Hermano Juancito

Recent writings on Honduras

2012-01-27T16:00:00.002-06:00

I'm out of Honduras for a few days to attend a friend's wedding in San Cristóbal de las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico. I'll write about the trip after I get back to Honduras in order to attach some photos and work on my own computer.

But there have been several fascinating posts on Honduras that is worth looking at, and an article that is quite good.

Here are the links:

An op-Ed article by Dana Frank in the New York Times.

A critical analysis of a Miami Herald editorial by Mike.

An analysis at Honduras Culture and Politics.

More later.

Violence in Honduras - part 3

2012-01-23T16:25:00.002-06:00

Monday, La Prensa's website, had three articles on violence in the country, two of which appeared in the morning print edition.

One was a rewrite of the Miami Herald story from Sunday; the other on the situation in two municipalities in the department of Lempira. In Gualcinse, the ex-mayor was killed and the people asked the authorities to expel the police who failed to detain the perpetrators - something not uncommon here. The Police, if not involved in the crimes, doesn't respond. And so impunity reigns.

Some have suggested - and I tend to agree with them - that impunity has increased since the 2009 coup. The Miami Herald article noted that there were 580 complaints against the police in 2009, with nearly 1000 in 2011 by November. But only 28% went to prosecutors and many of these cases were dropped.

But the one article only in the La Prensa on-line edition was the finding of the body of a local Mennonite pastor, whose body was found this morning on the turn off to Dulce Nombre. It appears that he wwas missing since Sunday afternoon. I don't know the details of the case and I didn't know the pastor, but it hit home.

When I walk to Caritas, I often pass the Mennonite church, about three blocks from where I live. In addition, I know the turn off to Dulce Nombre well, since I pass there tracery time I go to the parish and yesterday I passed through there in mid-afternoon, returning from dropping off a friend in Copan Ruinas. (I took the back road.)

Yet I still feel secure. Don't worry about me. Remember the people who live here and have no chance to get out. They are the victims of what can only be called, using the words of Dorothy Day, "this filthy rotten system."

Violence in Honduras, part 2

2012-01-22T21:37:00.000-06:00

Last Thursday I wrote a blog entry on the violence in Honduras. I particularly noted the poor coverage and analysis.

Over the past three days there have been a number of blog entries by other persons and a few articles that are fairly decent, recognizing the systemic causes of the violence. If you want to read them click on the links below.

Boz wrote on police corruption in Honduras today here.

Mike wrote an entry on his Central American Politics blog here.

RAJ on the ever helpful and insightful Honduras Culture and Politics wrote an insightful essay.

An article that has revealed the depths of the problem is Tim Johnson's "Crime booms as Central Americans fear police switched sides," on McClatchy Newspapers website here.

A fairly decent article in the Miami Herald, though the title is sensationalistic, by Frances Robles, is "Honduras named murder capital pf the world," here.

Also, Human Rights Watch recently released his World Report 2011, where its analysis of Honduras can be found here.

It looks as is people in the world are beginning to look a little more deeply at the situation here. What will be done is the real question? Will it really deal with security issues, including impunity, or just seek a heavy-handed (la mano dura) approach to security with more military involvement and US intervention. I don't think there will work.

Violence in Honduras

2012-01-19T14:20:00.002-06:00

A lot is being made of the violence in Honduras. San Pedro Sula is being proclaimed the most violent city in the world, worse than Ciudad Juarez. Honduras is noted as having the highest per capita percentage of homicides in the world. The Peace Corps suspended it presence because of security concerns, though one Guatemalan Peace Corps volunteer seems to dispute the actions of the Peace Corps in a Los Angeles Times' Op-Ed piece.

It sounds like Honduras is hell on earth.

The reports and videos (especially in InSight, Christian Science Monitor, and CNN), as well as the tabloids (er, “respected” newspapers) here in Honduras, seem to delight in a type of violent porn. A CNN video is particularly repulsive.

Yes there is violence – largely in the major cities (Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula) and the north coast where the drug trade flourishes. In other parts of the country there is violence, but domestic violence and inter-family vengeance are what one mostly encounters.

But what bothers me is that the reports provide no context for the violence, except drug trafficking and gangs. But what is missing is a real analysis.

I would suggest that much of the increase in violence is due to corruption and impunity – which are closely connected with the rule of economic and political elites and not unconnected with the 2009 coup.

The articles often fail to mention the coup which led to a real breakdown of order in the country. Some people suggest that during the reign of de facto president Micheletti , the lack of foreign aid left a vacuum and some government agencies or authorities began to work closer with drug traffickers.

But impunity is what lets this continue. The police usually don’t investigate and even if they investigate follow-up in the courts is almost non-existent. Crimes seem to have no consequences – not necessarily because of poor laws or a lack of available weaponry.

Why don’t the police investigate? This might partly be due to lack of financial resources, but I wonder if they really don’t care. In addition, the corruption within the National Police is significant. Furthermore, in several cases, including the case of a priest in our diocese, the police are responsible for beating civilians and other crimes, including the sale and use of drugs.

One way out that politicians offer is giving the military police powers, which is what is happening in many parts of the country. In addition, the US is offering help in dealing with citizen insecurity.

Both these suggestions, I fear, are missing the point, offering militaristic and violent “solutions” to violence.

If you want an alternative view on responses to violence in poor countries, look at this article on Nicaragua, where violence is not half as bad as in its northern neighbors. Why? The suggestion is that in Nicaragua community policing and greater social cohesion have helped to cut down violent crime.

Yes, there is violence here. But I have lived in New York City in the early 1980s. I have lived for short periods in El Salvador during the war.

Violence is not inevitable. But the solution is seeking a healthy life and economy for all people, especially the poor, and building up structures of social cohesion.

That’s what Honduras needs – not more weapons, not a militarized police, not a heavy hand.

Traffic in the countryside

2012-01-16T15:28:00.000-06:00

This past weekend I went out twice to El Zapote de Santa Rosa – for the zone meeting on Saturday and for the Mass to celebrate the feast of the Black Christ on Sunday.

Marco Tulio distributing communion in El Zapote

What surprised me was the number of trucks and pick up I ran across – more than I ever remember.

A different type of traffic in Dulce Nombre - 15 cows and 12 calves

We are in the middle of the coffee harvest and many people are going out to help in the coffee harvest, one of the few ways that rural people have to earn hard cash.

This year the normal price for what they call a gallon (really more like a five gallon bucket) of coffee en uva (with the fruit covering) is 40 lempiras (about $2.00).

Also, those who have small fincas de café (coffee farms) are harvesting their coffee. What they often have to do is to sell their coffee to an intermediary buyer (sometimes called, disparagingly, a coyote). Now they are getting 180 lempiras (about $9.00) thirty pounds of coffee en uva. If they take out the skin and the pulp they can get 440 lempiras (about $22) for thirty pounds. A few weeks ago the price was 480 lempiras (about $24), but since there’s more coffee available now the price has gone down.

If they were able to remove the thin skin that surrounds the coffee bean they would get a higher price, but I don’t know anyone who does this.

Trucks bringing in coffee to what I think is an intermediary in Candelaria

I would really like to find a way to help the small coffee farmers find a direct market where they could be paid better prices. There are some projects that do this including one in La Union, Lempira, that seems to be doing this fairly well. Check out their webpage. But this has been a concentrated effort of a team of persons in Michigan. I’d love to be able to so something like that in the parish of Dulce Nombre, but the costs might be high and the need for expertise a challenge.

Who knows? This is a long-range goal and there may be campesinos in the parish interested. It could make a real difference.

The black Christ

2012-01-15T06:53:00.000-06:00

The Black Christ of Esquipulas, Guatemala

January 15 is the feast of the Black Christ of Esquipulas, Guatemala. A black image there of Christ is a site for pilgrimages from around Central America.

There are other images of the black Christ, including one in Intibucá, Honduras. In the parish of Dulce Nombre three villages celebrate today as their feast day, the feast of Cristo Negro, the black Christ. In some other parts of Central America today is also celebrated as the Merciful Christ, Cristo de las misericordias.

Thr Black Christ of Intibucá,

I don’t know why but it never occurred to me how fitting this is since January 15 is also the date of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birth. This black preacher who taught us the dignity of all persons, who helped the blacks of the US liberate themselves from segregation and marginalization, was born on the feast of Cristo Negro.

Of course, the plight of blacks in the US as well as the campesinos in Guatemala and Honduras still is a form of crucifixion, an undeserved suffering, brought on by structures of marginalization and wealth.

But the image of Cristo Negro and the example of Martin Luther King, Jr., can move us to be in solidarity with them and reject all vestiges of racism and marginalization in our lives and in our nations.

May Christ continue to inspire us with the example of Martin Luther King, Jr.

On April 4, 1967, exactly one year before he was killed, he delivered a strong message against the Viet Nam War, which still has relevance for the US today. In that speech he spoke these prophetic words:

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

Priest and two others beaten

2012-01-04T17:40:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I learned that a priest I know and two others (identified as his brothers in one source) were beaten by the police on the evening of December 26 near San Juan Intibucá. Padre Marco Aurelio Lorenzo is pastor of the parish of San Miguel Arcángel in Macuelizo, Santa Bárbara.

A few years ago he asked me to do a workshop for him on ecology. I’ve found him very friendly, committed to the poor and to justice, and very approachable.

He’s from a small town in the municipality of Yaramanguila, Intibucá. Presumably he and his brothers were going there to celebrate with family members.

The details are vague at this point and the whole incident appears rather absurd.

Padre Marco Aurelio gave a press conference but I have not been able to find it. It doesn’t appear that this was a deliberate attack against a priest of the diocese. It is a part of the police violence and police corruption that are central to many of the problems here. He denounced the deeds publicly and it appears that he named his assailants. We will see if anything comes of this or if impunity will continue.

The assailants were police, as Padre Marco Tulio is quoted in the press: “They were in uniform… they were in a police car and they took me to the hospital. They beat me in the entire body; they didn’t know I was a priest until they were told in the hospital that I was a priest.”

