Distressing question lingers in churches: Why did it happen?

As the sun began to set an hour after the earthquake, all the Rev. Astrel Vincent could hear were the sounds of people screaming.

The moans and wails filled the dusty air and surrounded both his church and the nearby city blocks, where he had begun the painstaking task of sifting through the rubble for survivors.

He remembers thinking that this is what it must have sounded like when the Egyptians in the 11th chapter of Exodus awoke to find the firstborn sons of every household dead.

"I'm telling you, I have never experienced something like this in my life," Vincent said.

His church compound has become not only a house of refuge for the homeless, but also a place where the living have come looking for a reason to explain their suffering.

It is the same quest for answers that brings people to the ruins of the Notre Dame Cathedral dear downtown Port-au-Prince, where on Thursday groups of people stared woefully at the hollowed cathedral that had once been a national monument, crossed themselves and kept walking.

There were more questions Saturday as hundreds gathered and wept at the funeral of Monsignor Joseph Serge Miot, archbishop of Port-au-Prince, and vicar Charles Benoit, who also died in the Jan. 12 quake.

Of all the questions surrounding the quake that killed tens of thousands of people, left 1.5 million homeless and forever changed the lives of countless others, none is as simple as this:

Why?

It is a question that many of the faithful in Haiti's predominantly Catholic religious community have been asking their leaders.

Many theories, rumors

Theories, it seems, are more abundant than food and water in this ravaged region.

Some historians, and televangelist Pat Robertson, say a 1791 voodoo ceremony that invoked the devil sealed a pact among slaves to overthrow French rule. There has been some debate about whether the event happened, but the Rev. Edouard DuCarmel wasn't thinking about any of that Thursday as he handed packets of cookies and water to volunteers sweeping rubble from the front of Notre Dame.

"That's not the God I know. My God is a god of love," he said. "God's thoughts are not our thoughts, but we better be careful not to manipulate the thoughts and intentions of God to fit our own theories."

Vincent heard a rumor going around Cite Soleil, where he leads a 500-member church, that what happened was not an earthquake at all but a bomb that the U.S. had thrown on the nation. Vincent had yet to hear the reason behind that theory.

Some have said it is a sign that the world is about to end, and God is reproaching sinners.

Others have simply said the earthquake was God walking upon the Earth to make his presence felt.

"To say any of these things are true would make my God powerless," Vincent said. "God doesn't need to do any of these things to show his power."

The Rev. Frantz Cole, an Episcopal priest who helps run a hospital in Leogane, said he's heard all the same theories.

He listens patiently each time and never judges, he said.

To that end, Cole has invited a geologist to speak to his parishioners during this morning's church service. He said this will help parishioners understand what happened on a natural, scientific level.

"There are so many lessons to be learned from this," Cole said. "If there is a reason for this, it can be found in the things we can learn."

DuCarmel said he tells his followers that the question of why it happened isn't as important as what they will do about it.

In a land where men have lost wives, children and houses, much like what happened in the biblical story of Job, DuCarmel's message is closer to the biblical story of God's answer to Joshua as he prayed for guidance after the death of Israelite leader Moses.

"If everybody who was sitting around giving their theories or asking for aid would instead go outside and pick up one piece of debris, the streets would be entirely clean," he said. "Now is not the time to talk. Now is the time for action."

Taking responsibility

Action will be the subject of Vincent's messages for the next three months, he said, standing outside in the yard of the church filled with tents, an environment he said makes him feel like Moses with the Israelites in the wilderness.

As he led a tour of his demolished elementary school Friday afternoon, he found two Muslims bowing toward Mecca, reciting prayers. After a while they rolled up their mats and greeted the pastor on their way out.

"We have all religions here now," Vincent said with a shrug.

Vincent, whose church is the largest in this city of more than 800,000 people, said that on the road to rebuilding, humans will have to take a tough look at the role they played in the disaster.

Though the earthquake itself was a natural occurrence, Vincent said, poor building conditions, lack of respect for the Earth and other factors led to unnecessary loss of life.

Vincent said he believes in Armageddon but doesn't believe the earthquake is a sign of the end.

So he said he preaches to his congregation against ignorance — a thing he said is man's greatest enemy — and instead encourages his congregants not to keep looking back at the destruction that has befallen them.

"Has God cursed the people of Haiti?" Vincent asks himself. He said he doesn't believe that.

"I tell them, as long as you live on this Earth there will be something going on — fire, water, earthquake — these things will happen," he said. "But if I die tomorrow, I believe I will have another life. If I believe this, then I have to look at an event like this and decide that I have to be strong."