Father Fritz sounded glum, and tired, as well he should have been. A native of Haiti and a naturalized U.S. citizen, Fritz—properly, the Reverend Fritzner Valcin—has been driving a little more than an hour west to Springfield, Ohio, every Sunday for the past few years from his home near Buckeye Lake to celebrate Mass with his Haitian flock at St. Raphael Church.
A year earlier, he had almost 100 in attendance on a typical Sunday. But by August 23, the size of Father Fritz’s flock had dwindled to no more than four Haitian worshippers (and two babies), including the organist.
In that time many things had changed, and not for the better. The Supreme Court’s decision in June effectively ended Temporary Protected Status for Haitians. More than 10,000 Haitians in the Springfield area—a city with a population of fewer than 60,000—who had been working and paying taxes on one day became illegal to employ and subject to deportation the next day.
Since the end of TPS, many Haitians in Springfield received letters to report to Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in the Cincinnati suburb of Blue Ash or the Columbus suburb of Westerville—both an hour away from Springfield—where they were given ankle monitors and told not to travel beyond a 75-mile radius of their homes.
It has not been a happy time for Father Fritz, a man well-known and loved for his warmth and ebullience. “They were allowed to come to this country and haven’t done anything wrong,” he told me on a recent visit I made to the church. “Emotionally, mentally, they are not in peace.”
That was putting it mildly. Unwilling to go back to Haiti, where they would face violent criminal gangs, and unable to move elsewhere, they have been sheltering at home in Springfield.
There have been reports that at least three Haitians have given up hope and attempted suicide, “but there’s no way to confirm that,” he said. “Mostly everyone is looking for some kind of relief, some direction. They don’t know exactly what to do, where to go at this time. People are afraid. They don’t want to go out.”
My wife and I know Father Fritz from his years as pastor of our church in Columbus—he had been a celebrant at our wedding. When his mother died a few years ago, he wept openly on the altar when our parish paid for his airfare to go back to Haiti for the funeral.
In late June, in the immediate aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision, we joined several other couples in a small caravan to Springfield. We wanted to worship along with his Haitian parishioners and to offer support by our presence. The Mass, conducted in Haitian Creole, included a choir singing in their native tongue. It was impressive, but in many ways not unlike so many church services in every community around the nation.
The several dozen worshipers were heavily represented by young families, many with small children. A boy of about four years old was in a pew in front of us, fidgeting and craning his head to interact with another boy in the same pew. A grandmother gently throttled the lad to get him to pay attention to the service and not his little pal. A neatly dressed father walked behind some pews off to the side of the altar, cradling a baby on his shoulder to calm the infant.
Father Fritz consecrated the bread and wine into what Catholics believe is the authentic body and blood of Christ and prepared to offer Holy Communion to his flock, a rather far cry from the cats and dogs that alleged Catholic JD Vance said that these same Haitians were killing and eating.
Although Father Fritz conducted the Mass in Haitian Creole, he was aware that we were visiting and, after informing his parishioners of our presence, kindly offered a brief English translation of his homily. The dark days ahead might mean great loss for the Haitians, he said, “but they can never take our joy.”
After that Mass, however, we learned that a woman approached him to say that she wouldn’t be coming to the service anymore. She was moving to Canada.
More than a month later, after TPS ended, I spoke with Father Fritz about that woman and about the state of his flock. “She isn’t the only one,” he said wearily. “I talked to someone else, another woman, and she said, ‘I couldn’t take it anymore.’ She had a brother in Canada who gave her courage to come there. He was ready to support her.”
Attendance is way down at his Haitian Mass, he said: “Yes, because they are afraid. Many people shared with me they are afraid, afraid to go out. Someone shared with me that ‘the handcuffs are coming.’
“People who come to get children baptized, you may not see them again.
“My plan is to continue to go until there is no hope. But it is painful to see the amount of people who are afraid to come to Mass. This is one of the priorities when they come here. This is their value. But they have to hide themselves. Even with little children born here.”
In order to continue to serve his flock, Father Fritz is planning to offer online services via social media streaming video. “Those who can’t attend physically, I will also bring Communion to them,” he said.
As we talked, I realized that, in a cruel irony, the official ending of TPS status happened to occur on the same date as Father Fritz’s birthday. So on that day, ICE had begun to take his joy along with his flock. “I don’t have bad experience with anyone so far,” he said with a sigh. “But that doesn’t mean I’m protected from being stopped.”
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