Below is the communiqué of his parish. They use the word “torturado” which I translate literally as “tortured,” though I am not sure of the extent of the violent mistreatment they received, though you can see this photo of Padre Marco Aurelio’s scalp, which Padre Efraín Romero sent me:

Comuniqué

We the parish of Saint Michael the Archangel, Macuelizo, Santa Bárbara, let the following be known:

1. We make known publicly that on Monday, December 26, at 8:15 pm, Father Marco Aurelio Lorenzo and two people accompanying him suffered an assault, abduction, and intent of homicide by members of the Preventive Police of San Miguelito and San Juan Intibucá in the turn off to the El Rosario hacienda, at the 24^th kilometer on the road from San Miguelito to Yaramanguila where they [the police] were waiting for them.

2. As a parish we deny the lie of the version of the police implicated in the assault, abduction and homicide intent against Father Marco Aurelio Lorenzo and the two people accompanying him, in which the police say that is was an accident. The priest and his two companions were tortured and injured in the face, suffered injuries in their bodies caused by kicks and blows after being tortured; the principal purpose was to get into the vehicle and fling it into a 300 meter deep abyss. What can we call this in a country like Honduras?

3. In Light of what has happened to our pastor and prophet, as parish we demand that the three Powers of the State: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial investigate the police stationed in the San Miguelito and San Juan Intibucá police stations, that they are part of the organized crime in our country and that all of the weight of the law be applied to them in the case that the law for kidnappers and assaulters en Honduras exists for those who area called police.

4. We ask the intervention of the security forces of the country so that they accomplish the purification of the organized crime that exists within the police since this shows these very signs of the country which are corruption and drug-trafficking.

5. We alert the public in general so that they don’t trust nor allow themselves to be seduced by the security forces which are the right hand of organized crime in our society and that don’t fulfill their function to protect, serve and care for the population in general.

We make a call to the church to raise a prophetic voice in our country in this crisis situation which our people are living and where the systems don’t respond to the criteria de humanity.

Presented December 31, 2011,

from the seat of the parish of San Miguel Arcángel, Macuelizo, Santa Bárbara

***

The original Spanish can be found here at my Spanish blog.

Padre Marco Aurelio Lorenzo in a September 2010 deanery workshop on Catholic Social Teaching

Franciscan

2011-12-30T15:16:00.001-06:00

Today I officially became an associate of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Family (better known as the Dubuque Franciscans) at a Mass in Gracias, Lempira.

Signing the associates book

The real news, though, is that the Sisters received a young Honduran woman, Hermana Erika, as a novice in their community. Erika has been living with the two Sisters who have been in Gracias for several years, Sister Nancy Meyerhofer and Sister Brenda Whetstone.

Hermana Erika

Sister Pat Farrell, one of the vice-presidents of the community and the head of the US Leadership Conference of Women Religious received Erika as a novice and officially welcomed me as an associate. Betty, a woman who is volunteering in Gracias and living with the sisters was welcomed as a volunteer.

PAdre Loncho (seated), Sister Pat, Betty, me, Hermana Erika, Sister Nancy

The Mass was simple but full of meaning, especially since today is the feast of the Holy Family.

I was asked to prepare a short explanation of why I wanted to take this step. Here is an edited version of what I shared (in Spanish)

I am taking this step to be an associate of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Family as a way to deepen my commitment to Jesus, God who came flesh as a poor man in an oppressed land.

This is in some ways a return to my roots, since I spent 6 years in a Franciscan seminary from 1961 to 1967.

Francis, il Poverello, the little poor man of Assisi, sought to serve God as a poor man among the poor. His commitment to the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus to the poor, embraced a love for Jesus, God incarnate, and an identification with the poor.

I seek this connection with the Dubuque Franciscans because of their commitment to the poor, to peacemaking, and to the wonderful creation God has made.

In addition, the sisters in El Salvador and Honduras have been for me a source of inspiration and a community of support. I first met Sister Pat Farrell and Sister Kay Koppes (of beloved memory) in the Calle Real El Salvador displaced persons camp. Then in 1992 I spent a little more than six months in the Parish of Suchitoto, El Salvador, where they were serving along with Sister Carol Besch and Sister Nancy Meyerhofer.

Sisters Nancy, Pat, Kay (RIP), and Carol, February 1, 1992, El Salvador

In 2006 Sister Nancy arranged for me to meet Monseñor Luis Alfonso Santos, then bishop of Santa Rosa de Copán. And so I’m here in Honduras, living out my vocaction.

But I also need a community – both to support and to challenge me. And so I seek to be an associate of the Dubuque Franciscans.

I pray that this association will help me deepen my commitment to the glory of God and the service of the poor.

OSF associate's pin

More photos of the ceremony can be found here.

The Holy Innocents of Bethlehem

2011-12-28T11:36:00.000-06:00

Today the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the Holy Innocents, the children killed by Herod in Bethlehem. He feared that the new–born King of the Jews would overthrow his regime and so he used the means he knew – violence, the killing of innocents.

So many innocents have died over the years – victims of tyrants, victims of war. Why?

They threaten the powers that be or, as Robert Ellsberg puts it in All Saints: Daily Reflection on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time:

They were killed by the same interests that would later conspire in the death of Jesus and for the same reasons—to stifle from birth any hope that the world might be changed.

But the hope generated by a God become a poor child cannot be squelched.

In 2004 I had the chance to visit the Holy Land, hosted by a friend who was volunteering there with the Christmas Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. Because a faculty member of the Christian Brothers’ Bethlehem University was a graduate of Iowa State, I got a tour of the campus where Christians and Muslims study together.

The chapel is devoted to the Holy Innocents. As we entered I saw incredible paintings of children around the chapel. Brother told me that the painter used the faces of children of Bethlehem for the images and that now some of them can come and see their faces on the chapel walls.

But Bethlehem and the Palestinian territories are still places of pain. But may they become places of hope.

Here too in Honduras the innocent suffer - from hunger, oppression, and violence. Yet there are seeds of hope, especially among the poor. May those seeds take root and grow into a harvest of hope and justice.

More nacimientos and a pastorela

2011-12-27T10:24:00.000-06:00

The tradition of Christmas cribs is widespread here in Honduras. Not only are there nacimientos in the churches, but businesses and private homes have their nacimientos, often large affairs with lots of images, beyond the Holy Family, the shepherds, and the Magi.

Gracias is known for its nacimientos. Here is a photo of the very simple nacimiento in Casa Betania, the house of the Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Family (from Dubuque) just outside of Gracias.

On the way to Christmas Eve Mass we passed a business that had one that took up half the front room. We were in a car and so couldn’t stop to see it.

The church of San Marcos in Gracias again had a large nacimiento. As I was about to take a picture and moved to get the Holy Family in the center, a man I know told me to be sure to get “El Misterio” – “The Mystery”. What a beautiful way to talk about the images of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

The San Marcos, Gracias, nacimiento, without the infant Jesus since it was taken before Mass

The Mass was preceded by a pastorela, a Christmas pageant of children from the parish. it was a retelling of the biblical story. The children were incredible, having memorized their lines. They were very expressive and brought the mystery of the incarnation to life. There was a real infant who was very good - even as Mary and Joseph handed the "infant Jesus" to Simeon and Hannah.

Mary, Joseph, Jesus (a real infant) and angels

Joseph and Mary present Jesus to Simeon

The three kings come with gifts

On Christmas I went out with Sisters Brenda and Nancy and Betty, the volunteer with them, to the village of Rodeo-El Pinal for a Celebration of the Word. Nancy brought the Eucharist.

The Celebration was preceded by the arrival of the image of Cristo Negro – the Black Christ – from another village. The people from rodeo came out with their image of St. Francis of Assisi to greet the image and the people from the other village. After this the celebration followed – simple, but full of the presence of Christ, the poor One, the Word made flesh, the God of love.

It was a good Christmas.

I returned to Santa Rosa de Copán on Monday – but came down with a fever, a sore throat, and a cold. I was supposed to have another session of root canal today but it’s delayed until I get well.

May the blessings of this holy season fill all of us with love and compassion – and solidarity with the poor.

The poor at Christmas

2011-12-24T11:12:00.001-06:00

Recently 80 Maya Chorti were displaced from land near the Mayan ruins in Copán. They will spend Christmas in provisional housing at the side of the road, as you can seen from these two photos taken by Padre Efraín Romero, the pastor of Dulce Nombre parish.

Almost fifty years ago, the Trappist monk Thomas Merton wrote:

“Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for Him at all, Christ has come uninvited. But because He cannot be at home in it, because He is out of place in it, His place is with those others for whom there is no room, His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, who are tortured, bombed, and exterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in the world. He is mysteriously present in those for whom there seems to be nothing but the world at its worst. . . . It is in these that He hides Himself, for whom there is no room.”
Thomas Merton, “The Time of the End is the Time of No Room,”
in Raids on the Unspeakable, pp. 72-3

Thirty-three years ago, today, Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero, martyred archbishop of San Salvador, preached this message:

“No one can celebrate a genuine Christmas without being truly poor. The self sufficient, the proud, those who, because they have everything, look down on others, those who have no need of God — for them there will be no Christmas. Only the poor, the hungry, those who need someone to come on their behalf, will have that someone. That someone is God., Emmanuel, God-with-us. Without poverty of spirit, there can be no abundance of God.”
Archbishop Oscar Romero, December 24, 1978,
in James Brockman, ed., the Church Is All of You

*******

The Maya Chorti were evicted on December 15, 2011. Their story can be read at the end of a blog entry by Honduras Culture and Politics on the Maya calendar festivities planned at Copán Ruinas. While tourism is a priority here in Honduras, the indigenous poor are not!

Christmas Night

2011-12-24T07:27:00.000-06:00

A prayer of St. Isaac the Syrian

This Christmas night bestowed peace on the whole world;

   So let no one threaten;
This is the night of the Most Gentle One -
    Let no one be cruel;
This is the night of the Humble One -
    Let no one be proud.

Now is the day of joy -
    Let us not seek revenge;
Now is the day of Good Will -
    Let us not be mean.
In this Day of Peace -
    Let us not be conquered by anger.

