1. Served with the Jesuit Refugee Service, doing pastoral work with Haitian students.
2. Worked with Haitians in a batey, where sugarcane cutters live, in the Dominican Republic.
3. Studied theology in Paris, where he also accompanied a Christian Life Community and led an interreligious group for migrants.
Will continue working on his Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry.
Born in Léogane, Haiti, Father Levelt Michaud, S.J., is the second in a family of seven children. When he reflected on the question about following Christ, he was still in the third year of secondary school in an Anglican high school. Through his cousin, an Anglican seminarian, he discovered the presence of the Jesuits in Haiti. Fascinated by their lifestyle and charism, he entered the novitiate in Port-au-Prince in 2008. In 2010, he began philosophy studies in the Dominican Republic. Through the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), he did pastoral work among young Haitian students. Later, he discovered the subhuman living conditions of his Haitian compatriots in sugarcane fields, known as bateyes. Deeply touched by their situation, he asked to be allowed to work in a batey: It was an experience that made him more sensitive to the most vulnerable. Along with other Haitian scholastics, he invested himself creating a liturgical review in Creole to better help Haitians to live Sunday Masses. By the end of his studies, Nietzsche’s critical writings had captured his imagination; his thesis was on Nietzsche. In 2014, he returned to his country for regency, teaching philosophy at the major seminary and at a high school. He also served both as minister and bursar of his community. He continued with the publication of the liturgical review in Creole in Haiti by assuming the role of director. In addition, he accompanied the Christian Life Community (CLC). In 2016, he was sent to Paris for theology. He continued with the accompaniment of the CLC in Paris. He also led a small interreligious group for migrants for JRS France. During the summer of 2017, he went to Athens to work with migrants. He successfully tutored an asylum seeker through JRS France. For his final dissertation, he made a comparative study of the meaning of suffering in Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the survivors of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010. Currently, he is in his first year of studies for his Licentiate in Sacred Theology at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry where he is majoring in ethics. He will be ordained a priest in Haiti on August 1, 2020. His first Mass will be at his home parish, Immaculate Conception. Afterward, he will return to Boston to complete his studies.
Bachelor’s degree, philosophy, Centre Bono, Dominican Republic; Bachelor’s degree, theology, Centre Sevres, Paris