PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- More than 2,000 Haitian Catholics from all over the U.S. and Canada will descend on the Dunkin' Donuts Center this weekend for the 22nd annual Congress of Haitian Charismatic Catholics.
Judith Levros, one of the local organizers, said the number of participants could have been twice as many if not for a shortage of hotel rooms in the Providence area that forced organizers to limit registrations.
Set to begin Friday at 7:30 p.m, the event will be conducted almost entirely in Creole and French on the theme "Seigneur, Je crois! Augmente ma foi!" (Lord, I believe! Make me grow more in my faith!). With musicians from Boston and Florida, the 3-day event will feature speakers from Haiti, New York and Boston including New York's Msgr. Joseph Malagreca, a lead organizer.
One featured highlight is a candlelit procession set to begin at 9 p.m. Saturday from the Dunkin' Donuts Center to the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Saints Peter & Paul. The closing Mass on Sunday is expected to concluded around 1:30 p.m.
Levros, program director for the non-profit La Providence Foundation, said the 3-day charismatic event has been held each year under the auspices of Nyack, N.Y.-based Le Conseil du Renouveau Charismatique Catholique des Haitiens d'outré-Mer, in such cities as Miami, Orlando, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Nyack. "We've been waiting so long to have it here," she said.