Today the Bountiful impoverished Himself for our sake;
    So, rich one, invite the poor to your table.
Today we receive a Gift for which we did not ask;
    So let us give alms to those who implore and beg us.
This present Day cast open the heavenly doors to our prayers;
    Let us open our door to those who ask our forgiveness.

Today the Divine Being took upon Himself

the seal of our humanity,
In order for humanity to be decorated

by the Seal of Divinity.

Peace Corps suspended in Honduras

2011-12-23T12:40:00.000-06:00

The Peace Corps is temporarily withdrawing from Honduras in January 2012 while it considers restructuring its program due to security concerns. Peace Corps Volunteers (158 of them) will be leaving for about 30 days while the Peace Corps staff re-evaluates and restructures Peace Corps in Honduras. The Peace Corps has been here for many years but, because of concerns for the security of its volunteers, it’s reassessing its programs. If they return they will probably be in fewer places.

At the same time the Peace Corp is not sending new classes of volunteers to Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala early next year as planned. Their security concerns are high. A few weeks ago a volunteer traveling on a public bus in Honduras was shot in the leg when a passenger fired on the group which was robbing the bus.

As I have been told, for many years Honduras seems to have had one of the largest Peace Corps contingent in the world, after the Ukraine and Guatemala.

What does this mean for me? Nothing special.I feel safe, especially here in the Santa Rosa de Copán and Dulce Nombre area.

I am here because I feel God’s call to be among the people. I am very careful and generally avoid the big cities where much of the crime is. I also avoid walking or driving late at night, unless I absolutely have to. I also know what areas to avoid in Santa Rosa, especially in the evening.

I feel safe - and take all reasonable precautions. (And I have so many people who know me that I feel their care and protection.)

And so I do not contemplate leaving. As I tell my Honduran friends when they ask how long I’ll be here, I am here until God calls me somewhere else which I translate into Spanish as “Hasta que Dios quiera.”

As I thought of the pullback of the Peace Corps, I remembered a quote of Jean Donovan, the lay missionary killed by government troops in El Salvador in December 1980. Our situation here is not at all comparable with the deaths and massacres of El Salvador in the 1980s, but here words touch my heart.

“The Peace Corps left today and my heart sank low,” she wrote a friend. “The danger is extreme and they were right to leave. Now I must assess my own position, because I am not up for suicide. Several times I have decided to leave El Salvador. I almost could, except for the children, the poor, bruised victims of this insanity. Who would care for them? Whose heart could be so staunch as to favor the reasonable thing in a sea of their tears and loneliness? Not mine, dear friend, not mine.”

A new bishop for Santa Rosa de Copán

2011-12-19T17:21:00.000-06:00

On a rainy Saturday, December 17, Monseñor Luis Alfonso Santos ended his almost 28 year ministry as bishop of the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán.

It has been a ministry marked by a commitment to the poor in the poorest diocese of Honduras, an organization of the parishes in base communities, a strong effort at evangelization at all levels, and a prophetic ministry that has denounced injustice and threats to the environment.

Monseñor Santos arrived at the Mass in the parking lot of the Santa Rosa Campus of the Catholic University of Honduras, in his suit coat with a rain jacket.

Monseñor presided over the Mass with bishop and priests concelebrating with him. Primary among the bishops was the new bishop, Monseñor Darwn Andino, the new bishop, and Archbishop Luigi Bianco, the Apostolic Delegate to Honduras.

Monseñor Andino, Monseñor Santos, Archbishop Bianco

There were bishops from Honduras and El Salvador as well as priests from the diocese of Santa Rosa and other dioceses.

Monseñor gave a sort homily, written out since he jokingly said that some have said his homilies are often long. He mentioned how a US Capuchin priest had told him that; in response Monseñor asked how he knew since the priest fell asleep after five minutes. Besides, the bishop told him, he should thank him since he gave him a chance to chance some sleep! Such is the bishop’s folksy style.

He reminded those gathered that he has devote his episcopacy to evangelization and the poor. The poor are our evangelizers.The bishop may have meant that the poor in the villages are the ones who do the evangelization of the people in the diocese. But it might also be understood that the poor are the ones who evangelize the church.

This reflects the commitment he has made to continually visit the parishes of the diocese, going out to remote villages. He also made a commitment to develop the diocesan clergy, having ordained 50 priests for the diocese.

The commitment to evangelization was apparent when he was presented the published copy of the Third Pastoral Plan of the diocese, written by clergy and laity of the diocese with the bishop’s input and support. Several of the social problems noted in the plan were displayed on drawings posted in the parking lot.

Extreme poverty and families that are falling apart

Monseñor Santos’s commitment to the church of the poor was noted by the apostolic delegate before he read the papal bull installing Monseñor Darwin as the new bishop.

After his installation Monseñor Andino noted that he was a servant, an instrument of the Lord, no more, and that he sought to announce the love of God.

Monseñor Darwin Andino

The next day he celebrated an evening Mass in Dulce Nombre as part of a celebration and fund-raising event of the families in the town of Dulce Nombre. He concelebrated the Mass with Padre Efraín Romero, the pastor, Padre Henry Rodríguez, the associate pastor, and Padre Julio César Galdámez, who is now pastor of a neighboring parish but had been the associate in Dulce Nombre.

After the Mass there was a special meal in the local school. The bishop and priests sat at the head table as two music groups from the parish played energetic songs with a faith basis.

It was a good night and it was good to see the bishop there among the people.

May the new bishop be a sign of the Kingdom of God in our diocese, being Good News for the Poor.

***

More photos of the installation can be found in a set on my photo site.

Pablito

2011-12-18T11:42:00.002-06:00

He had rough hands with bent fingers, from many years of hard work in the fields. But today Pablito is being laid to rest. He will be buried at 2 pm today.

This evening I’m going to Mass in Dulce Nombre followed by the parish Christmas dinner, but I had decided to go up the hill for the 9:30 am Mass.

As I entered I saw a coffin at the foot of the altar. I wondered who it was, but later seeing Pablo’s widow in the front row I knew who it was.

I often sat near Pablito and his wife when I went to Mass at the church of San Martín de Porres up the hill from where I live in Santa Rosa.

I don’t know much about his life but his faithfulness to God and the Church and his gentle welcome impressed me. He is one of those unknown who reveal the presence of God in our world. They are not often noticed – especially by the press and the politicians, but they are the anawim, the poor of the Lord, who keep this world going by their faith, their work, and their welcoming presence.

Thank God for Pablito and for the many like him who give us glimpses of the Reign of God.

Politics and the Church in Honduras

2011-12-16T09:29:00.001-06:00

Here in Honduras, as in much of the world, the role of the Church in political concerns has been a matter of intense debate.

Some people want a church that is just concerned with what they call the “spiritual,” not recognizing that in the biblical sense the spiritual embraces the whole person and the whole world. Such a view, I believe, is non-Christian, because it ignores a central belief – Jesus is God made flesh, made human. Jesus is a God who intervenes in human history – and calls people to be good news for the poor.

A disembodied spirituality is no spirituality.

And so the Church and the faithful need to address issues of justice from the perspective of the scriptures and the social teaching of the Church.

As Pope John Paul II wrote in Christifideles laici, no. 42

A charity that loves and serves the person is never able to be separated from justice. Each in its own way demands the full, effective acknowledgment of the rights of the individual, to which society is ordered in all its structures and institutions.

Therefore the Church has a right and a duty to be involved, not in partisan politics, of course, but in speaking up for justice and the cause of the poor. But that can be controversial.

Here in the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán, our bishop, Monseñor Luis Alfonso Santos, has been an outspoken advocate of the poor, calling political leaders to account, even accusing a prominent member of the economic elite of being responsible for killings by members of his security guards. He has also spoken out against the mining industry in Honduras which exploits the land, pollutes rivers, and pays almost nothing in taxes. he also was the only bishop to openly criticize the 2009 coup. For all this he has been castigated by many.

Tomorrow Monseñor Santos will be replaced as bishop, because he reached 75 years, the mandatory age for “retirement” as a bishop for a diocese. Monseñor Darwin Andino, former auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Tegucigalpa, will be installed as bishop of the diocese tomorrow morning.

Someone obviously doesn’t like the diocese’s advocacy of justice. Sometime overnight graffiti was spray painted on a wall near the diocesan radio station and on the park fence across the road. Interestingly it’s in both Spanish and Italian (sort of).

No politics in the Catholic Church.

On the park fence it reads, in Spanish,

Catholic church without politics

No more -> politics

Perhaps someone is desperate and hopes to influence the new bishop by this type of graffiti. The fact that part of the graffiti is written in Italian is puzzling. Maybe it's for the apostolic nuncio who will be here for the installation.

But the diocese has long taken a stand at its diocesan assemblies and in its third pastoral plan to stand with the poor in their struggles for justice and for the integrity of creation.

The work of the diocese, according to the general objective set out in the Third Pastoral Plan of the Diocese, is

to work for a diocese organized in church base communities – in solidarity, prophetic, missionary, and transforming, contributing to the formation and the integral liberation of the human being, with a preference for the most needy, so as to make present the Reign of God.

I pray that we continue to be a sign of the presence of that Reign here, in the poorest diocese in Honduras.

Christmas, images, and nacimientos

2011-12-15T11:36:00.000-06:00

To prepare for the coming feast of Christmas, the birth of Christ, I want to share a few images that might help our meditations.

A small Ecuadoran carved wooden Nativity, painted by the wife of a friend from Colombia

A live Christmas scene at San Marcos Church in Gracias, Lempira, Honduras, December 25, 2010.

A part of the nacimiento - Christmas creche - in Gracias, Lempira, Honduras, 2010

A view of the nacimiento in Gracias which was quite large.

The statue of San José - Saint Joseph - from the nacimiento (Nativity) in Gracias, Lempira.

San José seems so Honduran.

San Nicolás at the Christmas celebration for poor kids in Santa Rosa, December 2010

In the face of violence - love

2011-12-15T10:25:00.000-06:00

A major political leader who was openly opposed to drug trafficking and police corruption was recently killed. Two more journalists were killed this month in Honduras putting the number of journalists killed in the last two years at 19. A demonstration of journalists in Tegucigalpa was broekn up by the police with tear gas and violence.

