WLRN Public Media | By Giovanna Dell’Orto | Associated Press

MIAMI — Packed pews, rollicking singing and emotional devotions have marked Lent worship services at Notre Dame d’Haiti, the Catholic church at the heart of the largest Haitian diaspora in the United States. For a community caught in the crossfire of growing violence in their island homeland and disappearing humanitarian protections in the U.S., clinging to faith in God is one of the few lifelines left.

“We believe in him. We pray for possibilities,” said Kettelene Fevrier. She fled Haiti two years ago under a temporary humanitarian program created by the Biden administration and canceled by Trump’s, effective later in April.

At the weekend Mass closing a Lent revival program, Fevrier sang with the choir that kept more than a thousand congregants dancing in the aisles well past midnight. Singing is praying, she said, and she has two main intentions.

“First, that I stay here,” she said. “Second, that God will lead me on the right path.”

Among those swaying to the Creole hymns was Sandina Jean, an asylum-seeker who fled Haiti in 2023. In her increasingly gang-controlled homeland, such a celebration would be hard to safely hold, she said.

“Haiti is getting worse. We don’t have a home to go back to,” Jean said. “When you pray, when you come to Mass, it helps you to keep moving.”

This story was originally produced by WLRN, South Florida’s only public radio station at 91.3 FM, as part of a content sharing partnership with MIA Media Group. Read more at WLRN.org