Haitian American rector leads blessing of the animals, promotes unity in Concord

Rev. Jean Beniste blesses the family dog, Charlie, as his daughter, Annelise, holds him on Saturday.

Rev. Jean Beniste blesses the family dog, Charlie, as his daughter, Annelise, holds him on Saturday.

Rev. Jean Beniste, rector of St. Paul’s Church, blesses Kelly Cleland’™s dog, Nelly, on Saturday in front of the church on Park Street. Cleland said that Nelly is her best friend: “There’s so much joy here and I like to be around joy, and it’s good for her as well.”

Rev. Jean Beniste, rector of St. Paul’s Church, blesses Kelly Cleland’™s dog, Nelly, on Saturday in front of the church on Park Street. Cleland said that Nelly is her best friend: “There’s so much joy here and I like to be around joy, and it’s good for her as well.” GEOFF FORESTER photos / Monitor staff

Rev. Jean Beniste, rector of St. Paul’s Church, blesses a dog on Saturday, October 5, 2024, in front of the church on Park Street.

Rev. Jean Beniste, rector of St. Paul’s Church, blesses a dog on Saturday, October 5, 2024, in front of the church on Park Street. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff

Rev. Jean Beniste, rector of St. Paul’s Church, leads the Blessing of the Animals service along with New Hampshire Bishop Robert Hirschfeld as the reverend’s dog, Charlie, waits to be blessed on Saturday in front of the church on Park Street.

Rev. Jean Beniste, rector of St. Paul’s Church, leads the Blessing of the Animals service along with New Hampshire Bishop Robert Hirschfeld as the reverend’s dog, Charlie, waits to be blessed on Saturday in front of the church on Park Street. GEOFF FORESTER / Monitor staff

Rev. Jean Beniste (center), rector of St. Paul’s Church, leads the Blessing of the Animals service along with New Hampshire Bishop Robert Hirschfeld, with Concord Mayor Byron Champlin looking on. The reverend’s dog, Charlie, waits to be blessed on Saturday, October 5, 2024, in front of the church on Park Street.

Rev. Jean Beniste (center), rector of St. Paul’s Church, leads the Blessing of the Animals service along with New Hampshire Bishop Robert Hirschfeld, with Concord Mayor Byron Champlin looking on. The reverend’s dog, Charlie, waits to be blessed on Saturday, October 5, 2024, in front of the church on Park Street. GEOFF FORESTER—Monitor staff

By CHARLOTTE MATHERLY

Monitor staff

Published: 10-06-2024 12:30 PM

Modified: 10-07-2024 8:33 AM


Dogs, turtles and even a snake accompanied their owners to the lawn in front of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Concord. Some people, like Kelly Cleland, stumbled upon it – the opportunity to have their pet blessed by a pastor.

Cleland, who was downtown for the farmers’ market, saw a sign advertising the event and happened to walk by with her dog, Nelly.

“Nelly’s my best friend,” Cleland said. “Who can’t use a blessing? … There’s so much joy here, and I like to be around joy, and it’s good for her as well.”

Around this time every year, the church celebrates St. Francis Day, a holiday honoring the religion’s patron saint of animals. That usually happens inside the chapel. This year, the church’s new rector, Jean Beniste, decided to do it out in the open, inviting anyone and everyone to bring their pets to get blessed.

Beniste, a Haitian immigrant, began as the church’s rector in January. He’s watched recent political events unfold, in which former president Donald Trump made baseless claims during the second presidential debate about Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio. That played a factor in bringing the blessing outside.

His decision wasn’t a political one, Beniste told the Monitor – he doesn’t want to use the church to do politics – but a desire to spread the church’s ministry and welcome more community members. He thinks of it as an opportunity to “rewrite the narrative.”

“I would like to take this opportunity to connect the community together, not let them go into the divisive words that we are using in the midst of our differences,” Beniste said. “Regardless of our differences, where we come from, we are one community and we are neighbors. We are called to live together. We are here to support one another.”

Beniste and New Hampshire Bishop Robert Hirschfeld blessed all the animals, making their words unique to each one. Hirschfeld said the blessing isn’t a “transaction” from him to the animal but a more mutual experience.

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“It’s a participation in a blessing that’s happening already, how the animals bless us,” Hirschfeld said. “It’s our sharing this wonderful, beautiful mystery that we call creation.”

Hirschfeld told the crowd that Beniste asked him to “come and bless rather than eat” – a remark met with laughs from the 25 or so people there – after Trump’s comments at the debate. Hirschfeld told the Monitor that Beniste, as a Haitian American, was “targeted” by that, and they took the opportunity to come together for a blessing. 

“There was a lot of fear being shared about eating animals and eating pets, and it just seemed like the energy was quite dark and scary, and we’re not about that,” Hirschfeld said. “We’re about blessing and healing and restoring relationships, even among our pets.”

Beniste started at St. Paul’s in January. Before living in Concord, he was a pastor at a non-denominational church in Chicago. He calls for unity through community and faith.

“In the midst of everything that we have in the world today, whether you’re white or blue or red or yellow, but we are one,” Beniste said. “With Jesus, we’ve got more things in common. I don’t see, why should we let ourselves be divided? ... We have our freedom of taking of choice, but we should not be divided for that.”

Geoff Forester contributed to this story.

Charlotte Matherly is the statehouse reporter for the Concord Monitor and Monadnock Ledger-Transcript in partnership with Report for America. Follow her on X at @charmatherly, or send her an email at cmatherly@cmonitor.com.