What has the Honduran Congress done?

They are giving the military police powers.

They are justifying wiretapping.

They are, for six months, not allowing motorcyclists to carry passengers.

Go figure!

I, though, feel safe. Our part of the country is fairly tranquil, both in Santa Rosa and in the countryside, though crime and violence are not unheard of.

But the people I work with are very protective. When we got stranded late at night in my car way out in the countryside the four guys with me insisted on sleeping with me int he car instead of walking 45 minutes to sleep in their homes. The next morning they even sent someone to give me coffee and breakfast while I tried to get someone to fix the car.

And, most of all, I still feel strongly that here is where God is calling me to be.

Perfect love casts out fear, according to 1 John 4:18. And that requires humility - willingness to put one's life in the hands of God and others.

And here in Honduras this is not hard for me.

A carved image of Jesus at Caritas Santa Rosa de Copán

John’s “¿Marvellous?” Adventures: Food, Communion, and the beast (my pick up)

2011-12-12T14:35:00.001-06:00

These last four days have turned out to be quite an eventful weekend.

As usual on the second Friday and Saturday of the month I went out to two different zone meetings in the parish. It not that I really do a lot there, but it’s important to show interest and to talk with the people. It’s also a good chance to listen to what people are doing.

On Friday a few people asked me for a ride from El Limón, where we had been meeting.

Two of them worked in the clinic in El Limón. I asked them about problems, especially among children: pneumonia and colds, most of all. I also asked whether any of the communities they worked with were part of the project for infants and mothers, financed by Catholic Relief Services and administered by the diocesan Caritas office. She told me proudly that it had made a difference in the one community, Prado de la Cruz, where none of the infants were below the standard weight.

By the time we got to Dulce Nombre only one person was left and he asked for a ride to Santa Rosa. René is a young man from Agua Buena, Concepción, very involved with the work of the church in his village and the parish. I asked him about his village and he was proud to speak about it. It’s small, only twenty families and all of them are Catholic. They have two base communities and three catechists. They do some work with the youth and all except one seem to be on the straight and narrow; the one, from what I surmise, needs a little encouragement. Most of the people have land for basic grains as well as some coffee. They are involved in the parish’s basic grains harvest and are working on family gardens. The one drawback is that though the coffee prices are higher than two years ago, they still probably aren’t getting the best prices. As René told me they get about 480 lempiras for a lata – about 29to 30 pounds of coffee beans with the pulp removed. That’s less than one dollar a pound. But it is still good to find a community that seems to be working together well.

Saturday it was raining by the time I got to El Zapote de Santa Rosa for the zone meeting there. Almost three days of rain made the area near the church very slippery and we spent a half an hour trying to get my pick up out of the mud – and I was in four wheel drive low! It finally worked when they got a rope and pulled it out of the mud. Ugh! But, again, the generosity of the people – getting muddy and exerting themselves for a stupid gringo who gets stuck in the mud!

Stuck in the mud in El Zapote

The meeting was not very well-attended, which is unusual for this zone. I think it was a combination of the lousy weather and muddy roads as well as a meeting at the parish center in Dulce Nombre.

I left early (and almost got stuck again in some mud) and decided to stop for a short time at the meeting. The parish has had a basic grains, garden and fruit project for more than two years, financed by the Spanish Catholic organization, Manos Unidas. The project will go on until August but it has made a lot of difference in some communities.

Mauro, one of the team for the ag project, with yucca

Today they were celebrating the successes of the project as well as awarding diplomas to those who had participated. (Here giving people a certificate at the end of a training is very important.)

Part of the crowd

The parish hall was jammed with people. At the front was a table filled with some of the products they had produced. It was quite a diversity: plantains, yucca (cassava), papaya, squash, radishes, pataste, dulce de canela (raw sugar), oranges, tangerines, cilantro, mustard greens, green peppers, cabbage, and - what I never expected to find here – turnips. I’ll have to get some since one of the unusual dishes that my Aunt Mary used to serve at a post-Christmas meal my family often spent with them was mashed turnips.

How many of the products can you identify?

I left the parish before lunch because I’d been asked to show up as “San Nicolas/Santa Claus” at the Christmas party of the Santa Rosa campus of the Catholic University. For the past three years the university has invited poor kids from the city to their celebration and provided them with a meal and gifts.

San Nicolás also showed up at the parish meeting.

I arrived in the university parking lot in my muddy pickup wearing a red ISU hooded sweatshirt and a Santa Claus hat. I opened the door of the truck and at least twenty kids came running. “Santa, Santa,” they shouted, hugging and holding on to me.

There had been some miscommunication and there was already someone in a Santa costume, but that didn’t matter to the kids. A few asked me if I was Santa – I said I was his helper. That made sense.

I stayed around for a while as the kids broke open piñatas and dived for the candy. Then as they left the kids were given a small gift.

It’s good that something is done for these kids – at least once a year.

Saturday evening I had another surprise. Sister Nancy Meyerhofer. who ministers in Gracias with another Dubuque Franciscan, called. Returning from giving retreats in Guatemala she wouldn’t get to Santa Rosa in time for a bus to Gracias. So she came late and stayed until she got the 5:30 am bus on Sunday. We had a nice visit – a good ending to a full day.

I thought Sunday would not be a very busy day. I slept in till 8:15 (after getting up and taking Nancy to the 5:30 am bus). I washed clothes and did some grocery shopping.

In the afternoon I headed for Dolores where Bishop Santos consecrated the altar and installed the 17 extraordinary ministers of Communion for the parish and two who are now members of the parish of San Juan Bosco. It was a very important day for these men and women who’ve spent two years in the formation process.

The Mass was supposed to start at 5 pm, but people came early and music groups were playing in the church.

At about 5:00 pm most of the people went to place about half a kilometer from the church to greet the bishop when he entered town.

Waiting for Monseñor Santos

The bishop arrived about 5:30 pm. He got out of the truck and walked with the people to the church led by a band from the local school. As he entered the church he was warmly greeted.

It is obvious that he is loved by the people.

Monseñor Santos entering the church in Dolores

For a number of reasons the Mass didn’t begin until 7 pm.

The ministers were introduced before Mass: Padre Efraín introduces Gloria from Plan Grande

Mass was an incredible two and a half hour liturgy. Though my camera broke partway through the Mass, I did get two pictures of most of the communion ministers waiting for the opening procession.

five women extraordinary ministers of Communion

Thirteen of the men extraordinary ministers of Communion

The consecration of an altar is an impressive rite. The bishop anoints the altar with chrism and then lights a fire (in a pan) on top of the altar. Incense is liberally sprinkled over the coals. Candles for the communion ministers were lighted from the fire which was a very symbolic gesture - since they will be distributing the Eucharist, consecrated on altars such as this one.

Bishop Santos and Padre Efraín leading the Litany of the Saints during the consecration of the altar

After Mass I left, but not before Padre Efraín had asked me to drive one of the music groups – Los Lirios del Campo, the lilies of the field – to their distant village. It was late, about 10 pm, and I don’t like to drive at night, because it would have been a very long walk for them.

But it ended up being a very long night for the four of them and me. Going up a hill about 25 minutes from Dulce Nombre the car stalled and wouldn’t start. I tried to back it down the hill but got the car stuck in a ditch.

What did we end up doing? We tried to sleep in the car. I urged them to go home (about 45 minutes walking) but they insisted on staying and accompanying me. (The care these people take of crazy gringos like me is humbling.) It was not comfortable trying to sleep in the truck!

About 5:30 they ended up going on the way – and told me they’d send someone with breakfast. I told them I’d call my mechanic and see what he could do.

Well, several trucks passed by taking people to harvest coffee. One of them came back and tried to jump start the car. No luck. After talking with my mechanic in Santa Rosa I decided I’d try to contact a mechanic in Dulce Nombre and got a ride back to El Limon with Antonio, a coffee farmer with about 27 manzanas, about 45 acres. His wife gave me coffee and offered me breakfast as he and I tried to connect with a mechanic. No luck by phone, but a bus passed by and I took it to Dulce Nombre.

On the bus I sat next to a man and his son from El Limon. He tried to pay my bus fare – but I gave him the 20 lempiras (about $1.15).

I found a mechanic and we went to check out the car. The battery he brought ended up being not as powerful as needed and so, after a passing group helped push the car to turn it around, we push started the car. And what did he charge? 100 lempiras, a little more than five dollars. I couldn’t believe how cheap it was for his time and his fuel and gave him an over-generous tip.

Finally I got to Santa Rosa and went to the mechanic who works on vehicle electric systems. Sure enough, a major problem – a short circuit burnt out the alternator. Another expense.

In all this, I do feel somewhat jinxed in terms of the car. But above all, I feel a deep gratitude for the care of the people, which for me is the sign of God’s love.

I felt really awful trying to sleep in the car, but a prayer came to my heart that consoled me and gave me strength: “Me amas, Señor Jesús – You love me, Lord Jesus.”

As I reflect, the Lord was shone to me this weekend by many people – people with love for God and others, people willing to go out of the way to help, people who have made deep commitments to God and to the community.

Singing at Mass in Dolores

Thanks, God. This is what Advent is about – waiting in hope, being awake for the signs of God’s breaking into our lives in so many ways.

El Mozote, El Salvador, massacre - 1981

2011-12-11T06:13:00.000-06:00

Thirty years ago today, on December 11, 1981, the US-trained Atlacatl battalion killed close to 1000 civilians in the remote twon of El Mozote, Morazón, El Salvador. In the midst of the civil war many civilians had fled to this city int he hopes that it would be safe.

The massacre was merciless - women, children, elderly.

This evil was compounded by the lies of the Salvadoran and US governments that tried to cover up the killings.

But they came to light because one woman escaped to tell and two journalists had the courage to write about the truth.

I wrote a short meditation, Denouncing the massacre of El Mozote, on this today on another blog site. You can access it by clicking here.

