was received by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States and International Organizations.

Haiti’s ongoing turmoil

Haiti continues to experience a complex situation of violence and insecurity, particularly in the country’s capital of Port-au-Prince, where armed gangs operate freely, controlling a large portion of the region.

In the midst of this backdrop, which also affects the Catholic Church, general elections are slated to be held on August 30, 2026, to elect the new president, members of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, as well as mayors.

The last elections in Haiti took place in 2016 and were marked by controversy. Following that process, Jovenel Moïse assumed the presidency. Moïse was assassinated in 2021 and since then Haiti has spiraled into further political chaos and violence.

Given the situation, in February of this year Bishop Pierre-André Dumas of Anse-à-Veau-Miragoâne, the current vice president of the country’s bishops’ conference, anticipated that this year’s elections will neither be “transparent” nor “democratic.”

If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!

Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.

Related Articles

No Picture
News Briefs

Chinese bishops leaving Synod on Synodality early

October 16, 2023 Catholic News Agency 1
Bishop Yao Shun of Jining and Bishop Yang Yongqiang of Zhouchun (right) of the People’s Republic of China at the Synod on Synodality at the Vatican in October 2023. / Vatican Media

Vatican City, Oct 16, 2023 / 09:10 am (CNA).

Midway through the Vatican’s Synod on Synodality, two bishops from mainland China are suddenly departing the assembly early without explanation.

Bishop Antonio Yao Shun of Jining and Bishop Joseph Yang Yongqiang of Zhoucun will return to China this week without completing the synod process, Vatican spokesman Paolo Ruffini told CNA on Oct. 16.

The Chinese bishops only participated in the first 12 days of the Synod assembly, following a nearly identical pattern to the two Chinese bishops who took part in the 2018 Synod on Youth.

When asked at a synod press conference why the Chinese bishops are leaving early, Ruffini said that their departure is due to “pastoral needs” in their diocese that require their presence.

During their time in Italy, the Chinese bishops also traveled to Naples with the bishop of Hong Kong, Cardinal Stephen Chow, according to Asia News. They offered Mass on Oct. 8 in the Chiesa della Sacra Famiglia dei Cinesi (Church of the Holy Family of the Chinese).

The church was built in 1732 as part of an institute founded by Pope Clement XII to train Chinese seminarians and teach missionaries the Chinese language to help with the evangelization of China. The Chinese bishops concelebrated the Mass and deposited a relic of St. Paul Wu Wanshu, a 16-year-old Chinese martyr killed in 1900 during the Boxer rebellion. 

Yang also participated in the synod pilgrimage to the catacombs in Rome last week, which he described to Vatican News as “a profound experience to see firsthand where the Church, where my faith began.”

In addition to the synod, Yang also participated in the 2023 National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory body that is part of the Chinese Communist Party’s united front system, where it was decided that the Catholic Church should integrate its thought with the party and unite more closely to Xi Jinping, according to the official website of the Catholic Patriotic Association.

Yang, who was ordained with Vatican approval in 2010, is the vice president of the Chinese-government-sanctioned Catholic bishops’ conference and was elected as a leader of the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association in December 2016.

Yao was the first bishop consecrated in China under the terms of the Sino-Vatican agreement, on Aug. 26, 2019. He is the bishop of Jining in China’s Autonomous Region of Inner Mongolia. He served as the secretary and later vice director of the liturgical commission overseen by the Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association and the Council of Chinese Bishops since 1998.

The two bishops, who were originally considered voting members of the 16th Ordinary Synod of Bishops, will no longer be present in the Paul VI Hall for the final vote on the synthesis document at the end of this month’s assembly. 

In the 2018 Synod of Bishops, two other Chinese bishops, Bishop Joseph Guo Jincai and Bishop Yang Xiaoting of Yan’an, stayed for just under two weeks in Vatican City’s Santa Marta guesthouse before leaving the Synod of Bishops early on Oct. 15. The Chinese bishops told the press that they spoke with the pope and invited him to China before they left the synod in 2018.

[…]

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

All comments posted at Catholic World Report are moderated. While vigorous debate is welcome and encouraged, please note that in the interest of maintaining a civilized and helpful level of discussion, comments containing obscene language or personal attacks—or those that are deemed by the editors to be needlessly combative or inflammatory—will not be published. Thank you.


*