Some Catholic Religious congregations working Haiti have reported extensive damages, including loss of personnel, in the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed some 200,000 people and devastated the Caribbean nation.

“We have yet to verify the number of priests and religious men and women who have died, as there are still some to be recovered from under the rubble,” Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Apostolic Nuncio to Haiti, told Fides news agency Jan. 15.

The quake killed Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot of Port-au-Prince and leveled his cathedral in the capital city.

A major seminary building was reduced to a heap of concrete and killed nine seminarians, seven from its philosophy section. Three or four seminarians are still missing.

Missionaries of the Immaculate Conception Sisters reported their people in Haiti survived, but buildings suffered tremendous damage.

Five Camillian seminarians have returned home safe and are already at work in their hospital, the agency reported.

Father Antonio Menegon of the Camillian Task Force said the hospital is in “fairly good condition” and functions full time. It treated more than 500 quake victims.

According to Camillian Father Joaquim Paulo Cipriano, all their students are alive since the school held up well to the shocks.

However, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate lost a student and their provincial house and seminary were damaged.

Salesians said their many members are still missing. Information about their current situation was incomplete some two days after the earthquake, Fides said.

The Daughters of Mary Help of Christians are at work on the site. They have six communities in the city in addition to the provincial house, which has not suffered major damage.

The quake reportedly killed nine Montfort seminarians and a priest is still missing. “It is a time for tears; there is desolation everywhere, and the Montfortians have not been spared,” said Father Maurice, the superior.

Daughters of Wisdom said they lost three nuns, who were buried on Jan. 15. Another three nuns are still under the rubble of their convent. “There is little hope of finding them still alive,” their superiors said.

Redemptorists reported the collapse of their Church of San Gerardo. Father Joseph P. Dorcey, the congregation’s secretary general, told Fides. “No Redemptorist has died from the earthquake. One Redemptorist was slightly wounded.”

All seven Dominican priests in Haiti survived the quake. Father Manuel Rivero, the superior, reported on Jan. 15 they managed to extract one student’s body from the rubble.

Jesuits were also spared. Their general curia in Roma informed the Church agency that overall, their houses and men were affected less than others. “All the Jesuits in Haiti have survived the earthquake.”

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