Rain, baptisms, and more in Concepción

2011-12-08T15:46:00.000-06:00

It’s been raining constantly for almost 36 hours and might be raining for a few more days. It’s, as they say here, a “cold front.” And since it has also been in the 60s during the day and the 50s at night it has felt cold. (You have to remember that Santa Rosa de Copán is in the mountains of south west Honduras.)

This morning I decided to go out to the Mass and celebration of the feast of the Immaculate Conception in the municipality of Concepción.

It was raining and misty the whole way out about 8 am (and there was also a lot of fog when I returned to Santa Rosa at 1 pm).

Mass didn’t start until 10 am, though I thought it was supposed to start at 9. Anyway, I used the time to visit with people and to answer questions about the liturgy from some of the pastoral workers in Concepción.

Father Henry, the new associate in the parish of Dulce Nombre, celebrated the Mass – as well as two special sacramental celebrations. The music was good, led by La Gran Familia, a group from the village of Plan Grande, but the participation was weak. Yet it was quite the celebration.

There were six baptisms – a three month old infant, one boy about 10, and four girls between 7 and 11. Father Henry doesn’t believe in sacramental minimalism. He doused the young people with lots of water.

Padre Henry emptied the water on the last one baptized, the boy!

After they changed into their “white” baptismal clothes, they were introduced to the community and embraced by Padre Henry.

Eight young people from Concepción made their First Communion at the Mass. They brought up the gifts at the offertory – including a statue of Mary, a bible and the bread and wine for the Eucharist. They stood around the altar with lighted candles.

The first communicants were the first to receive the Eucharist, the Body and Blood of Christ. But Padre Henry did something I’ve never seen here before (but which I like).

Here communion under both species (bread and wine) is not common, though it happens a lot in the parish of Dulce Nombre using the form of intinction. The priest dips the host in the chalice and places it on the tongue of those going to communion.

At today’s Mass Padre Henry gave the young people the host which they all took on the tongue. Then he passed the chalice to them so they could drink from the cup. It’s probably something the kids won’t forget.

After Mass, many of the people went outside, beside the church, for laying and blessing the first brick for a new church. The old church which has become too small will be replaced this year.

In the rain we stood around as prayers were said and three bricks were symbolically laid.

I hope the construction of a new church helps build up the church, the community, in Concepción.

I left in the rain – glad to have been part of the life of another community in the parish of Dulce Nombre.

The next three days I’ll also be going out to the parish. On Friday and Saturday I’ll be going to two of the zonal meetings. On Sunday I’ll go to the 5 pm Mass in the municipality of Dolores. Bishop Santos is coming out to consecrate their altar as well as to install the twenty-some new Extraordinary Ministers of Communion for the parish. The ministers have gone through a two year process. It will be good for them to be able to distribute the Eucharist in their communities, especially sine there is such a great devotion to the Eucharist here.

Next week will be Monseñor Luis Alfonso Santos’ last week as bishop here in the diocese. On Saturday, December 17, the new bishop, Monseñor Darwin Andino, will be installed.

Monseñor Santos will be missed. I’m hoping to write a longer piece on him and his impact on the church here. We sat together for about an hour on Monday and talked.

I’ll give one hint on what I’ll write. I had a few questions that I had written and showed them to him before we started. One was “What are your dreams for the future?” Looking at the question, he remarked without forethought, “The Resurrection.”

Ah. That’s a bishop who is a pastor.

***

Just a note for liturgists. Inculturation occasionally means praying the Hail Mary immediately after the Our Father . Don’t get too upset, please. It’s a part of their piety!

Poverty in Honduras and more

2011-12-03T18:02:00.001-06:00

The 2011 Social Panorama of Latin America, a recent report from CEPAL, a United Nations agency for Latin America, reported that there has been a decrease in economic poverty across Latin America, except for two countries – Mexico and Honduras.

In the last ten years Honduras has become poorer – its poverty rate growing by 1.7 percentage points to 67.4% of the population living in poverty. The rate of extreme poverty has risen by 1 percentage point to 41.8%. Though the report doesn’t have figures for some countries (e.g., Nicaragua), the percentage of poverty in Honduras is the highest of those reported. more than double the regional rate of poverty (31.4%) and more than three times the rate of those living in extreme poverty throughout Latin America (12.3%).

Transparency International also recently issued a report on corruption. Surprisingly Honduras is only the sixth most corrupt nation in the Americas.

A few weeks ago Honduras was noted for having the highest per capita homicide rate in the world.

This comes to no surprise to me, as I contemplate the reality around me.

But statistics normally don’t touch the heart. Nor do they cause unrest or movement for social change.

So what is important is to put a face to the reality.

children, Luis Alonso and Juventina in Piedras Coloradas

Friday and Saturday I was at the evaluation and planning meeting for the parish of Dulce Nombre de María.

On Saturday morning the beatitudes from Luke’s Gospel went thought my mind as I lay in bed in Dulce Nombre – delaying getting up in the morning cold. “Blessed are you who are poor, yours is the Kingdom of God.”

All of a sudden it struck me. The people here are the poor and God’s Kingdom is theirs. If I want to find the Reign of God, I need to look around me and listen to them.

The parish uses a tool for evaluation (FODA, in Spanish) which lists Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats. Each sector of the parish brought in its evaluation and a group synthesized them. One sector noted the extreme poverty of some of the parish’s pastoral workers. These people who give their time and energy to living their faith and serving the community experience extreme poverty.

The parish has a few programs to help them, but their needs are great and many of them continue serving year after year.

Saturday was also the feast of St. Francis Xavier, the great Jesuit missionary to India and the Far East. In a letter to St. Ignatius, his friend and the founder of the Jesuits, he noted:

…I have begun to realize that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. I have found in these children the seeds of spiritual greatness and have no doubt that if there were teachers to train them in Christian ways, they would become excellent Christians.

St. Francis Xavier is speaking from is culture and the situation of the non-Christian people in India whom he was meeting. But I believe he was on the mark when he noted that there are seeds of spiritual greatness in these people and that the kingdom of God belongs to them.

Reflecting on a visit from St. Thomas parishioners

2011-11-27T08:48:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I saw the St. Thomas Aquinas, Ames, group depart for the US, leaving them in the hands of Javier, who drove them safely to the San Pedro Sula airport.

Four of the six visitors from St. Thomas Aquinas, Ames

It is always good to have a group here – to give them a sense of the life here and the ministry of the parish of Dulce Nombre, as it strives to help the parishioners live as children of God – in a way that their growth in faith includes efforts to live lives worthy of children of God. With the poverty of the parish that is so important.

The group – five student parishioners and one resident parishioner of St. Thomas – had a chance to see life at the base when we stayed two days in Quebraditas, helping build a latrine and pila (water container) for the church there.

Partly finished latrine and pila

Quebraditas is not one of the poorer communities of the parish but they came face to face with the problems of life in the countryside – sanitation, bugs, difficulty of obtaining basic supplies.

They did visit a poorer community, Piedras Coloradas, as well as some other communities. They also got a chance to see one of the sites in the parish of the Catholic Relief Services’ support infant and maternal health project.

A highlight for many of them was the Christ the King Mass on Sunday, November 20, when the parish gathered in Candelaria for Mass. The crush of so many people and the enthusiasm of the people celebrating their faith were impressive. Forty three catechists were recognized for having completed their training (a process of more than two years).

Catechists receiving their "diplomas"

I remember most the homily of the pastor, Padre Efraín Romero, where he called for an end to violence. The Friday before the Mass a man had been killed in Candelaria by a mentally ill man and it had shocked many with its brutality. At the Mass, a “shrine” of artifacts of Modesto Melgar, the Delegate of the Word who had been killed last November, was brought forward. See my post last year for a little more information on Don Modesto.

Bible, hymnal, and clothes that Modesto wore when he was killed.

In some ways these acts of violence can be frightening, even though they do not at all march the violence in other parts of the country. The west of Honduras is very peaceful and safe, despite occasional violence. But I don’t feel threatened in this part of Honduras, mostly because of the care which the people here show.

But the violence the poor experience is a reality – the violence of the machete or the gun, but more significantly the “violence” of poverty and injustice.

To accompany them in the struggle against injustice and poverty is why I’m here.

For this I thank God.

Beans

2011-11-24T10:38:00.000-06:00

It's been almost a week since I posted because of the slow - or nearly non-existent - internet connections in Dulce Nombre and in the coutnryside.

Last Friday at the Dulce Nombre parish two kids were shelling beans. I noticed that they were quite unusual. The cook explained that these were frijoles de la milpa - beans from the corn field. These different varieties were sown amid the corn and some even grew up the corn stalks.

These beans will most probably be used for bean soup or for ticucos, a regional specialty of corn dough with beans.

Here are a few photos.

The only one whose name I know are these large purple beans - chinapopos.

If anyone can identify the other ones, let me know.

To cry or scream - or organize

2011-11-17T21:44:00.002-06:00

Placing two recent reports side by side makes me want to scream.

The first describes how Honduran beef exports have increased by more than 120 percent, exporting about 25 million dollars worth of meet.

The other report noted,

According to the results of a survey conducted by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), 5.5 million of the estimated 8.2 million people in Honduras live in poverty. Of that number, some 1.7 million live in a state of relative poverty and more than 3.8 million in extreme poverty. Income for households within this segment of the population falls below an index known as the canasta básica (basic [food] basket). Of Honduras' population, an estimated 4.7 million have serious nutritional problems, and an additional 1.7 million can pay for enough to eat but cannot afford basic healthcare, education, or housing.

Is there something wrong here?

Today as I rode with the group from St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Ames from San Pedro Sula to Santa Rosa de Copán, we passed the plain north of La Entrada. So much flat land with so many cattle grazing there. Who owns most of the land for cattle raising? The economic (and political) elites. Much of the cattle land around here belongs to Jaime Rosenthal.

I know cases of people with land refusing to sell to campesinos and instead try to buy the campesino’s land. How much greed can this country endure?

A report a few months ago noted that eight out of ten campesino families own no land or less than ten acres of land, mostly on hill sides. In contrast, 1% of agricultural producers own a third of the cultivable land, mostly in valleys.

