François-Wolff Ligondé (January 17, 1928 in

Les Cayes Les Cayes ( , ), often referred to as Aux Cayes (; ), is a commune and seaport in the Les Cayes Arrondissement, in the Sud department of Haiti, with a population of 71,236. Due to its isolation from the political turmoil of the capital, Port-a ...

– April 8, 2013) was a Haitian

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

archbishop of the Archdiocese of

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( ; ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Haiti, most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2022 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The me ...

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

. Ligondé was ordained to the priesthood on 11 July 1954, and was appointed Archbishop of Port-au-Prince on 20 August 1966 and retired on 1 March 2008. Ligondé was a close ally of President

Jean-Claude Duvalier Jean-Claude Duvalier (; 3 July 19514 October 2014), nicknamed "Baby Doc" (, ), was a Haitian dictator who held the presidency of Haiti from 1971 until he was overthrown by a popular uprising in February 1986. He succeeded his father François ...

and the uncle of his wife

Michèle Bennett Michèle Bennett (born 15 January 1950) is the former First Lady of Haiti and the ex‑wife of former President of Haiti, Jean‑Claude Duvalier. They fled to France together when he resigned in 1986; they divorced in 1990. Early life Michèl ...

. He presided over their "opulent cathedral wedding" in 1980 which was broadcast live to the nation. In January 1991, Ligondé reportedly "fled into the night clad only in undershorts" when mobs attacked the

Port-au-Prince Cathedral The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption (), often called Port-au-Prince Cathedral (), was a cathedral in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Built between 1884 and 1914, it was dedicated on , and became the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdio ...

during a coup attempt against President

Jean-Bertrand Aristide Jean-Bertrand Aristide (; born 15 July 1953) is a Haitian former Salesian priest and politician who became Haiti's first democratically elected president in 1991 before being deposed in a coup d'état. As a priest, he taught liberation theo ...

. He had previously been a critic of Aristide, comparing the government to a Bolshevik dictatorship. This statement was "seen as giving the green light for the coup". Ligondé and other church leaders subsequently went into hiding. Although his pastoral role as archbishop ended after this incident, he remained archbishop until his retirement in 2008. Ligondé died on 8 April 2013. His funeral at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Turgeau was attended by then-president

Michel Martelly Michel Joseph Martelly (; born 12 February 1961) is a Haitian musician and politician who served as the 42nd president of Haiti from May 2011 until February 2016. On August 20, 2024, the United States sanctioned the former president for traffic ...

and other notables.

References

1928 births 2013 deaths People from Les Cayes 20th-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Haiti 21st-century Roman Catholic archbishops in Haiti Haitian Roman Catholic archbishops Roman Catholic archbishops of Port-au-Prince Bishops appointed by Pope Paul VI {{NorthAm-RC-archbishop-stub