By Ana Rodriguez Soto - The Archdiocese of Miami

MIAMI | They say when Miami sneezes, Haiti catches cold. In the case of Amor en Acción, when Haiti hurts, the group’s Miami missionaries feel the pain.

That’s been true for much of the group’s existence over the past four decades. It was true again this month, as Hurricane Matthew lashed that nation’s western edge.

Days removed from the Oct. 1 celebration of Amor en Acción’s 40th anniversary, executive director Teresita Gonzalez’s cellphone was buzzing non-stop. Through What’sApp, she was keeping tabs on the welfare of the various priests and religious who work in Miami’s sister diocese of Port-de-Paix.

It’s the poorest diocese in the poorest nation of the Western Hemisphere, located in the remote, mountainous and often neglected northwest. Amor en Acción is the only non-governmental organization active in the region.

But Amor en Acción is much more than an NGO. It’s a Catholic lay missionary group. And as such, Gonzalez was receiving real-time updates from people she and her fellow missionaries have visited dozens of times over the past decades. People who now feel like they’re part of a family — the family of Amor en Acción.

“They help to strengthen my faith,” said Sister Angelina Lebrón, “because I know that I am not alone. These are ties of strong friendship, disinterested friendship. For me they are family, part of my family.”

Doughnuts at St. Michael

A native of Seville, Spain, Sister Angelina is a Franciscana de la Esperanza (Franciscans of Hope) who has spent most of her life working in the poorest barrios of the Dominican Republic.

That’s where the work of Amor en Acción began 40 years ago. Founder Alicia Marill had spent a year in a poor barrio in Santo Domingo, working as a lay missionary and catechist.

She returned to Miami with a desire to continue the relationship and began selling doughnuts after Masses at St. Michael to raise funds. That first project: purchasing a pipeline to bring running water to one neighborhood. She raised $70.

Intrigued, a fellow parishioner, Gloria Alfonso, invited Marill to speak at the weekly Cursillo meeting in her home. That’s where Marill met Amor en Acción’s co-founder, Adriano García, who had recently returned from a two-week missionary experience with the Jesuits in the Dominican Republic.

“The experiences were different but we hit it off,” Marill said.

Soon, the two were joined by other young professionals, some Cuban-Americans like themselves, some transplanted from other Latin American countries. All were well-formed in the faith and involved in their parishes or apostolic movements. All felt called to what Pope Francis calls “missionary discipleship.”

More than charity

It’s more than mere charity, Marill explained. “It’s not giving to the poor. We never say that. It’s for this community. People we know by name. People we visit. People we’ve spent time with.”

Missionary discipleship requires a pre-existing religious formation and the realization, as Archbishop Thomas Wenski said in his homily at the group’s anniversary Mass, that you’re a guest in someone else’s house.

“You have to focus on the sacredness of that relationship,” Marill said. “You have to acquire a love for the Gospel. And you have to be open to reading it in the midst of those circumstances.”

After deciding on the name, Amor en Acción (Love in Action), the group started taking on small projects throughout the Dominican Republic. They still support nutritional programs in schools and for needy families, collect vitamins and medical supplies for small clinics or “dispensaries,” and even started an animal-husbandry and micro-credit cooperative in a rural parish.

They also take mission groups to the barrios each summer. During one of those missions years ago, Amor en Acción introduced the ETC retreat (Spanish for Total Encounter with Christ) to the Dominican Republic.

The same day its members were marking its 40th at St. Dominic Church in Miami, a group in La Vega was taking part in the 61st ETC, Sister Angelina noted.

“They go and they stay to work in the poor barrios,” she said. “The least important thing, for me, is their monetary contribution. It’s that they put their heart into that work.”

‘He really called us’

Their outreach to Haiti began in 1979. Miami’s second archbishop, Edward A. McCarthy, wanted to establish a sister-diocese relationship with Port-de-Paix, and he called on the missionaries of Amor en Acción.

“He really called us,” Marill said. “I was afraid.” Haiti represented a different language and a different culture. “We said yes.”

On their first trip, they were welcomed to Port-au-Prince by the apostolic nuncio, who introduced them to Port-de-Paix’s now Bishop Emeritus, Francois Colímon. He, in turn, put them in touch with a diminutive and energetic Montfortian Missionary, Father Boniface Fils Aimé, who became the group’s beloved Pere Bo — guide, mentor and inspiration until his death in November 2014, at the age of 90.

Marill recalled how Pere Bo sat them in a topless jeep, arranged some plantain leaves to shield them from the sun, and drove them to Port-de-Paix. “We experienced the dust, the wind and the rain and we went for nine hours,” she said.

Marill can no longer make the grueling trip, which takes almost as long decades later. But a younger generation of missionaries continues to go, branching even further to towns such as Móle Saint-Nicolas in the extreme northwestern coast — a place that can be reached only via a two-hour walk and which bore the brunt of Matthew’s fury this month.

“We’re still a small group with big dreams,” Marill said.

‘Concrete love’

Bishop Pierre Antoine Paulo, an Oblate Missionary who has headed the Port-de-Paix diocese since 2001, said their presence in the diocese means “what the name Amor en Acción means: a concrete love; not a love in words but in action.”

Amor en Acción supports 26 schools in the region, covering the salaries of 162 teachers and providing meals for 5,800 children. It funds school construction, helps Port-de-Paix’s diocesan Office of Education with teacher training programs, and supports evangelization efforts as well as the Catholic radio station.

It partnered with St. Thomas University’s Center for Community Engagement to support the Café Cocano coffee cooperative and install solar panels in the roof of Port-de-Paix’s cathedral.

Aside from paying for teachers and meals, its sister-school program links Catholic schools in Miami with Catholic schools in Port-de-Paix, imbuing a younger generation with a spirit of connection and mission.

“The best thing is that they take groups of young people to Haiti to dialogue and communicate with young people there,” Bishop Paulo said. “This interchange among young people is very good. We have to encourage this more and more.”

‘Listen and see’

Although it is not strictly a charity, and the total funding it provides rarely exceeds $300,000 a year, Amor en Acción consistently succeeds where larger, better-funded groups fail — especially in times of disaster.

The secret is listening, Marill said. “If you have the solutions, you’re not going to accomplish anything. But if you go to be open to learning, and listen and see, then you can do something.”

She gave an example: Amor en Acción might give a family a can of milk, but instead of keeping it for the family, that family shares it with its neighbors.

“You did a good deed and they’re the ones who wind up teaching you a lesson,” Marill said. “We have encountered the face of Jesus in these countries, not because they’re poor but because they’re imbued with the spirit of God.”

This article has been corrected since it was published. The correct last name of Sister Angelina is Lebron, not Sobron as originally spelled.