For the Rev. Antony Jean Baptiste, joining the staff at St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church in Carmel in 2023 felt a bit like coming home.
Baptiste has deep ties to the congregation that stretch back to his childhood, and they provided a lifeline when violence suddenly forced him to flee his parish in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
But it wasn’t the gangs, robberies or even threats to his life that left him in despair, in need of a place to call home. It was spending his first year in the U.S. unable to work in ministry.
“It was frustrating. It was sad. It was difficult. It was very hard for me,” Baptiste said. “I couldn’t celebrate Mass. I couldn’t do anything. That is the worst thing that can happen to a priest, if you are not able to celebrate Mass. If you want to kill a priest, just tell him, ‘You are not able to celebrate Mass anymore.’ I felt I will die too soon, because that is my vocation. That is what I love in my life.”
So, Baptiste, then in New York, reached out to connections in Carmel to share his plight, and that led to him landing at Seton as parochial vicar, once again able to fulfill his life’s calling.
‘Don’t stay. They will kill you.’
Seton has been a sister parish to St. Genevieve in Duval, Haiti, where Baptiste grew up, for decades and has sent teams there regularly to perform medical and humanitarian work. The COVID-19 pandemic and recent violence in Haiti have put the trips on hold, but the partnership has continued and grown in new ways, especially with Baptiste now on staff at Seton.
As a teen in Haiti, Baptiste worked alongside visitors from Seton to serve his community, and funds from the congregation helped pay for the education he needed to become a priest. His call to ministry came at a young age, well before he fully knew what the job entailed. But he felt God at work as a child, especially through the healing of a disability that left him unable to walk for the first five years of his life.
“My mother went to the parish to pray for me. She was (badly) discouraged, because she didn’t know what to do with me,” Baptiste said. “And the day after, I walked.”
Baptiste loved working in ministry, but it became more challenging circa 2017 soon after he was assigned to a parish in Port-au-Prince, where thieves repeatedly broke into the building and stole various items. They were arrested but soon released and continued to target the parish, using increasingly brazen methods.
As stability in the nation crumbled following the 2021 assassination of President Jovenal Moïse, the criminals returned following a Sunday Mass in February 2022 carrying large firearms. Baptiste said they followed a vehicle leaving the property that they thought was his, and he realized they had been looking for him. He was warned that they were waiting for him near the front of the presbytery, and he hid in another vehicle to escape.
“That was my last time at my parish,” Baptiste said. “The day after I left the country, because everybody told me, ‘Don’t stay. They will kill you.’”
Baptiste said he has no plans to return to Haiti as long as the unrest continues. According to The Associated Press, gangs have gained control of up to 80 percent of Port-au-Prince, the nation’s capital, and there has been a surge in killings, rapes and kidnappings.
‘A gift for us here’
Jim Backe, a Seton parishioner and longtime volunteer with the Haiti ministry, has made several trips to the Caribbean nation through the church, including the first one in 1998. He said Baptiste was a teen working as a translator when he first met him, and years later he is thankful to have Baptiste serving at Seton.
“In some ways, it’s sad. I wish (he) was able to still be at (his) own parish in Haiti, but it’s been a gift for us here,” Backe said. “He’s a really deep, theological priest. He’s been a real asset to St. Elizabeth Seton.”
Baptiste wishes he could have remained in his home nation, but he said he is grateful for his new community.
“As soon as I arrived here, I felt at home,” he said. “Carmel is a city that I can call a big family. Everywhere in Carmel, people respect you. People are nice with you. They are respectful. Then you feel familiar, even though you are a stranger. They welcome you.”
Carmel 5K for Haiti
The Carmel 5K for Haiti is set for 8 a.m. July 27 at St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church, 10655 Haverstick Rd. All proceeds will benefit the church’s Haiti ministry.
Jim Backe, a parishioner and longtime volunteer with the Haiti ministry, said the event has raised nearly $60,000 in the last two decades.
The race did not take place in 2023, so it is the first time Father Antony Jean Baptiste, parochial vicar at Seton, is on the church staff during the event. Baptiste grew up in Haiti, and funds from the Seton Haiti ministry helped fund his education.
“(The race) has always been pretty special,” Backe said. “But this year, it will be even better, because we have somebody here who is kind of the product of a lot of the generosity of this parish.”
The cost is $25 for individuals. Discounts are available for families registering five to 10 people. A free fun run for kids will take place at 9:15 a.m.
Learn more and register at secure.getmeregistered.com/get_information.php?event_id=139879.
