Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Interview with Bishop Santos

Honduras: the Honduran oligarchy 
wants to imprison Bishop Luis A. Santos
Ollantay Itzamná

Monseñor Santos in San Juan de Intibucá, May 31, 2011
Faithful to his prophetic vocation, Monseñor Luis Alfonso Santos, bishop of the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copan, in the Eucharistic celebration on the occasion of the return of ex-president Manuel Zelaya Rosales to the country, last Saturday, May 28, in Tegucigalpa, denounced that “Honduras is looted by a blind and deaf oligarchy which enriches itself at the price of the blood of the people.”

In the face of this prophetic denunciation, the land owner most repudiated on both the national and international level, Miguel Facussé, filed a complaint against Bishop Luis Alfonso Santos for calumny and defamation before on the court tribunals in Tegucigalpa.

Bishop Santos received this information in a work meeting and without losing his internal peace commented: I will present myself to the tribunals when I am summoned. Luis Santos, 74 years old, having served 27 years  as bishop, is an austere man, rigorous in his thinking. As he commented at another time, he renounced his promising ecclesiastical career and opted for the impoverished of his country without haggling over the consequences.

Miguel Facussé is of Arab ancestry who accumulated an irrational fortune in Honduras. In the past few months, the German Bank for Investment and Development (DEG) and the French company EDF Trading suspended an economic loan to him of more than 20 million dollars for an MDL project after an international investigation of the ongoing massacres of landless campesinos in Bajo Aguan.

Based on the complaint of landowner Facussé, an interview was arranged with the bishop of the impoverished, and these were his answers.

Monseñor, what do you believe is the reason at the bottom for intiting this complaint against you?
The bottom-line reason is that the oligarchy has felt itself alluded to in my words (in the Mass on the occasion of the return of ex-president José Manuel Zelaya Rosales) and has wished to react through Miguel Facussé who is a very powerful man in Honduras, enormously rich, a landowner, who has ties at this time with the National Agrarian Institute of Honduras (INAH). It is, simply, a reaction of the oligarchy.

Monseñor, do you believe that this complaint has as its purpose to put the brakes on the emergence of the change processes driven by the social movements in the country?
It’s evident. They think that by pounding on me they are pounding on the National Popular Front for Resistance. And thus it is like an attempt also to put the brakes on the process toward a Constitutional Convention and toward the feet of having a new Political Constitution in Honduras where all the social classes are represented and where effectively the Constitution holds the rights of the poor, of landless campesinos and also of workers and of all the people who suffer marginalization and injustice in Honduras.

Monseñor, have these groups with power reacted in the same manner in the past?
No. They’ve never reacted. I am astonished that they’ve reacted this time, because this – the problems that have happened in the Bajo Aguan [this refers to the unpunished killing of more than 35 campesinos] – is public knowledge. And this is not what I say or fail to say, but it’s what the people in Honduras commonly say.

Monseñor, what do you know of the material capital worth of Mister Miguel Facussé?
Members of the Committee for the Protection of the Flora and Fauna of the Gulf of Fonseca (CODEFAGOL) invited me to a meeting, there I heard that 22 of the 27 beaches in the Gulf of Fonseca are the properties of Facussé. That his son kills the deer and takes them away hanging from helicopters, while the poor people of the campesinos are forbidden to kill any little animal at all. Miguel Facussé has appropriated for himself from the Gulf of Fonseca from the flank of the Honduran.

Monseñor, why does Miguel Facussé fear the process of a constitutional convention?
The possession that Miguel Facussé owns are due to the Agrarian Reform which his friend, Rafael Leonardo Callejas made when he was president of Honduras from 1990 to 1994. They brought in a man named Norton who had made the land reform in El Salvador. They abolished Decree number 8 of the government of Eduardo López Arrellano, which handed over land to the poor campesino, and they made this land reform so that Miguel Facussé would take over ownership of thousands of hectares of land. Now, many of these lands are still being litigated in the National Agrarian Institute.

Monseñor, don’t these scar tactics discourage you in your prophetic attitude?
No. Of course I know that Miguel Facussé has guards on his lands there in Bajo Aguan and that he is a very powerful man. I know that in Honduras that there are also people who kill on commission.

