Pope John Paul II Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Haiti === John Paul II visited [[Haiti]] on 9 March 1983, when the country was ruled by [[Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier]]. He bluntly criticised the poverty of the country, directly addressing [[Baby Doc]] and his wife, [[Michèle Bennett]] in front of a large crowd of Haitians: <blockquote>"Yours is a beautiful country, rich in human resources, but Christians cannot be unaware of the injustice, the excessive inequality, the degradation of the quality of life, the misery, the hunger, the fear suffered by the majority of the people."<ref>Riccardo Orizio, ''Talk of the Devil: Encounters with Seven Dictators'', p. 131, Walker & Company (2003), {{ISBN|978-0-8027-1416-9}}</ref></blockquote> John Paul II spoke in French and occasionally in Creole, and in the homily outlined the basic human rights that most Haitians lacked: "the opportunity to eat enough, to be cared for when ill, to find housing, to study, to overcome illiteracy, to find worthwhile and properly paid work; all that provides a truly human life for men and women, for young and old." Following John Paul II's pilgrimage, the Haitian opposition to Duvalier frequently reproduced and quoted the pope's message. Shortly before leaving Haiti, John Paul II called for social change in Haiti by saying: "Lift up your heads, be conscious of your dignity of men created in God's image...."<ref>James Ferguson, ''Papa Doc, Baby Doc: Haiti and the Duvaliers'', p. 75-77, Basil Blackwell (1987), {{ISBN|978-0-631-16579-8}}</ref> John Paul II's visit inspired massive protests against the Duvalier dictatorship. In response to the visit, 860 Catholic priests and church workers signed a statement committing the church to work on behalf of the poor.<ref>Douglas Bond, Christopher Kruegler, Roger S. Powers, and William B. Vogele, ''Protest, Power, and Change: An Encyclopedia of Nonviolent Action from ACT-UP to Women's Suffrage'', p. 227, Routledge (1997), {{ISBN|978-0-8153-0913-0}}</ref> In 1986, Duvalier was deposed in an uprising. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page