Founders Week Lunch & Learn: Spiritan and Lay Service in Haiti

In Haiti, it is said that a cow in the road can interrupt the best laid plans. Dr. Richard Gosser, executive director of Partners in Progress (PiP), a nonprofit that supports sustainable community development in Haiti, has seen his share of “cows” over 25 years of mission work in the poverty-stricken nation.

During a Founders Week Lunch & Learn on Friday, Feb. 3, Gosser will talk about political corruption, violence, natural disasters, hunger and disease as well as successful efforts and partnerships with Spiritans working in Haiti. The noon luncheon will be held in the Africa Room.

Sponsored by the Office of Mission and Identity, Founders Week, Feb. 1-5, honors the legacy, vision and values of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit.

Gosser, who visits Haiti three or four times per year, said his presentation will focus on the Spiritans’ history of service and ongoing commitments in the country where nearly half the population lives in chronic hunger and 75 percent lack access to clean water—conditions exacerbated by recent hurricanes and the earthquake of 2010.

“The purpose of Partners in Progress is to concentrate resources where they can have the greatest positive impact,” explained Gosser.

With degrees in mathematics and theology, Gosser taught for 30 years at St. Vincent College. While serving as a board member of the Washington Office on Haiti, he observed the first democratic elections in Haiti in 1990, and, with his wife Daneen, began leading mission trips there in 1992. One of those trips eventually led to the creation of PiP, which began operations in July 2001.

Gosser met several Spiritan priests ministering in and around Port-au-Prince. “It was quite a remarkable, sobering experience seeing the changes that occurred and the priests who had their lives threatened while serving,” Gosser said. “They really earned a tremendous amount of my respect and admiration.”

PiP maintains relationships with the Spiritans and works directly with community leaders primarily in the villages of Fondwa and Deslandes.

Over the past decade in western Pennsylvania, Gosser and his wife have connected with other Spiritans who heard about the couple’s efforts and began meeting and sharing stories. This past fall, the Gossers reaffirmed their formal commitment to share in the values of the Congregation as lay Spiritans, an idea originally inspired by the late Rev. Norm Bevan, C.S.Sp., who once told them, “You’re already doing the work of the Spiritans, why don’t you just make it official?”

Gosser added, “The Spiritans have been in Haiti for more than 100 years. The work that we are doing is nourished and inspired by our charism, and we will continue to serve people in that manner.”

Founders Week begins with a Lunch & Learn about the Spiritan charism on Wednesday, Feb. 1, and continues with a noon Mass in the University chapel to honor Venerable Francis Liebermann, co-founder of the Spiritan Congregation, on Thursday, Feb. 2.