Monseñor, why do you count on the national coming together based on justice and defense of the common goods?
Because I am a bishop. The bishop is father, teacher, and shepherd. Thus, as spiritual father of the people I can view the suffering of the people with indifference. Facing a situation of land ownership in which there are landowners with thousands of manzanas of land while there are campesinos who do not even have the land necessary to plant corn and beans and have some “self-moving” (hens, pigs, cows) for their food. This cries out for a revenge from God. The book of Genesis says that two things cry out fro vengeance from heaven: spilling the blood of a brother and taking the salary away from the worker. It is against that social injustice that I am reacting.

Monseñor, will you remain persevering in you prophetic vocation, even while knowing that the groups with power in Honduras are extremely violent?
Yes. Because during the 45 years I have as an ordained priest I have maintained consistency in my point of view and in what I have spoken. And I have always spoken in public as Jesus of Nazareth said: I have spoken in public; ask those who have heard me.


Translation mine. Thanks to the author for permitting me to translate and distribute this interview. A slightly different Spanish original can be found at at Revistazo.

In support of Bishop Santos


Bishop Santos in San Juan, Intibucá, May 31, 2011

Monseñor Luis Alfonso Santos, Bishop of Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras, is not one to pull punches. He has consistently spoken out for the poor in his diocese, against attacks on nature like open pit mining, and against the 2009 coup d'état. He is considered by some as a nuisance, by others as a prophet. Once again his remarks have struck a nerve.

A few weeks ago in an interview he held the rich Honduran land-owner and support of the 2009 coup, Miguel Facussé responsible for fourteen deaths in the area of the Bajo Aguan.

Facussé claims ownership of large tracts of land in this northern part of Honduras where he and associates have planted plantations of African palm for the production of palm oil. Unfortunately this large is claimed by a number of campesinos who have been rendered landless. In the past several years, according to Andrés Pavón, leader of an independent human rights group, thirty-five peasants have been killed. Miguel Facussé has a well-armed security force and has had the support of government forces in his effort. These groups are reported to be those responsible for most of these deaths.

On Monday, May 30, Facussé’s lawyer presented a charge against Bishop Santos of defamation and calumny for saying that he had killed 14 campesinos.

Tuesday, May 31, the bishop was in San Juan Intibucá with 30 priests of his diocese for the priestly ordination of Francisco Rivas. It was a beautiful celebration as priests, hundreds of people from the parish as well as from Father Francisco’s native El Salvador, came to celebrate another priest for the diocese. It was a deeply moving Mass.

At the end of the Mass one of the priests came to the microphone and read a communiqué which the priests of the diocese released in support of the bishop. The text follows:

Pronouncement
Priests of the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán

The priests of Santa Rosa de Copán, meeting in the municipality of San Juan Intibucá on the occasion of the celebration of the priestly ordination of the deacon Francisco Rivas, knowing the news that  a complaint has been filed by lawyers of Miguel Facussé against our bishop, Monseñor Luis Alfonso Santos, makes this pronouncement in the presence of public opinion in general and Catholic parishioners in particular in the following terms:

1.     We are in solidarity with Monseñor Luis Alfonso Santos, the 43 parishes of the five departments  in the western region, with a population of about 1.5 million inhabitants; and we are ready to accompany him in the complete process until the truth is discovered and there is an investigation of those directly involved in the violent actions against the campesinos of Bajo Aguan.

2.     We ask the State to listen and head the outcry of the campesinos who cry out and affirm with their struggles that Miguel Facussé is the one responsible for the deaths in Bajo Aguan.

3.     We denounce the ties and preferential treatment which the Honduran State is giving to this person while the Constitution states that we are all equal. We ask, Why is there such malicious indifference by the judicial power which does not follow up on the acts,  which violate human rights, to which the campesinos of Bajo Aguan are submitted? Why isn’t there an investigation of those directly responsible for the psychological and physical attacks which campesinos have suffered in the Gulf of Fonseca, especially in the island of Zacate Grande,

4.     We demand that the Honduras state apply justice especially in regard to the problems of land ownership which are the direct causes of the deaths of campesinos in Zacate Grande and Bajo Aguan, among other cases.

5.     We invite all the parishioners to be attentive to defend the dignity of the people, to aid the prophetic voice and protect the life of our shepherd, Monseñor Santos who had given over his life for the poor and the defense of life in his 27 years as bishop.

