ARTICLES

Salem pastor connects with Haitian twin parish

by Jean Denton
of The Catholic Virginian

When Father Kevin Segerblom, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish in Salem, made his first visit to Haiti in early January to meet the people in his Salem parish’s twin community, he seemed very much at ease.

His activities involved traipsing down a rutted road, climbing a steep mountain, swimming across a lake, conversing in French with several Haitian priests, playing soccer and con-celebrating Mass.

Although in the parish only seven months, Father Kevin readily accepted the invitation of Dr. Tom Fame, coordinator of OLPH’s parish twinning program, to visit the people of Sacre Coeur Parish in Haiti this year.

“I felt it was important and significant, as the pastor of the parish here, to go and to help build the ties with our community there, even though the ties already had been made quite strong by others,” the priest said.

“It was a good thing symbolically, also, to have the two pastors getting together and getting to know one another,” he added.

Although the OLPH twinning relationship with the rural parish in Cabestor, Haiti, is solid after 14 years of working together, this was the first time the Salem parish’s pastor had gone to visit, while Haitian pastor Fr. Hermann Heriveaux had come to Virginia a number of times to visit and celebrate Mass with OLPH parishioners.

“The fact is the priest is looked up to as the person people follow,” Dr. Fame said.

“He’s the spiritual leader of the community and there’s a sense that he walks with higher authority because of his consecrated life. So it’s an incredibly powerful message to the people of the community when he is involved.

“There’s a blessing to it both through his words and his actions,” the Salem physician continued. “It says to people that what we are doing with our two communities is something that is important to our lives.”

Father Kevin already had met Father Hermann on the latter’s most recent visit to Salem in September. The Haitian priest was excited to learn that Father Kevin speaks French and the two enjoyed talking together.

“Seeing him in his own situation helped me appreciate him more as a person and as a priest,” Father Kevin said of Father Hermann.

Father Kevin said he valued a few deep private conversations the two priests had.

“In talking with him I recognized the universality of our positions, that we undergo many of the same experiences and have the same duties and many of the same frustrations with the office and the joys as well,” Father Kevin noted. “I can see that we are doing the same things and have the same vocation even though we are in different circumstances.”

“You know there’s a universal brotherhood among priests,” Father Kevin noted.

Father Hermann was especially pleased to host his counterpart pastor in Cabestor and graciously introduced him to the Sacre Coeur parishioners who were excited to greet in person the tall, white Father from the U.S.

“Seeing them together, I saw a strength there, and it helps me recognize the value of the priesthood,” Dr. Fame explained. “And it showed the power of the Eucharist, the two of them together on the altar recognizing the dignity of all these people out there before them.”

“We’re lucky to have a priest who is energetic, young, physically fit and rigorous - which is important in the area where we go and who also speaks French,” Dr. Fame added.

“I just enjoyed having him there and seeing the joy he had in being with all the people. Also with all the priests he talked to while we were there, it was great to see the joy on their faces the instant that they met. There was a real connection.”

Father Kevin grew up in a Navy family and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Republic of Congo for three years prior to entering the seminary.

Visiting the Haitian community’s various places, he delighted the people he met by showing a genuine interest in their families and each of their churches.

As a former marine biologist, he was interested in the ecology of the forests, streams and crops in their Cabestor valley where Sacre Coeur and its four outlying chapels are located.

The young men were particularly impressed by Father Kevin’s soccer skills, and the children of one village shrieked in excitement as they watched him and Dr. Fame dive into a lake and swim some 400 meters to the other side and back.

When another OLPH parishioner remarked to Father Hermann that he must be happy to finally have the twin parish pastor come to his church and home, he closed his eyes in joy and gratitude, smiled and said, “Li bon Pè, bon gason.” (“He’s a good priest, a good man.”)

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