1983-03-00: (Pope John Paul II Visits Haiti and Criticizes the Duvalier Regime, Declaring That Something Must Change, a Papal Intervention That Energized the…

1983-03-00: (Pope John Paul II Visits Haiti and Criticizes the Duvalier Regime, Declaring That Something Must Change, a Papal Intervention That Energized the Opposition and Accelerated the Dictatorship’s Collapse): In March 1983, Pope John Paul II visited Haiti and publicly criticized the Duvalier regime, declaring that something in the country had to change. The papal visit was a turning point. The Catholic Church in Haiti, which had historically served the interests of the mulatto elite and the foreign missionary establishment, was now aligning itself with the forces of opposition. The pope’s words energized a population that had endured twenty-six years of Duvalier rule, and they gave moral authority to the growing movement of priests, lay workers, and community organizers who were building the infrastructure of resistance in the slums and countryside. Among those organizers was a young Salesian priest named Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who had been expelled from his order for political activism and who would ride the wave of popular anger to the presidency seven years later.