“Hear this, you who walk over the poor and want to suppress the humble of the land.” (Amos 8:4)

Released in the municipality of San Juan Intibucá, May 31, 2011

 ***

After the text was read Monseñor Santos commented. The deaths of campesinos are not noticed. “No importa – It means nothing” that a campesino is killed. Someone in the church as to speak out, since only the diocese of Trujillo has spoken out about the land problem.

I videotaped his remarks and will review them later and share what seems important.

But I think something very important may come of this. At the Mass the bishop invited people to come with him if he has to face a tribunal in Choluteca where he made his remarks or in Tegucigalpa. But it seems that already people in the Resistance are saying that people should support Bishop Santos by stating publicly, as he did, that Facussé is responsible for deaths in Bajo Aguan.

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Mel arrived - but the Reign of God?


Saturday, May 28, former Honduran president Mel Zelaya, returned,  twenty-three months after the coup that had him arrested and sent out of the country. His return, orchestrated with the current president Pepe Lobo, will probably allow Honduras to return to the Organization of American States and open up more opportunities for the government to get foreign assistance.

He was due to arrive at 11 am but his plane didn’t touch down until 2:35 pm. A large crowd gathered near the airport.

I listened to part of the events on the radio and even watched, for a while, a streaming of the events on TV Globo on the internet. I didn’t hear Zelaya’s speech because I had to go to a rural village for a video festival, part of a Caritas project.

One remark of Zelaya’s I did read reflects what many people I know believe, “The problem of poverty, of corruption, of the great challenges in Latin American societies won’t be resolved through violence, but through more democracy.” I have seen the expansion of democracy in some of the Caritas projects on governance and democracy.

But I want to comment on the opening event, a Mass in the plaza celebrated by Monseñor Luis Alfonso Santos, the bishop of Santa Rosa de Copán.

Photo from the El Tiempo AFP article

I missed most of the homily – though I heard Monseñor’s strong words against mining at the end of the homily. A few reports I read indicate that he gave a very prophetic sermon that included these very strong remarks.
Don’t forget that Honduras is dominated by a foreign power – the imperialism of the United States.

We Catholics will not  join up with the “white shirts” [those who marched against Zelaya and supported the coup] who try to place God as a shield in regard to things that cannot be defended.

The church is not with the coup.

The oligarchy wants to say that the people is just a few. They want to take control of all the goods which Honduras has, and for this they have been blinded so as not to leave the people of God in liberty.
Strong words, but to the point, I believe.

But what really impressed me were the songs that were used at the Mass, mostly from the Salvadoran and Nicaraguan campesino Masses. Watching the internet streaming I realized that the singing was being led by Padre Efraín Romero, the director of Caritas Santa Rosa and pastor of Dulce Nombre de María parish – my “boss.” Here are a few of the lyrics:

    Cristo, Cristo, Jesús identifícate con nosotros
Christ Jesus, identify with us
Lord, my God, identify with us
Christ Jesus, be in solidarity with us
not with the class of oppressors
who squeeze and devour the community,
but with the oppressed people
with the people who are united, thirsting for peace.
During the sharing of the greeting of peace, I was surprised to hear them sing: “No basta rezar” which comes from the Venezuelan group, Los Guaraguaos:
It’s not enough to pray.
Many things are lacking
to obtain peace.
They pray in good faith and heart
but the pilot also prays
when he gets into his plane
to bomb the children of Vietnam.
In the world there will not be peace
while one person exploits another
and inequality continues.
Nothing can be accomplished
is there is not revolution.
The rich man prays, the taskmaster prays
and they mistreat the peasant.
The Communion was a medley of some traditional hymns, but the one that struck me was “Nadie hay tan grande como tu  Señor.”
It starts out very traditionally:
“There is no one as great as you…
Who can do such marvels as you.”
But the verses are strong:
“Not with force, nor with violence,
will the world change,
but only love will change it.
“Not with weapons nor with war,
will the world change
Only love will change it.”
The closing was one of my favorites: Cuando el pobre crea en el pobre.
When the poor believe in the poor
we can already sing, “Freedom.”
When the poor believe in the poor,
we will build fraternity

We all commit ourselves
in the table of the Lord
to build Love in this world.
By struggling for our brothers [and sisters]
we make community.
Christ lives in solidarity.

