Christopher Hartley
Encyclopedia
Christopher Hartley is a British-Spanish Catholic
missionary
priest
who labored from 1997 to 2006 among the Haiti
an sugar cane workers of the bateyes in Los Llanos in the municipality of Boca Chica
in the Dominican Republic
to bring more humane conditions to their lives and work. His work in the Dominican Republic was portrayed in the documentary film The Price of Sugar
(2008), produced and directed by Bill Haney.
, chose to become a priest at the age of 15. He worked for many years with Mother Teresa
in Calcutta and with Latino
immigrants in the Bronx.
His activism to improve living and working conditions of Haitian immigrants brought him into confrontation with the Vicini
family that owns the sugar plantations in Los Llanos, and one of the wealthiest and most influential families of the Dominican Republic.
In September 2006 he accompanied a delegation of US congressmen to assess the living conditions of the Haitian migrants.
According to the Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste
the law firm Patton Boggs of Washington, D.C., which works for the Vicini family, tried to interfere with the projection of the movie in France. According to the same source the Vicini family hired the public relations firm Newlink Communications of Miami, owned by Sergio Roitberg who specializes in the reputation management, to protect the Vicini business interest in the United States where most Dominican sugar is sold.
According to a sworn declaration filed in federal court in connection with the defamation lawsuit over The Price of Sugar
by Monsiñor Francisco Ozoria Acosta, Bishop of the diocese in San Pedro de Macorís, after an "incident" resulting in Father Hartley's suspension of duties in late 2006 "and other serious violations, and after consulting with brother bishops, [Bishop Ozoria] decided to dispense with Father Christopher Hartley." Further, Bishop Ozoria stated: "Father Hartley’s departure from the Dominican Republic had nothing to do with the health of his father, who had been ill for some time. Neither was it the result of any pressure whatsoever from the Government of the Dominican Republic, Cardinal López Rodríguez, or the Vicini family for me to make the decision to relieve Father Hartley of his pastoral duties and ask him to leave the San Pedro de Macorís Diocese."
Bishop Ozoria's declaration includes documentary support relating to Father Hartley's departure from the Dominican Republic. Bishop Ozoria never describes the specifics of the "incident," but he does state in a letter to Father Hartley dated September 21, 2006 that Father Hartley's "deplorable" actions (1) affect "'the good of the souls' entrusted to [Bishop Ozoria's] pastoral care," (2) create a "harmful" ministry to the parish and diocese, (3) produce "serious detriment or disturbance to the ecclesiastical community," and (4) harm the level of trust necessary between a bishop and a priest.
Father Hartley submitted a Declaration to a Federal Court in Washington D.C. in which he denied under oath receiving a deposition subpoena. Joe Johns
of CNN
signed a sworn Declaration contradicting Father Hartley’s Declaration and affirming the testimony of the process server, saying he was with Father Hartley at the time he was served with the subpoena. On July 21, 2008, the Court issued an Order establishing that Father Hartley lied under oath and his Declaration did not overcome the word of a process server and Mr. Johns.
for sugar. In a letter to the directors of Tate & Lyle
dated July 10, 2009, he asserted that human rights violations continue in the Dominican Republic, which include "daily and systematic disregard for fundamental human dignity in the forms of “statelessness” (and its inherent lack of civil liberties), human trafficking, extreme poverty, child labor, racial discrimination, lack of education and healthcare, and general squalor. The laundry list goes on and is further compounded during this harvest season (2008-2009) by new variations, which include: 1) failure to withhold social security (IDSS) contributions, leaving workers without basic benefits; 2) preservation of sub-standard, poverty-level wages; 3) new forms of fraud in the weighing of, and remuneration for, cut cane; 4) resurgence in trafficking of human persons (after a hiatus of approximately three years); 5) deprivation of entitled healthcare benefits; 6) arbitrary terminations and denial of earned benefits; and, 7) refusal to issue written contracts guaranteed under Dominican law."
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
priest
Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
who labored from 1997 to 2006 among the Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
an sugar cane workers of the bateyes in Los Llanos in the municipality of Boca Chica
Boca Chica
Boca Chica is a municipality of the Santo Domingo province in the Dominican Republic. Within the municipality there is one municipal district : La Caleta....
in the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
to bring more humane conditions to their lives and work. His work in the Dominican Republic was portrayed in the documentary film The Price of Sugar
The Price of Sugar
The Price of Sugar is a 2007 documentary directed by Bill Haney and produced by Haney and Eric Grunebaum about exploitation of Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic involved with production of sugar, and the efforts of Spanish priest Father Christopher Hartley to ameliorate their situation. ...
(2008), produced and directed by Bill Haney.
Life among the poor
Father Hartley, having grown up in a wealthy family in EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, chose to become a priest at the age of 15. He worked for many years with Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
in Calcutta and with Latino
Latino
The demonyms Latino and Latina , are defined in English language dictionaries as:* "a person of Latin-American descent."* "A Latin American."* "A person of Hispanic, especially Latin-American, descent, often one living in the United States."...
immigrants in the Bronx.
His activism to improve living and working conditions of Haitian immigrants brought him into confrontation with the Vicini
Vicini
- Juan Bautista Vicini :Bautista, was born on February 25 1847 in Zoagli, a coastal village near Genoa. Son of Angelo and Anna Canepa Vicini. Juan Bautista Vicini left Italy and went to the Dominican Republic in 1860, when he was only twelve years old....
family that owns the sugar plantations in Los Llanos, and one of the wealthiest and most influential families of the Dominican Republic.
