One of the interesting things about meeting diplomats through work is that they end up in some interesting places. So when the quake struck in Haiti a year ago, I immediately remembered that I had known in Rome Archbishop Bernard Auza, a Filipino in the Vatican’s diplomatic corps who had become the nuncio (or ambassador) in Port-au-Prince.

I recently caught up with him via e-mail to get his recollections of that horrendous event. He was working in his office on the second floor when the quake struck, and ran out in the garden when the ground was still shaking.

“The worst sight I saw was the crumbling Cathedral and the Archbishop’s House completely down,” Auza writes. “I learned that the Archbishop died around 3 AM, that is, about eight  hours after the quake, because nobody knew where his body was.”

Archbishop Auza says he spent the first few nights sleeping under the stars, until he found the courage, despite the aftershocks, to go back to his room.

“Life was really back to the basics in those days,” Auza says. “Life was already a challenge before the earthquake, but much more afterwards.”

Archbishop Auza says the Catholic Church was one of the hardest hit institutions in Haiti, simply because it’s one of the biggest realities in the country. It lost two cathedrals, and more than 20 parish churches collapsed.

In addition to the Archbishop of Port-au-Prince and two of his closest advisers, another 60 priests, brothers and nuns were killed, along with 15 seminarians. “But we feel fortunate, in a strange way,” Auza writes, “because the way the seminaries and other buildings were reduced to rubble, we could have lost more.”

Archbishop Auza notes that disasters bring out both the best and the worst in people. He’s seen great examples of solidarity and sacrifice for others, as well as lootings and killings, and child trafficking and child prostitution in the camps.

“Before I arrived here I knew that Haiti is a very poor country and I expected a rather bumpy ride,” Auza notes, “but not this bumpy!”