MRS > Office of Refugee Programs
By Agustín A. Román
This article originally appeared in The Miami Herald April 17, 2007. Reprinted with permission.
The recent arrival on the Florida coast of a boat with 101 Haitians on board, many of them in ill health after being adrift for 22 days, brings back many personal memories that I wish to share with you as a topic of meditation and to heighten the conscience of our diverse community in South Florida.
No one leaves his or her country voluntarily. No one wants to leave family, friends or familiar surroundings -- all so dear to each of us. Few leave their country just for the sake of emigrating. Most of those who do are forced by compelling circumstances. Some are driven by extreme poverty, lack of opportunity or simply the very human desire to live a dignified life. Others do so because of religious persecution or political convictions. Some leave behind a family for which they must provide. Still others are forced by ''repudiating'' attacks by regime thugs. In my case, together with another 130 priests, I was forced at gunpoint to board a ship and reluctantly leave my homeland.
I, too, arrived in a foreign country without legal documents. I, too, arrived dirty, torn and tattered, after several days in a ship's hull, without even the opportunity to change. Neither was I vaccinated before departure, thus becoming a potential threat of being a carrier of some tropical virus. I, too, was told that we could not enter a country simply because we had arrived.
Because I was a priest and the port of arrival was in Spain, where Christian values were still preeminent, I was luckier than most. After the initial confusion, I was kindly welcomed and thus able to begin my involuntary life as an exile, first in Chile and then in the United States.
I have been able to continue my life in the service of The Lord, just as many others have, according to their possibilities. Although the longing for my homeland has not for a single day been absent from my heart in this never-ending exile, I thank God for my having found shelter, understanding and help in foreign lands. Together with my love for Cuba and my grief as an exile, I also carry in my heart unending love for and gratitude to Spain, Chile and the United States for having welcomed me when I was in search of refuge.
Thus, how can I not want for others in similar circumstances all the benefits I found? How can I be indifferent to their tragedy, when I see in the eyes of those Haitians the same bewildered look I had in mine when I arrived in Spain, the same desperate look I see in the eyes of my brothers, the Cuban rafters?
I know that while reading these lines, many will remember their own experiences, how and why they came to this country, the fear of the departure and the doubts upon arrival. Let us remember that – while we may be citizens or legal residents of the United States, or may have a legal document protecting our stay here – deep inside, we are all refugees.
Because charity is a Christian duty and because I cannot forget that The Lord tried to serve others and that He, too, once arrived, undocumented, in Egypt – I want to reiterate my support of the appeal that Archbishop John Clement Favalora made to the authorities in support of those 101 Haitians.
As we celebrate the Resurrection of Our Lord, I hope to hear the same appeal from my compatriots in exile and from all those who, no matter where they may have come from, have found in this country new opportunities for a better life. Let no one be silent. May all of us clamor for compassion!
God save Cuba! God save Haiti!
Monsignor Agustín A. Román is auxiliary bishop emeritus of the Archdiocese of Miami.
Archdiocese of Miami Web site: www.archdioceseofmiami.org