In September 2006 he accompanied a delegation of US congressmen to assess the living conditions of the Haitian migrants.
Departure from the Dominican Republic
Father Hartley left in October 2006. His work in the Dominican Republic was subject of a campaign of denunciation, alleging that he "sought to pitch the Haitian emigrants against the Dominicans in the sugarcane communities where they lived together". Members of the House of Representatives of the Dominican Republic passed "a resolution denouncing Hartley and [Father Pedro] Ruquoy". in 2007, and in 2009, maintained that the film The Price of Sugar was part of "a smear campaign" toward the Dominican Republic."According to the Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste
Le Nouvelliste (Haiti)
Le Nouvelliste is a French-language daily newspaper printed in Port-au-Prince, Haiti and distributed throughout the country, particularly the capital and 18 of the country's major cities....
the law firm Patton Boggs of Washington, D.C., which works for the Vicini family, tried to interfere with the projection of the movie in France. According to the same source the Vicini family hired the public relations firm Newlink Communications of Miami, owned by Sergio Roitberg who specializes in the reputation management, to protect the Vicini business interest in the United States where most Dominican sugar is sold.
According to a sworn declaration filed in federal court in connection with the defamation lawsuit over The Price of Sugar
The Price of Sugar
The Price of Sugar is a 2007 documentary directed by Bill Haney and produced by Haney and Eric Grunebaum about exploitation of Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic involved with production of sugar, and the efforts of Spanish priest Father Christopher Hartley to ameliorate their situation. ...
by Monsiñor Francisco Ozoria Acosta, Bishop of the diocese in San Pedro de Macorís, after an "incident" resulting in Father Hartley's suspension of duties in late 2006 "and other serious violations, and after consulting with brother bishops, [Bishop Ozoria] decided to dispense with Father Christopher Hartley." Further, Bishop Ozoria stated: "Father Hartley’s departure from the Dominican Republic had nothing to do with the health of his father, who had been ill for some time. Neither was it the result of any pressure whatsoever from the Government of the Dominican Republic, Cardinal López Rodríguez, or the Vicini family for me to make the decision to relieve Father Hartley of his pastoral duties and ask him to leave the San Pedro de Macorís Diocese."
Bishop Ozoria's declaration includes documentary support relating to Father Hartley's departure from the Dominican Republic. Bishop Ozoria never describes the specifics of the "incident," but he does state in a letter to Father Hartley dated September 21, 2006 that Father Hartley's "deplorable" actions (1) affect "'the good of the souls' entrusted to [Bishop Ozoria's] pastoral care," (2) create a "harmful" ministry to the parish and diocese, (3) produce "serious detriment or disturbance to the ecclesiastical community," and (4) harm the level of trust necessary between a bishop and a priest.
Father Hartley submitted a Declaration to a Federal Court in Washington D.C. in which he denied under oath receiving a deposition subpoena. Joe Johns
Joe Johns
Joe Johns is a CNN correspondent based in the Washington, D.C. bureau. He previously worked as an NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent for TODAY and other NBC programs. He also worked as an anchor for WSAZ-TV in 1980....
of CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
signed a sworn Declaration contradicting Father Hartley’s Declaration and affirming the testimony of the process server, saying he was with Father Hartley at the time he was served with the subpoena. On July 21, 2008, the Court issued an Order establishing that Father Hartley lied under oath and his Declaration did not overcome the word of a process server and Mr. Johns.
Campaigner
From Europe, Hartley has continued to campaign for Haitian worker rights in the Dominican Republic; meanwhile he remains vilified in that country, with critics claiming he preaches "a gospel of hate". He also helped draft the Better Sugarcane Initiative which encourages fair tradeFair trade
Fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries make better trading conditions and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as higher social and environmental standards...
for sugar. In a letter to the directors of Tate & Lyle
Tate & Lyle
Tate & Lyle plc is a British-based multinational agribusiness. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index as of 20 June 2011...
dated July 10, 2009, he asserted that human rights violations continue in the Dominican Republic, which include "daily and systematic disregard for fundamental human dignity in the forms of “statelessness” (and its inherent lack of civil liberties), human trafficking, extreme poverty, child labor, racial discrimination, lack of education and healthcare, and general squalor. The laundry list goes on and is further compounded during this harvest season (2008-2009) by new variations, which include: 1) failure to withhold social security (IDSS) contributions, leaving workers without basic benefits; 2) preservation of sub-standard, poverty-level wages; 3) new forms of fraud in the weighing of, and remuneration for, cut cane; 4) resurgence in trafficking of human persons (after a hiatus of approximately three years); 5) deprivation of entitled healthcare benefits; 6) arbitrary terminations and denial of earned benefits; and, 7) refusal to issue written contracts guaranteed under Dominican law."
See also
Films:- Big Sugar (Canadian film, 2005)
- Azúcar Amargo (Italian film, 2006)
- The Sugar BabiesThe Sugar BabiesThe Sugar Babies is a feature-length documentary film that vividly explores the lives of descendants of African slaves delivered to the island of Hispaniola to help produce sugar...
(American film, 2007) - The Price of SugarThe Price of SugarThe Price of Sugar is a 2007 documentary directed by Bill Haney and produced by Haney and Eric Grunebaum about exploitation of Haitian immigrants in the Dominican Republic involved with production of sugar, and the efforts of Spanish priest Father Christopher Hartley to ameliorate their situation. ...
(American film, 2008)