It was supposed to be a joyous Saturday morning in the seaside Haitian farming village of Les Anglais, where 200 children dressed in white began to gather with their families at the Immaculate Conception Parish church for their baptism.
But half an hour before the ceremony was to begin, a powerful earthquake shook the earth. The church’s roof and its spire caved in. Mothers, grabbing their children, rushed for the exit, where they were trapped by a falling wall. Twenty-three people were crushed to death that day in the church, according to local officials, turning a celebration into a village tragedy.
“I heard people shouting, ‘Jesus, Lord, oh no! Why us?’ ” said Father Wilson Exantus André, the parish priest who was rushing to finish breakfast before presiding over the baptism when the quake struck at 8:29 a.m. on Aug. 14. “In a few seconds, everything changed to crying, desolation and sadness.”
Two weeks later, the people of…