Father Tom Hagan is an Oblate of Saint Francis DeSales. He was born and raised in Philadelphia and he has been a priest for almost forty years. He taught in a Catholic High School for many years. He also has had a great deal of experience in community organizing, prison ministry as well as being a co-founder of two homeless shelters. Father Tom has served in missions in Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua; he was also the campus minister and college chaplain at the University of Pennsylvania, Lafayette College and Princeton University.

In 1985 he joined with several college students to found Hands Together which is a Catholic Mission Organization that serves the very poor of Haiti. In 1996, he left Princeton and began to live and work in Haiti in one of its poorest slums called Cite Soleil. He was featured in an article in Christian Science Monitor: “Priest Works Where People Fear to Go.” Father Tom’s priesthood and his life has been marked by a consistent and authentic dedication to the poor and disadvantaged.

Our parish participates in the Archdiocese of Boston Mission Cooperative Plan and we welcome Fr. Tom Hagan who helps in the missions in Haiti. The Missionary Cooperative plan assigns a mission group to every parish to speak about the Catholic Missions in other parts of the world and to remind us that our church is fundamentally a Mission Church. Our diocesan mission office assigned Hands Together – a Catholic mission outreach working in Haiti – to share news of the Catholic Church in Haiti.

The Church in Haiti is struggling to bring God’s love to the poorest of the poor. In Haiti there are 7 million people living in an area smaller than Maryland. 70% of these cannot read, and 85% live below poverty level. In slum areas 4 out of 5 children do not reach the age of five, and nationally 1 in 3 children suffer from chronic malnutrition. The Hurricane in 2004 and 2008, along with the

devastating January 12, 2010 earthquake, have left Haiti severely damaged and in desperate need of our prayers and support.

Hands Together runs free schools, medical clinics and nutrition programs in Cite Soleil, providing 10,000 daily school meals and helping thousands of people who struggle to survive. Their work among the violence and savage poverty here is founded upon the Catholic social teachings of the dignity of human life and a preferential option for the poor. Hands Together embraces a clear ethic

of life based on Catholic teaching that proclaims God’s infinite and absolute love for us. About one-third of Hands Together’s mission work supports educational, health, charity, and developmental projects in the Diocese of Gonaives where more than 1 million live in abject poverty.