U.S. Churches Look for Own in Haiti

The Wall Street Journal offered this angle on the tragedy in Haiti:

While many churches and aid organizations have been scrambling to send whatever help they can to Haiti, others are searching for information about their own members who were caught in last week's devastating earthquake.

Friends and relatives of nuns with the Daughters of Mary, a Catholic religious order, have sought information for days since learning that the nuns' house in Port au Prince was destroyed. Julienne Jules of Lawrenceville, Ga., said she has heard that as many as 17 nuns may be dead, with several more injured and missing, including her 84-year-old aunt. "We know several are under the debris and we are trying to get someone to go in and rescue them," Ms. Jules said. "They need machinery to get them out."

"Members of Catholic orders said several schools were especially hard hit. At least 200 and as many as 500 students and staff at an educational complex run by the Salesians of Don Bosco, a Catholic religious order, died in the rubble, said a spokeswoman for Salesian Missions USA, the order's fundraising arm. The dead include more than 200 young women studying to be teachers at the complex's technical school, the National School of Arts and Trades. The Salesians tried to pull survivors from the rubble, and had succeeded rescuing just a few, according to the order. Without working phones, Salesians abroad were trying to get word of who else had died in a complex that includes a primary school, a youth center and kitchen that feeds thousands of children each year."