Something wrong – unjust is happening here.

That’s why the voice of the prophetic church must continue to be raised with the poor campesinos struggling for land and livelihood.

Amos wrote, centuries ago, condemning something very similar:

Ah, those who plan iniquity
And design evil on their beds;
When morning dawns, they do it,
For they have the power.
They covet fields and seize the;
Houses, and take them away.
They defraud people of their homes,
And people of their land.
Amos 2, 1-2 (Tanakh translation revised)

I think it was International Workers of the World labor organizer Joe Hill who said, “Don’t mourn! Organize!”

May the Church, especially here in the west of Honduras, continue to be with the poor in their struggles for justice, for land, for life!

July 17, 2007 road blockade, Santa Rosa de Copán

Welcoming guests

2011-11-17T08:36:00.000-06:00

Today I’ll be going to San Pedro Sula with a van and a driver to pick up six parishioners from St. Thomas Aquinas Church and Catholic Student Center in Ames, Iowa.

As some of my readers may know, I worked at St. Thomas for 24 years before coming here to Honduras in June, 2007. The parish has supported me and has established a relationship with the parish of Dulce Nombre de María where I am helping.

Several times a year I received groups from St. Thomas and arrange for them to connect with the parish of Dulce Nombre. This time there will be five student parishioners and one resident parishioner.

I am glad to have them, though a bad cold has kept me under the weather since last Friday. I hope it doesn’t slow me down too much.

For me, the visits are a chance for the US parishioners to get to know and accompany the ministry of Dulce Nombre parish. There will be some work – helping with a latrine and water container. But the main purpose is solidarity – learning how we can be sisters and brothers together.

This is, therefore, not a “mission” trip from the US. (God is here already.) Rather I hope it is a sharing of our common mission to be signs of the Kingdom of God and God’s love here and in the US.

Please pray for us.

May 2010 immersion group with Bishop Santos

On a side note.

The diocese received a grant to create a booklet on Catholic Social Teaching for the base communities. Since no one stepped up to do the work, I began working on it. I passed it on to the director of Caritas so that he could review it. He handed it to our bishop, Monseñor Luis Alfonso Santos, who read it and revised it. (I still am not good at writing in Spanish.)

To my great satisfaction, he loved it. It will be handed to him next week as part of the diocesan Pastoral Assembly and then will be printed.

It’s a large document with themes for 57 meetings. I pray it may help the Church live out its commitment to be Good News for the Poor.

Back out in the countryside

2011-11-13T17:05:00.000-06:00

I’ve been back in Honduras since Friday, November 4. Finally, on Thursday, November 11, I got back out into the countryside.

A group is coming from St. Thomas Aquinas Church on November 17 and I have to make sure everything is prepared. This included a few visits to places where they will be staying or visiting. I could, of course, have tried to do all this over the phone, but it actually works better to spend the time visiting the communities – partly to make sure I get things straight and partly because it is always good to have face to face meeting with folks.

The St. Thomas group will spend three days in Quebraditas – the town with the pink church. They’ll be working with the people of the town to build a latrine and a pila, a water basin, for the church grounds.

The pink church of San José in Quebraditas

I had expected that things would not be underway and I’d have to put a spark under the people. Oh me, of little faith. Delmi had been arranging things and even had a list of what we needed to purchase before the project begins. We also talked about where people would stay and meals. It was a very fruitful meeting.

I left with six oranges and a dozen mandarins. It’s that season, I ate three mandarins on the road – the best mandarins I’ve had.

Friday and Saturday I went out to the meetings for two of the zones of the parish – Zona San Miguel (formerly zone 2) and Zona San Francisco (formerly zone 3). Zone 2 seems to have a lot of problems, probably exacerbated by the poverty of the zone. Zone 3, though it is the farthest from the parish, is where I have been concentrating my efforts. It has it problems but it does seem to have a more active and participative ministry than some other parts of the parish. Some communities also seem to be a little more well off than the others.

It was raining on Saturday when I sent out to the meeting in El Zapote de Santa Rosa. At 1 pm when it was finished the rain had stopped but the fog was think. I could see about 200 feet on the road ahead of me, but looking out to the fields and valleys on the side of the road all I could see was the thick soup of a fog.

My pickup (la bestia) in El Zapote - in the fog

Sunday I ended up going to Mass in Yaruconte, a town past Dolores. The road was bad because of all the rain and so it was four-wheel drive all the way. There had also been a landslide on the side of the mountain above the village.

Landslide on the hill above Yaruconte

Padre Efraín was celebrating the Mass and led a very participative homily. The first reading was on the good wife. He asked the men to speak about wives. I waited for the worst – but was totally surprised when one man told how his grandfather used to get up early in the morning and make coffee for his wife and himself. (In most cases women get up early to make the coffee and tortillas and begin to prepare breakfast.) Padre Efraîn asked him if he got up and made coffee. Meekly he said no.

Sunday Mass in Yaruconte

Padre Efraín talked a bit about machismo – the common sense of the superiority of men over women. He talked about a couple he knew who got married and said that the woman was not the slave in the family; the two of them were compañeros – companions – in their marriage.

Later in the homily, Padre Efraín talked about the importance of not having or using weapons in the villages. Violence affects many parts of life here in Honduras. Almost at once, one man piped up and said that they should not buy kids toy guns, because it gives them the wrong idea.

It was marvelous to hear these people speak forthrightly about real problems in their society.

Getting out to listen to these people and visit with them is a blessing.

Monseñor Santos - a legacy "passes"

2011-11-08T20:30:00.000-06:00

Monday, November 7, Monseñor Luis Alfonso Santos, turned 75. As legislated by canon law of the Catholic Church he had to submit a letter of resignation from his appointment as bishop of the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán.

At about 5:00 am on Monday, Monseñor noted, he received a phone call telling him that the Pope had accepted his resignation and had appointed Monseñor Darwin Andino, auxiliary bishop of Tegucigalpa, as the next bishop of Santa Rosa.

Monseñor had already planned a Mass that day with the priests of the diocese. Forty-one priests arrived to concelebrate the Mass with him in the Monseñor Romero auditorium on the grounds of the diocesan meeting center under construction just outside Santa Rosa.We started late for many reasons, including rain and muddy roads. As we left Santa Rosa for the Mass in pouring rain, I felt as if the heavens were crying!

The Mass was simple, a sharing of the celebration of Word and Eucharist with his brother priests and a few of us laypeople who came. During the homily Monseñor spoke about the changes, but very subtly.

He recalled that when Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero was named archbishop of San Salvador in 1977, the conservatives and the government officials were pleased since they thought he would favor their cause. But the death of Father Rutilio Grande and other events moved Romero to side with the poor. It is possible that the Holy Spirit can change the way one works.

The direction (linea) of the diocese needs to be continued, he noted. He is happy with the work of the parishes, with the base communities. The number of faithful has grown and that the work of evangelization continues in the diocese.

At the end of the prayers of the faithful, he recalled Jesus' prayer, "may all be one as You, Father, are in Me and I in You," (John 17, 21). He then prayed for communion between priests and the bishop and among the priests.

Monseñor will continue as apostolic administrator until early next year when Bishop Andino will be installed as bishop of Santa Rosa.

After that Monseñor Santos will continue his efforts supporting the poor and advocating changes for the good of Honduras, through the foundation in his name and through his work with the Alianza Cívica por la Democracia – the Civic Alliance for Democracy.

Monday afternoon the Alianza Cívica had a reception for Monseñor. A wide range of people came, including family members, a former student, a former mayor of Santa Rosa (Juan Carlos Elvir), people with the Alianza Cívica, the Mennonite director of OCDIH, and others. They shared their stories – some quite humorous. At the end of the reception Monseñor explained his episcopal shield with his motto “Mejor autem caritas” – "but the greatest is charity" from 1 Corinthians 13: 13.

Monseñor will be missed. Some are happy that this prophetic voice seems to have passed from the scene. But my guess is that his voice will not be silenced.

The legacy of his commitment to the poor will continue, At the end of the Mass, Father Rudy Mejía, the vicar general of the diocese, gave Monseñor Santos the first copy of the Third Pastoral Plan of the diocese which is meant to set the direction of the diocese for the next twelve years.

Later this month I hope to write a longer piece about Monseñor Santos detailing his long history of commitment to the poor and the marginalized. It needs to be heard, especially here in Honduras.

Monseñor Santos and me, 7 November, 2011

Thank God for the presence of Monseñor Santos here in the diocese of Santa Rosa for almost 28 years. May his legacy continue and may he continue to be a sign of the Good News of the Kingdom of God for the poor.

Honduras in the news

2011-11-07T15:19:00.000-06:00

I have been away from Honduras for more than 5 weeks and so feel a bit out of contact with the events.

View from Cerro Negro, near Delicias, Concepción, Copán

There were major floods and landslides after torrential rains. (I saw one landslide that blocked half the highway on the trip from San Pedro Sula to Santa Rosa on Friday.)

The son of the director of the National University and his friend were killed by police who were picked up, released, and then fled. A major police official in Tegucigalpa (who used to be here in Copán) has been accused of corruption by another official. A major shake up of the police is occurring, but it is unclear whether this will really change things.

And there is more.

But one item I just read struck me as a little strange – but revealing.

In a report on her website, Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachman stated that after the proposed pullout of troops from Iraq, “We will now have fewer troops in Iraq than we have in Honduras…”

First of all, I must state that I am in favor of a US withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan. I have been against these wars from the beginning. For an interesting perspective on these wars from a different perspective, read the article from Catholic News Services on Republican Representative Walter Jones.

I have no idea if the figures that Bachman gives are the facts, but I do know that US troops are present here. There are at least 550 US troops on Honduran soil, at the Soto Cano air-force base near Comayagua.

In addition, the US has been involved in several major military construction projects totally more than 11.1 million dollars in 2010 and 2011, according to a report from the Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Soto Cano, also called Palmerola, is the home of Joint Task Force Bravo. The supposed reason for this presence and for the new construction is to counter drug-trafficking and to be available for emergency situations. The base was founded in the 1980s when the US was supporting the Salvadoran military as well as the Nicaraguan contras, both of which were repressive groups and responsible for massacres of civilians.

