In 1 Corinthians this Sunday we read of the different spiritual gifts that flow from the same Spirit. The gifts of healing are most urgently needed in Haiti as the impoverished Caribbean nation reels from a powerful earthquake Tuesday that completely devastated the capital city of Port-au-Prince.

Haitians piled bodies along the ruined streets of the capital Wednesday after the earthquake flattened the president's palace, the cathedral, hospitals, schools, the main prison, and whole neighborhoods. Officials feared hundreds of thousands may have perished, but there was not yet any firm count.

"Parliament has collapsed. The tax office has collapsed. Schools have collapsed. Hospitals have collapsed," President Rene Preval told the Miami Herald. The head of the United Nations peacekeeping mission was missing and the Roman Catholic archbishop of Port-au-Prince was dead.

Catholic Relief Services was preparing for "thousands and thousands" of dead and injured people in the wake of the most catastrophic earthquake to strike Haiti in two centuries, said Karel Zelenka, the agency's country representative.

Among those reported dead were Archbishop Joseph Serge Miot of Port-au-Prince and Zilda Arns Neumann, a pediatrician who founded the Brazilian bishops' children's commission and sister of Brazilian Cardinal Paulo Evaristo Arns, retired archbishop of Sao Paulo.

Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Vatican's apostolic nuncio in Haiti, told the Vatican missionary news agency Fides: "Port-au-Prince is completely devastated. The cathedral and the archbishop's residence, all the big churches, all the seminaries are reduced to rubble."

President Barack Obama promised an all-out rescue and humanitarian effort, adding that the U.S. commitment to its hemispheric neighbor will be unwavering. "We have to be there for them in their hour of need," Obama said. Other nations from Iceland to Venezuela said they would start sending in aid workers and rescue teams. The U.N. said Port-au-Prince's main airport was "fully operational" and open to relief flights.

Speaking at the Vatican Wednesday, Pope Benedict XVI said: "I appeal to the generosity of all people so that these brothers and sisters of ours who are experiencing a moment of need and suffering may not lack our concrete solidarity and the effective support of the international community. The Catholic Church will not fail to move immediately, through her charitable institutions, to meet the most immediate needs of the population."

More than 30 significant aftershocks of 4.5 magnitude or higher rattled Haiti through the night and into the early morning, according to Amy Vaughan, a geophysicist with the United States Geological Survey.

"We've seen a lot of shaking still happening," she said.

The earthquake left the country without electricity or phone service, complicating efforts to provide relief. "There are massive, massive, massive challenges," said Paul Conneally, a spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Source: Articles by Simon Romero and Marc Lacey for the New York Times, Jonathan M. Katz for Associated Press, Edvige Jean-Francois, Shasta Darlington, Deb Feyerick, Matt Smith, Mike Mount, and Pierre Meilhan for CNN International, Dennis Sadowski for Catholic News Service, and Jesuit Refugee Services, USA