Christopher Hartley
Christopher Hartley is a British-Spanish Catholic priest who labored from 1997 to 2006 among the Haitian 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.
Life
Father Hartley, born in 1960 and having grown up in a wealthy family in England, choses 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.
Activism in the Dominican Republic
Father Hartley's work in the Dominican Republic is portrayed in the award-winning documentary The Price of Sugar produced and directed by Bill Haney. His activism to improve living and working conditions of Haitian immigrants has brought him into confrontation with the Vicini family that owns the sugar plantations in Los Llanos, and is one of the wealthiest and most influential families of the Dominican Republic.
Father Hartley left the Dominican Republic in October 2006. In September 2006 he accompanied a delegation of US congressmen to assess the living conditions of the Haitian migrants.[1]
Criticism
The work of Christopher Hartley in the Dominican Republic has been subject of a campaign of denunciation, alleging that the father "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 maintained that the movie "The Price of Sugar" was part of "a smear campaign toward the Dominican Republic".[2]
According to the Haitian newspaper "Le Nouvelliste" the law firm Patton Boggs (Washington, D.C.) that works for the Vicini family tried to impede the projection of the movie in France. According to the same source the Vicini family has hired the public relations firm Newlink Communications (Miami) of Sergio Roitberg, specialized in the reputation management, to protect the Vicini business interest in the United States, where most of the Dominican sugar is being sold.[3] [4]
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."[5] Further, Bishop Ozoria states: "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."[6] Bishop Ozoria's declaration includes further 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) harmed the level of trust necessary between a bishop and a priest.[7]
Father Hartley refused to testify in the defamation lawsuit relating to The Price of Sugar. To this end, Father Hartley submitted a Declaration to a Federal Court in Washington D.C. in which he denied under oath receiving a deposition subpoena.[8] Joe Johns of CNN, who was with Father Hartley at the time he was served with the subpoena, signed a sworn Declaration contradicting Father Hartley’s Declaration and affirming the testimony of the process server.[9][10] On July 21, 2008, the Court issued an Order establishing that Father Hartley in fact lied under oath and his Declaration did not overcome the word of a process server and Mr. Johns.[11]