Projects - Stations Of The Cross

Stations Of The Cross

St. Mary Cathedral was completely renovated in 2000. During that renovation, the Stations of the Cross were taken down and restored (and reframed). While they were down, photographer Dave Ferguson took photos of each one. Dr. Jim Bayley was one of the fundraising co-chairs for the cathedral renovation. He knew we were now going to Haiti. We had mentioned that they did not have Stations of the Cross at St. Joseph or any of the chapels. Jim took it upon himself -- at first with monetary support of several others from the "7:30 Sunday Mass crowd" and then later by himself -- to get a copy of the photos made. He took them to the Ding-a-Ling (a craft and framing shop in downtown Lafayette) to have them dry-mounted and then framed (without glass so it wouldn't get broken as it would be taken with our luggage to Pendus). He did this for the December trips to Pendus from 2001 to 2007..

The first set obviously went to St. Joseph Church in Pendus in December 2001. The next went to the chapel in Massacre (2002) and then Mayombe (2003). The fourth went to Berard (2004) and the next year to Kayimit (2005). The last two sets went to Montbayard (2006) and to Savanne Carre (2007). These Stations have been a beautiful addition to each chapel.

We tried various ways to pack these Stations to take with us. First we tried putting them in suitcases (wrapped in t-shirts for protection). Nothing is wasted as the t-shirts would be given away once we were there. However, that seems to take up too many of our allotted checked-in suitcases as we could only take two per person on each trip (and we needed as many as we could for other items such as medicines, children's benediction items etc. Once Doug Granlund tried making a box with a rope handle to take them down as simply one piece of luggage. But airlines rules post 9-11 stopped us from taking any boxes. We took the last few sets down packed inside a duffle bag -- and wrapped for protection with lightweight blankets we would be giving away. Each time we took a set, we also packed a hammer, a box of one-inch masonry nails and a tape measure -- all of which were left with the chapel once the Stations were hung.

Click on the thumbnail to see a larger picture. Use the arrows to the left and right of the thumbnails to see more pictures in the gallery.