Jean Renald Clerisme | Haitian official, 75

Jean Renald Clerisme, 75, a former Haitian foreign minister, former Roman Catholic priest, and expert on the plight of Haitian farmers in the Dominican Republic, died Oct. 29 in Port-au-Prince.

That same day, the Organization of American States in Washington listened to discussions about a Dominican Republic court ruling that strips citizenship rights from Dominican-born children of Haitian immigrants dating back to 1929.

Mr. Clerisme fell ill at the end of a political meeting and was rushed to a hospital. The cause of his death is still being determined.

His life and work on behalf of Haiti's rural poor was being celebrated Friday at St. Louis Roi de France in Port-au-Prince.

Mr. Clerisme served 22 years as a priest, pastoring to the poor on one hand and helping them organize into unions, on the other. His fight for land rights and a literacy program on their behalf often put him at odds with the church hierarchy, and Haiti's militarized regime.

- Miami Herald