When the poor seeks the poor
and organization is born
that’s who our liberation begins.
When the poor announce to the poor
the hope which He gave us
and his Reign has been born among us.
Great hopes.

We will see what the coming of Mel Zelaya means, but for me what is important is what the poor will do, finding their voice, coming together to live lives to the full, reflecting the presence of God in their lives, working to make real in this world the Reign of God, a Reign of justice, love, peace, equality.

This is happening.  Here’s an example.

Friday I was facilitating a session on the sacrament of matrimony with 35 people in the liturgical ministry of Dulce Nombre parish. To help them think about how marriage and love in the Bible are reflections of God’s love for humanity and Christ’s love for the church, I divided them in groups to reflect on biblical passages.

The first group had Genesis 2: 23-24. They shared what that passage taught them about marriage. One of the strongest messages they shared was the equality of men and women. I could not help rejoicing.



Saturday, May 28, 2011

How I got to Honduras

“Come over to Macedonia and help us.”
Acts 16: 9

Five years ago, after a heart-changing trip to help in the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, I made a trip in May to El Salvador and Honduras to look at possibilities. 

I felt called to do and be more.

I had been working in campus ministry and social ministry at St. Thomas Aquinas Church and Catholic Student Center in Ames, Iowa, since 1983. I felt comfortable there and felt I was doing some good. Earlier that year my spiritual director had asked me if I’d think of just leaving St. Thomas. My immediate response was “No.”

Yet several months later I was looking into serving in Central America.

The transformative event was a service trip to New Orleans with members of St. Thomas (mostly students) to help Catholic Charities in its efforts to clean up the city and help poor families return to their homes. A student, Nathan Stein, had been pushing the student center to do something and finally we arranged this.

About the third day we were there we went to a house where we had to clean everything out. Sharon, a black grandmother in her sixties, the owner of the house, was there to greet us and to pray with us. She stood outside with some family members as we carted out her possessions, from a house where she had raised children and grandchildren.

With Sharon outside her house in New Orleans
Her resilience and her calm in the midst of what must have been heart-breaking touched me deeply.
But I also thought about all the possessions I had. What would become of all of them after my death. Could I leave them go?

Soon after returning to Ames I began to wonder whether God might be calling me somewhere else.
A good friend whom I had known since the early 1990s in Suchitoto, El Salvador, Sister Nancy Meyerhofer, was serving in the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras. Her letters were touching and I asked her if she thought I could be of help in the diocese. Her response: come and talk with the bishop. I had planned a trip to El Salvador in May with the hopes of also getting to see Nancy in Honduras.

At the same time an opportunity opened in El Salvador and I applied. While visiting El Salvador I spent two days in the site in Berlin. I was later interviewed for the position and invited for an interview in El Salvador. I decided, however, to withdraw my application. Honduras called.)

I spent a few days with Nancy before talking with the visit. The Saturday I was there, before going out with Nancy to a remote village, I read the first reading from Acts 16. Paul is prevented by the Holy Spirit two times from going to two places, but he has a vision of a Macedonian who tells him, “Cross over to Macedonia and help us.” It is hard not to believe that in some way God was calling me. Not to El Salvador where I knew a lot of people and where I could do much, but to Honduras which was poorer and which lacks the solidarity which El Salvador has received. 
Bishop Luis Alfonso Santos & Sister Nancy Meyerhofer
After meeting with Bishop Luis Alfonso Santos,  I returned to Ames fairly convinced that God was calling me to Honduras. It took about a year to work out details, but since June 13, 2007 I have been here, volunteering in the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán, with the support of St. Thomas Aquinas Church.

Why?

When I told my spiritual director I felt called to go to Central America, she asked me, “Why?” My answer was spontaneous, from the heart, “to serve those most in need.”

I would change it a little bit now – “to be a sign of God’s Reign by being of service to those most in need.”

That’s how and why I got here.

Thanks be to God and to friends and supporters at St. Thomas and other places.



Thursday, May 26, 2011

Reality check


Lots is happening in Honduras. The exiled former president Mel Zelaya is returning this weekend after an agreement  between Zelaya and the current president, Lobo, facilitated by the presidents of Colombia and Venezuela. There is some concern in the Resistance that the agreement was done without their input.

I have concerns that the agreement is papering over the real problems of Honduras – the poverty, the corruption, and the need for a new political system that doesn’t reward the political and economic elites.