Now there are times when the US forces, either with or without Honduran military forces, goes into communities to provide humanitarian assistance. Some of this appears harmless, though I remember how the Salvadoran army used all sorts of humanitarian assistance activities as part of a psychological warfare.

At least one case I have read about here really troubles me. In August 2010 a Honduran military Medical and Civic Assistance Program or MEDCAP mission worked with a group of U.S. Army Civil Affairs Soldiers in Chacalapa and Guadalupe Carney.

Honduran Col. Wilfredo Efruhin Oliva, the director of Plans and Civil Affairs for the Estado Mayor Conjunto in Tegucigalpa. "Along with helping the people, we are working to combat narco-trafficking in this area," said Oliva. "In order for us to do that, we have to gain the trust of the people and talk to them. Today was a good start, and they are grateful but it is not enough."

Since so many campesinos have been killed in that area, I really wonder if the real reason of choosing the Guadalupe Carney community was to check them out. The community Guadalupe Carney is a group that is in the midst of the land struggles in the Baja Aguan. The leaders of that community have continually demanded that the military leave them alone. In addition on November 2010 five members of that community were killed.

Many Hondurans I know resent the continuing presence of the US military on Honduran soil and US police and military support of the Honduran police and military. They see it as support for a repressive political and military structure that really does not bring security to the people here.

The US presence has become more complicated with a recent report in the New York Times. Commando style squads of the US Drug Enforcement Agency are cooperating with Honduras authorities.

All of this is problematic because of the corruption with drug trafficking in Honduras that reaches not only the police and military but also government and business leaders.

Where is the way out?

Please pray for us.

Joy

2011-11-06T08:48:00.000-06:00

I am back in Honduras, after five weeks in the United States. During that time I had the blessing to see many friends and family members, including my aunt Mary who turned 94 on October 8.

Fr. Jon Seda at Mass in St. Thomas Aquinas, Ames

I also spoke at many events at St. Thomas, as well as at Iowa State University, Simpson College, Loras College, and the University of Detroit-Mercy. So my time was not all vacation. In fact, I saw it as part of my mission - to spread the Good News of the poor to people in the US.

But it is very good to be back.

I still haven’t been to the countryside, since I needed to do some work on the car (a battery) as well as try to clean the house and arrange the stuff I brought back (mostly books and dark chocolate.)

But I am looking forward to visiting with people in the rural villages of the parish of Dulce Nombre.

On the plane back on Friday, I read the first reading for the memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, Romans 12: 3-13. Verse 8 in the Spanish captured my heart:

... el que atiende a los necesitados, hágalo con alegría.
Let those who take care of those in need do it with joy.

Most of the English translations aren’t so straightforward. The Jerusalem Bible translation is the closest: “[Let] those who do mercy do them cheerfully.”

The Greek is simple – but the Spanish translation touched me with its straightforward message. It also reminded me that many people I saw in the US told me that they could see a joy in me.

Yes, it’s a joy, a joy of sharing in the lives of the poor.

This reminds me of this quote from Shane Clairbourne’s The Irresistible Revolution:

It is a wonderful things when folks in poverty are no longer just a missions project, but become genuine friends and family with whom we laugh, cry, dream, and struggle.

And I remember these words of Fr. Dean Brackley, S.J., a friend who died in El Salvador last month of cancer:

These people shake us up because they bring home to us that things are much worse in the world than we dared to imagine. But that is only one side of the story: If we allow them to share their suffering with us, they communicate some of their hope to us as well. The smile that seems to have no foundation in the facts is not phony; the spirit of fiesta is not an escape but a recognition that something else is going on in the world besides injustice and destruction. The poor smile because they suspect that this something is more powerful than the injustice.

Yes, there is joy and hope - because here I have experienced that there is something more powerful than injustice - the grace of God working among the poor.

Christian initiation

2011-10-30T10:23:00.001-06:00

For me one of the most moving rites of the Catholic Church is the rite of acceptance of those who have not been baptized but seek to become members of the Church.

This rite was celebrated for four young people this weekend at the 10:30 AM Mass at St. Thomas Aquinas in Ames.

The inquirers waited outside the doors of the church – in the cold. Fr. Jon Seda invited the congregation to go with him to greet them and to lead them into the church. About 40 people, including a number of children, went and greeted them. Some continued to stand behind them as they stood before the altar.

The inquirers were called to embrace the cross which was brought among them.

They then gathered around the altar where their sponsors signed them with the cross – on the head, the ears, the eyes, the mouth the heart, the shoulders, and the feet.

I was deeply moved, especially as the sponsors knelt to trace the cross on their feet. People voluntarily putting themselves at the feet of others is a strong sign of the call to service. Jesus washed the disciples’ feet and we are called to wash others’ feet as a sign of our taking on the yoke of Christ.

This year I led a catechists’ workshop on the Christian initiation rites and processes. To help the people understand we reenacted the rite of acceptance. The material they had didn’t have the signing of the feet, but I added it, since I consider it so important.

This weekend I am speaking at the end of all the parish Masses, sharing with the people the sense of mission that people have in the parish of Dulce Nombre de María in Honduras. They have much to teach the people here as they invite people in their villages to come to the Celebrations of the Word or to join a base community. They do “mission” and “evangelization” fairly well.

The people at St. Thomas Aquinas do good liturgy and the rite of acceptance is touching and can offer much to the people in Dulce Nombre as their sense of mission can inspire the people at St. Thomas.

Isn’t this what solidarity – and mutual love – can do?

Homesick

2011-10-24T13:40:00.002-06:00

A friend sent me this quotation from Henri Nouwen's Creative Ministry, p. 75:

As long as we see only distasteful poverty, we are not really entitled to give. When, however, we find people who have truly devoted themselves to work in the slums and the ghettos and who feel that their vocation is to be of service there, we see that they have discovered hidden in the smiles of the children, the hospitality of the people, the expressions they use, the stories they tell, the wisdom they show, the goods they share, is so much richness and beauty, so much affection and human warmth, that the work they are doing is only a small return for what they have already received. In this respect we can better understand those many missionaries who, after living for years in the poorest circumstances, nonetheless became homesick for their missions as soon as they returned to their affluent country. It was not because they wanted to suffer more but because they had found a beauty in their people which they missed in their home community.

I've been in the US for a little more than three weeks and will be here for almost two weeks more, but I long to get back to Honduras, which is my home.

Dulce Nombre Confirmation retreat, September 6, 2011

Bishop Santos as president of Honduras?

2011-10-21T08:27:00.001-06:00

Our bishop, Monseñor Luis Alfonso Santos, has been in the news in English and Spanish recently. On November 7, when he turns 75, he will send the Vatican his letter of resignation as bishop of Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras. He expects that he will continue to serve until March, the twenty-eighth anniversary of his ordination as bishop.

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

A headline to an article in a Catholic newspaper screamed, “Honduran bishop hopes to run for office.”

But it is much better to say that the bishop is considering responding positively to efforts to nominate him as a candidate for the 2013 presidential election. He is not seeking to be a candidate.

This is not news to me. I have heard of groups proposing the bishop as a candidate for more than a year.

Considering a bishop for president reveals on one level the problem of the political situation in Honduras.

Here in Honduras there is a deep lack of trust in the two major political parties, the Liberal Party and the Nationalist Party. Bipartidismo – the monopoly of the two parties – is seen by the Resistance and many others as the scourge of politics here. The parties have dominated the political scene for more than a century. They have succeeded one another, seldom without trying to enrich their candidates and provide favors for their party activists.

There is also a concern among some supporters of the Resistance that the bishop might be the only viable candidate, known to the people, not connected with powerful elites, and incorruptible.

And thus, as I read articles and talk with friends in Honduras, the bishop does not have political ambitions. He is not seeking to run for office, to be president.

In fact, recently he has denied that he wishes to be connected with either one of the major political parties, at least its mainstream leadership, which he has consistently criticized. However it does appear that the Liberals in Resistance have proposed him as a precandidate.

In another article he said that if he were president he would call for a national constitutional convention (Asamblea Nacional Constituyente) to re-write the constitution. He thus allies himself with the Resistance’s proposal to re-found Honduras with a new constitutional order that undercuts the power of the political and economic elites who profit from the current constitution and legal order.

The bishop seeks a political and social order in Honduras that puts a priority on the poor and facilitates their participation in the political process.

And so will the bishop be a candidate? I do not know.

But above all, I know that the bishop does not want to leave the exercise of his priesthood. Being able to celebrate the Eucharist is central to his identity and to his sense of mission.

Where this will lead I do not know.

For several years the bishop has been planning to continue his work for the poor, especially for the poor Lenca people in the department of Intibucá, one of the poorest in Honduras. He has set up a foundation that will fund projects there and in other places in Honduras that will seek to transform lives through education and social projects.

But the bishop knows that the problem in Honduras is systematic. Political and economic structures need to change. If he does run for president it is a last resort in the struggle to bring dignity to the Honduran poor and to assure that they are protagonists in their towns, municipalities and the country.

The real question therefore should not be “Will Monseñor Santos run for president?” The question is “Why would Monseñor Santos consider running for president?”

He answered it well in the interview he had with Paul Jeffrey, "Why do I get involved in politics? Because it is politics that has screwed the poor."

Sadly, that is so true.

Fr. Dean Brackley has fallen asleep in the Lord

2011-10-16T18:43:00.000-06:00

These people [the poor] shake us up because they bring home to us that things are much worse in the world than we dared to imagine. But that is only one side of the story: If we allow them to share their suffering with us, they communicate some of their hope to us as well. The smile that seems to have no foundation in the facts is not phony; the spirit of fiesta is not an escape but a recognition that something else is going on in the world besides injustice and destruction. The poor smile because they suspect that this something is more powerful than the injustice. When they insist on sharing their tortilla with a visiting gringo, we recognize there is something going on in the world that is more wonderful than we dared to imagine.

