Fr. Reginald Jean Mary

Fr. Reginald was born in Jean-Rabel, located in the Northwestern part of Haiti. He did his primary studies in Jean-Rabel and later moved to Port-au-Prince where he completed his High School. He went on to study accounting and he later worked for two years as an accountant. While working as an accountant in Jean-Rabel, Father Reginald began to dedicate his time in a literacy program teaching people how to read and write. This had shaped his conscience and inspired him to join the priesthood in 1989.

He joined the Montfort Fathers for his studies of Philosophy in France. In 1991, he migrated to the United States of America where he later joined the Archdiocese of Miami for his continuous studies of Philosophy at Saint John Vianney College Seminary where he earned a BA in Philosophy and two minors in both Spanish and Psychology. He went on for his theological studies at Saint Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary where he earned a double master in both Systematic Theology and Divinity. In 2001, he was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Miami and he was assigned as parochial vicar at Notre-Dame D’Haiti. In 2004, he was appointed the pastor of Notre Dame D’Haiti.

In order to help the youth, Father Reginald established the Pierre Toussaint Leadership & Learning Center, where an After-School program has been setup to assist students. Along with that, there is also a Music program and Culinary Art program for youths in Little Haiti. Father Reginald has also established a Civic Engagement Program among the Young Adults of the parish to sharpen their Civic Social Consciousness.

As a believer in the Power of Education, Father Reginald has also established a Creole Literacy Program to teach people how to read and write Creole. They could make the transition to learning English. Fr. Reginald had received many awards, including ‘The Key to the City of North Miami’, the TETA PHI BETA Sorority Awards’, ‘The Humanitarian Award’ from Florida Memorial University.

Father Reginald is fluent in five languages and is one of the most dynamic speakers of our generation. He is a member of several boards. Notre Dame D’Haiti very often refers to as ‘the living room’ of the Haitian community is very well known and is worldly recognized partly because of the lively atmosphere created by Father Reginald Jean Mary. Upon arriving at Notre-Dame, he introduced a great spiritual revival called “Jericho” that has become a yearly rendezvous for all Haitians in the diaspora and has gathered more 7000 people per night of different faith backgrounds. In 2004, he launched the project for the construction of the Notre-Dame d’Haiti Catholic Church. His main goal (telos) was to provide the Haitian Catholic of the diaspora and most especially the South Florida Haitian Catholic Community with a Shrine where Haitians from everyone can worship and worship God in a dignified way. His goal becomes accomplished on February 2, 2014, when he inaugurated the Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help:

“A testimony of our Faith as Christians,
And a symbol of Unity as a nation.”