Others can analyze this better than I can, but a sign I saw Wednesday as I rode out to  a rural community says it all.


The road from Santa Rosa to La Entrada is a mess. They did fill in some potholes about two months ago but new ones have appeared. But what they did do recently was set up road signs announcing “Falla en la carretera 100 meters,” warning about faults in the highway. (There are a good number of geological faults in the area.) But someone painted over them so that it reads “Falla Miguel Pastor” – "Miguel Pastor fails (to meet his obligations)."

Miguel Pastor is the secretary of SOPTRAVI, the government ministry for roads and transportation. he is the one who promised the people of Dulce Nombre last December that they would re-start work on the road from the highway to Dulce Nombre in February. Need I say that NOTHING has been done. There are other concerns about his failure to fulfill projects that have been promised. 

One of my pet peeves is that they always put up signs touting a project that a government ministry is doing - but often don't do the job. A sign appeared at the turnoff to Dulce Nombre about two weeks  after the meeting Pastor had with authorities in the area, that said this was a project of the Government of National Unity. About two weeks ago I noticed that someone had pulled down the sign.


The Honduran people have suffered unfilled promises for all too long or the promised projects have been completed only because of political machinations that help preserve government officials in power.

Who suffers? The poor.

I had a reality check visiting Piedras Coloradas yesterday to do a census so that together we can help the community begin to work at how to better their lives.

I visited 9 of the 14 houses in the village with two of the pastoral workers. Most people have a little land for coffee but no land to grow corn and beans. And so they have to rent the land at about $37 a manzana (1.68 acres). For most people the only sources of income are selling a small part of their crops and working in the November to February coffee harvest.

Visiting one house, I was profoundly affected by a 15 year old girl who was watching her two year old little brother. The one room house was bahareque – sticks and mud, with a dirt floor. Her father had left them and they were without support. I found that disheartening. But then she told me that there are six people living in the one room house – her mother, four brothers (from 2 to 12 years old), and she. Yet despite that sh shared with me that she is not yet baptized but is going to religious education, planning to be baptized. Also, she is not going to school but is taking part in a special afternoon class for adults that the teacher offers.

While visiting another family, we heard a shout and ran to the neighboring house of Georgina, a 75+ year old woman. She had fainted. As I entered to house it was obvious why – the house was an oven: small, with a low tin roof.

We stopped the census and took her by car about 30 minutes away to a free clinic. She was very dehydrated and they had to put two bags of dehydration liquid in her.But still her blood pressure was low. Her grandson stayed with her while we returned. 

When we got out of the car in Piedras Coloradas one of Georgina’s daughters offered me 100 lempiras (about $5) to cover the costs of the trip. I had no choice but to refuse. I suggested that the get together and fix the house where Georgina and her husband live with three grandkids – raising the roof, adding a window, and putting clay tiles over the tin roofing to cut down the heat. As I left another member of the community said they needed to get together to raise the walls. I hope it happens.

Before I left I met the grandson of one of the older families in the older. He is 11, in sixth grade, and very bright. He told me he is thinking about becoming a priest. We talked a bit and I told him how much study it would mean. I mentioned that his middle name is Jerónimo, Jerome, and told him a bit about Saint Jerome. I urged him to read – but, of course, there are few books available for kid like him. His grandmother is sharing the bible and a book on Catholic teaching with him. I encouraged him to read the bible aloud and told him about a sixth-grader in Vera Cruz who is a very good reader at church celebrations. So much potential – but what will come of it.

That’s the reality! 

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Honduras traffic jam

On the road to El Limón, Dulce Nombre, yesterday:


Monday, May 09, 2011

Love your enemies, examine your heart


This is not an easy entry to write and I imagine that some may be offended, but in honor of Father Daniel Berrigan I feel called to gently upbraid the president of the United States.

Every day I download a podcast of the NPR 7 am news and try to listen to it regularly. Today I heard President Obama say something that really disturbed me.
“I think that anyone who would question that the perpetrator of mass murder on American soil didn’t deserve what he got, needs to have his head examined.”
I, then probably need to have my head examined because my heart says that though Osama bin Laden deserved to be judged and be held responsible for his crimes, no one deserves to be killed.

