St. Pio Parish

In 1998, St. Pio’s parish signed a Twinning Covenant with Notre Dame de Lourdes, a parish in Cite Militaire, Port-au-Prince. This covenant binds us to support our sister parish through spiritual, educational, and financial activities, to visit each other at least annually whenever possible, and to educate St. Mark parishioners about Haitian people and their culture. The Walk With Haiti committee acts as the liaison between St. Mark’s parish and our sister parish, where Fr. Anicette is the current pastor.

The diocese’s Outreach to Haiti organization acts as our agent in Haiti. They have offices in Norwich and Haiti, ensuring our money gets to where it needs to. They also maintain a “Mission House” in Port-au-Prince where we stay when we go to Haiti. Fr. Frank Rouleau is the Twinning Director.

In the past, St. Mark’s raised many thousands of dollars to build their parish center, and supply benches, chairs, a solar system and inverter, office equipment, school supplies, medical supplies, a truck, and most recently, a complete water purification system. 

Our current programs are:​

• Scholarships sending 40 children from Notre Dame de Lourdes to school.

• Scholarships sending 15 high school graduates to vocational colleges and universities.

• Monthly food collection that supports three separate food and nutrition programs in Port-au-Prince.