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Sitting on the rubble of Port-au-Prince cathedral or standing in makeshift survivor camps, tens of thousands of Haitians celebrated Easter mass Sunday haunted by memories of the January 12 earthquake.
With the roof and towers flanking the main entrance of the cathedral having collapsed in the quake, killing Port-au-Prince archbishop Joseph Serge Miot, the Easter service was held in the churchyard.
Only the pink facade of the 19th century building, in the heart of this devastated city, still stands, complete with a stained glass window of Jesus in an eerie pose as if surveying the disaster.
To protect the clergy, the choir and religious leaders from the roasting sun, a vast plastic sheet stamped with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) logo was stretched out over the altar.
"This year we are celebrating the resurrection with simplicity," the new archbishop, Joseph Lafontant, told the faithful at the Mass, alternating between French and the local Creole tongue.
To a congregation largely unaware of the pedophilia scandal engulfing the Vatican this Easter, the priest rejoiced that "after the earthquake, the Haitian people had kept their faith."
"You are the survivors," he told the crowd in the deeply religious and mostly Roman Catholic nation, many of whom were dressed in their Sunday best and crowded under the protective tarpaulins to hear his words.
Haitians in Port-au-Prince wound down activities from Thursday evening for the Easter weekend with the understanding of the international aid organizations charged with reconstructing the shattered country.
"It's different today, because there are many of us who aren't here, who have unfortunately departed," 19-year-old student Mirrine Bichemond told AFP. "It's a natural catastrophe, we have no choice but to accept it."
The 7.0 magnitude earthquake, which flattened large parts of Port-au-Prince and many nearby towns and villages, left more than 230,000 people dead and an estimated 1.3 million homeless.
"We hope that thanks to God the neighboring countries are going to help us to reconstruct the cathedral," said Jean-Michelet Daniel, 23, a large silver crucifix hanging from his neck.
In spite of his "unwavering" faith, Daniel admitted being close to despair.
"We the young, we have no future," said the young man whose mother died in the quake and who finds himself penniless and struggling to support his six-year-old brother in one of the many camps littering the Haitian capital.
Many from the camps came to mass.
Among them was Eddy Charles, a young man in his badly crumpled shirt leaning against the railings by the cathedral.
"(I am) not a pretty sight," he confessed. "But we believe in God," said his friend Sydney Picaris, his right leg amputated.
"God is everything for us, because we are poor," said Daniel.