Today is Jesuit Father Dan Berrigan’s 90th birthday. In 1971 he told the Weather Underground, a violent anti-war group, that 
“No principle is worth the sacrifice of a single human being.”
We may need our heads examined but I ask the president to examine his conscience, his heart and to listen to the words of Jesus: 
"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you and persecuted you."
“Let whoever is without sin cast the first stone.”

Saturday, May 07, 2011

Contrasts


Today I went out to Plan Grande for a meeting of one of the sectors of the Dulce Nombre parish. Afterwards I went to the rural village of Piedras Coloradas where we are beginning a process for the improvement of the village.

On the way there I noticed that there were large expanses of land which had been burned, a tactic used to clear brush. It was ugly and an environmental nightmare. My guess is that much of this land is being burnt not by campesinos to plant subsistence crops but by large landowners for grazing or coffee.In some parts of Honduras, especially the south of Lempira, the municipalities have banned burning and have nearly driven out the practice there. But in this part of the country there is no such legislation.

 
In Piedras Coloradas I again met with great folks. After being given arroz con leche -  a sort of rice pudding – I talked with a few men sitting around. None of them owns land to plant corn and beans, and so they have to rent land at about 800 lempiras ($41) per manzana (1.68 acres), but the cost of fertilizers, etc., runs the cost up to about 5000 lempiras ($2550) per manzana. And what would the land cost? In another town the people would like to buy a two manzana track of land to build a high school. The cost being asked is about $5,000.

The meeting went very well. We looked again at examples of how they had made some real changes in their community. We then examined who was responsible and they noted that organization is very important. 

We also revisited the question about what they would like their community to look like in the future.

The real joy for me was to see two drawings by young people of how they would like to see their village in 2015. They are striking examples of folk art and a hopeful vision for their rural communities with forests and squirrels, a river with fish and crabs, a park, decent houses with flowers, and a church.



Leaving Piedras Coloradas, with a bunch of bananas, as usual, I felt very good - especially grateful for another chance to be with the salt of the earth, the campesinos, trying - against the odds - to live decent lives, full of faith.

There is another contrast here which I have been reading about. The Honduran Government hosted a two day meeting in San Pedro Sula called “Honduras is open for business.” It seems like an attempt to sell off projects here in Honduras and had as its speakers the ex-president of Colombia, Alvaro Uribe (not noted for a major commitment for human rights) and Paul Romer the US economict who is pushing charter cities (setting up independent zones) in Honduras.

Interestingly, the conference title was in English. Here, opponents have been calling it “Honduras abierto para la venta” – Honduras open for sale. It was held in a fancy hotel with 1500 international businesspeople.

At the same time there was major repression of a student demonstration near the National University in San Pedro Sula. There are also reports of repression in the Bajo Aguan.

I cannot confirm these personally but the contrast between the white clothed chairs in the government conference and the images of blood is striking.

Monday, May 02, 2011

A prayer for Osama bin Laden


    “Osama bin Laden – as we all know – was gravely responsible for promoting division and hatred between peoples, causing the end of countless innocent lives, and of exploiting religions to this end.
    “Faced with the death of a man, a Christian never rejoices, but reflects on the serious responsibility of each and every one of us before God and before man, and hopes and commits himself so that no event be an opportunity for further growth of hatred, but for peace.”

Fr. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesperson


Those who live by the sword die by the sword.
Matthew 26: 52

Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.
Matthew 5: 44

Do not look for revenge… Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.
Romans 12: 19

Those who sow the wind will reap the whirlwind.
Hosea 8:7

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles.
Proverbs 24:17

Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.
Luke 23: 34

Hate not.

Desire not to conquer or control, but love.


Some think your death will end terror
but terror does not rise or die with one man,
as Nazism did not rise or die with Hitler.

Terror rises from powerlessness
   but responds to another kind of terror
      that makes people powerless,
        a terror of loving money and power,
          controlling, hoarding, killing.

Osama bin Laden,
    May Allah give you the graciousness to repent
         for the deaths of innocents and soldiers,
           for the loss that so many families feel
             from your policies of terror and hate.

And may God give the West the graciousness to repent
    of killing in the name of ending terror,
      of the massacre of innocents through drone bombs,
        of the killing by hunger of innocents by economic policies
          that reward those already enriched
            and leave the poor with less than crumbs.

Lord, have mercy on us all.