BOSTON -- Cardinal Sean O'Malley's trip to Haiti was meant as a journey to assess the overwhelming needs of the Haitian people, and how to spend the $35 million in donations from American parishes.

"So many people have been injured, the medical needs are very, very great. The hospitals are just in horrendous shape. Most of the hospitals now are tents," said O'Malley.

NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported O'Malley saw the ruins of the cathedral in Port-au-Prince, shattered in the earthquake that also killed Haiti's archbishop and other church officials. Haiti has a strong history of Catholicism, and O'Malley said he was moved by how the people are clinging to their faith.

"At night people could be heard singing hymns all night. People have a great faith, and that faith has seen them through some very difficult times in their history, and it is still there," O'Malley said.

At times, O'Malley seemed almost at a loss for words because the suffering is so great, and the problems are so complex. As an example, he said he met with Haiti's president and other government and United Nations officials.

"But the more we talked to them, the more we realized how complicated and challenging the task is of trying to meet the needs of the people there," said O'Malley.

The O'Malley said Haiti will need billions of dollars to rebuild. He added that any long term solution must include building a stronger government, which, given that country's long history of corruption, might be the hardest challenge of all.

See O'Malley's Flickr Pictures