It seems that the victim offers us the privileged place (although not the only place) to encounter the truth which sets us free. The poor usher us into the heart of reality. They bring us up against the world and ourselves all at once. To some extent, we all hold reality at arm's length -- fending off intolerable parts of the world with one hand and intolerable parts of ourselves with the other. The two go together. As a rule, our encounters with the world place us in touch with internal reality, as well. In particular, when the world's pain crashes in upon us in the person of the victim, the encounter dredges up from within us the parts of ourselves that we had banished. The outcast outside us calls forth the outcast within us. This is why people avoid the poor. But meeting them can heal us. We will only heal our inner divisions if we are also working to heal our social divisions.

The victims of history -- the destitute, abused women, oppressed minorities, all those the Bible calls "the poor" -- not only put us in touch with the world and with ourselves, but also with the mercy of God. There is something fathomless about the encounter with the poor, as we have said -- like the opening of a chess game with its infinite possibilities. If we let them, the poor will place us before the abyss of the holy Mystery we call God. They are a kind of door that opens before that Mystery.

Fr. Dean Brackley, S.J., "Meeting the Victims, Falling in Love"

Fr. Dean Brackley, S.J.

I think I first met Jesuit Father Dean Brackley in 1992 when I spent seven months in El Salvador, mostly in the parish of Suchitoto.

On many subsequent visits I have dropped by to see him and when I brought groups of students I tried to have them meet him. Beside his pastoral duties and his teaching at the Central American University, Dean helped many people who visited El Salvador interpret their experiences.

Dean came to the UCA about 1990, responding to the call for Jesuits to come after the killing of six Jesuits and two women at the UCA in November 1989.

Dean, a theologian of some renown, had worked with the poor in the Bronx, The poor were central to his faith and hs following of Christ. May there be more people like Dean who serve the poorest, bringing their intellectual gifts and their love to those at the margins of society.

Several years ago Dean Brackley wrote a book that seeks to bring the spirit of St. Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises. I've read it several times and it helped me make my decision to move to Honduras. It's a book I often recommend: The Call to Discernment in Troubled Times: New Perspectives on the Transformative Wisdom of Ignatius of Loyola. It has also been translated into Spanish: Espiritualidad para la solidaridad: nuevas perspectivas ignacianas.

I saw Dean in El Salvador last December before his cancer was diagnosed. He was interested in knowing about Honduras and my experience, always concerned about the poor.

May he be welcomed by the angels and by the many Lazaruses, the poor, to the kingdom of heaven which he served so well in his life.

Here's a video of a talk Dean gave in 2010 at my alma mater, the university of Scranton.

The image of Dean was taken from the Facebook page, Dean Brackley's Prayer Circle

Incommunicado

2011-10-14T08:38:00.001-06:00

The last few days I have been incommunicado – spending three days on a silent retreat, even without internet, at a Jesuit retreat house outside Detroit.

Chapel by a stream at the Manresa Retreat Center

Just what I needed.

I tend to fill up my days with work, reading, internet, and whatever. I had almost three days without a schedule (except for 8:00 am Mass and meals).

As I prayed, read scripture, finished Shane Claibourne’s The Irresistible Revolution: living as an ordinary radical, prayed the Liturgy of the Hours as well as the Stations of the Cross (outside) and the rosary, I found myself touched by three words.

The first day I found myself recalling God’s love, manifested in so many ways.

The second day there was a half-hour meditation after Mass. During it participants were urged to find a word to use throughout the thirty minutes. When I read the sheet describing the meditation, the verb “courage!” immediately surfaced. It’s what Jesus says so many times to his disciples.

The third day the word “hope” surfaced.

What amazing words: love, courage, hope.

Outside my window

As I meditated on love, I thought of how I experience God’s love in so many ways – through friends, through the opportunity to serve in Honduras, through the beauty of the earth.

Courage – take heart – really challenged me. Why might I need courage in the coming year? Are there challenges – personal or social? Are there dangers? God knows.

But I recalled how a few people had been asking me if I was in danger. I honestly answered that, though I may be challenging my guardian angel at times, I was where I believe God wants me and feel at peace. I don’t feel in danger, though.

The last day was hope. It might seem easy to be hopeful in the US. But I find hope in Honduras, especially when I am with those I love in the countryside – amidst pain and poverty, but also in the midst of joy and sharing.

Somehow all this came together at Mass on Wednesday morning. As we began the Our Father I could hardly get past the “Our.” Somehow I felt so connected with the People of God assembled there, with the friends and family I had met with out east, and with the people in Honduras.

We are in this together – bound together in love, encouraged by each other and by God’s Spirit, and called to give a reason for our hope.

And so I left the retreat house Thursday morning to go to the University of Detroit-Mercy where I’m talking to three groups – twice on Honduras, once on my personal journey. After that, I’m off to Ames, Iowa.

It’s good to be here, especially because it’s great to see Dave Nantais, the director of campus ministry, who was a grad student at Iowa State University in 1992!

I came back to more than 300 new e-mails – mostly things I quickly deleted, but I found three fascinating pieces by Paul Jeffrey.

There is a moving photo essay on a killing in the Bajo Aguan in Honduras.

There is a great story about Padre Fausto Milla, a priest I greatly admire and whom I’ve written about several times.

And there’s another story about the possible candidature of our bishop for the 2013 presidential election. (I need to think about this one!)

Reading these, I wish I were home in Honduras, but what I need to do in the next three weeks is share with people the reality of Honduras, the people who are impoverished but rich in faith, suffering but generous and hospitable, my people.

A missionary in the United States

2011-10-08T07:58:00.002-06:00

I arrived in the US in the Newark airport, late on Friday night, September 30. It was a normal set of flights, except that I got a full-body pat down at the Atlanta airport.

I spent a few days with a friend whom I’ve known since we met at Camp Don Bosco in the summer after fifth grade! He’s pastor of a church in northern New Jersey. It was a nice way to transition into the US since I didn’t have anything I had to do.

His parish was having their annual carnival; so I got to see a little of the US parish culture with snow-cones, beer, food, rides, and carnival games. No rides or games for me, but it was good to see so many people and to see so much involvement in the parish.

I took a few hours to go into Manhattan to walk around. Manhattan is a great place to walk; it’s so easy to get from one place to another without needing transport other than your two feet. It was fascinating to see so many people from so many different cultures and countries, hearing different languages.

I did stop into one “mall” by Columbus Circle (to use the bathroom); that was another culture, with a large atrium and lots of stores with expensive goods that I would never use nor have the money to buy.

Tuesday, I took the train to Philadelphia where I’m staying with a cousin while I make other visits.

A friend of another cousin invited me to speak to the seventh and eighth grade religion classes at her school. The students were attentive, especially the seventh graders who were full of questions.

One question really hit me: “When you were young did you ever think you’d be a missionary?” To be honest, I didn’t. It was only after going to New Orleans after Katrina that it became a real possibility for me.

As I spoke with the classes I also tried to share how the people in the parish of Dulce Nombre in Honduras are missionaries, evangelizing other people in their communities. One can, and should be a missionary where one lives. I hope that they got this message. We who are missionaries abroad have the privilege of doing it in a special way – but all followers of Christ have this call to mission.

Some people have said that what I’m doing in the US is “reverse mission” – but I really consider it to be just “mission.” How can I help share the Good News of Jesus with the people here, reflecting on the poor I work with in Honduras?

So far I’ve mostly had the chance to do this visiting friends and family. A dinner with the sisters at the convent where my cousin lives was a delight. A visit with an Augustinian friar who was two years behind me in grade school was like visiting a long-lost friend, even though I hardly knew him way back then. (It helps that he works with a parish that has a large concentration of Spanish speakers and that he spent eighteen years as a missionary in Japan.

Monday I head out of the Philadelphia area, first to Detroit and then to Iowa. After three retreat days, the working vacation begins: about 16 presentations in three weeks – at University of Detroit-Mercy, then in Ames at St. Thomas Aquinas and at classes in classes at Iowa State, and also some presentations at Simpson College and Loras College.

I’ll also have ample time to visit with friends – and probably eat way too much! But it’s part of my mission, even though I’m homesick for Honduras.

It’s hard to be away, especially in the light of the violence being perpetrated against the poor in the northeast part of Honduras and in light of the situation of our bishop, Monseñor Luis Alfonso Santos, who has to send the Vatican his letter of resignation when he turns seventy five years old November 7. Interestingly some of the opposition groups are trying to recruit him as a presidential candidate in the 2013 elections.

My home now is Honduras and I’m homesick for Santa Rosa and Dulce Nombre. But being here in the US is something I need to do – another call from God to be a missionary.

Rest in peace, Esteban.

2011-09-29T21:43:00.000-06:00

Tonight, the feast of St. Michael, I learned that Esteban Clavel died earlier this year, resulting from chagas.

Esteban in the San Miguel Chapel in Haciendita II

Esteban Clavel, his wife Rosa Elbia, and his children welcomed me into their house in Hacienda II when I served in the parish of Suchitoto, El Salvador, in 1992.

They had taken abandoned cattle stalls and created a simple house.Esteban was ingenious and saw the possibilities to create a simple home for his family.

I brought a hammock to sleep in; otherwise several of the children would have given up their bed for me.

The meals were simple, mostly bean and tortillas and occasional cheese – usually with too much salt!

When the rainy season came, the rain came in under the door and ran under my hammock. I joked about the Rio Clavel, the Clavel River.

Many a night, in the darkness, I sat around with Esteban or his kids. At times the kid tried to have me solve word games – in Spanish, of course. But occasionally Esteban would take about his life.

He had been a pastoral worker in his village in Chalatenango in the 1970s. Once about 1980 he had been picked up by a death squad but escaped. He then settled and lived in Honduras for ten years, living under an assumed identity as a Honduran. This was not too difficult for him since his wife’s relatives are Honduran and their home in El Salvador was only a few kilometers from Honduras.

But instead of going into a refugee camp he and his family lived as Hondurans in the department of Santa Bárbara. It was a little easier for him since his wife was Honduran and her family came from that department.

He tried to help for a time with the pastoral work of the local parish, but he was suspicious of the priest. The family moved and then he worked in pastoral work in another parish.

He also made a trip back to El Salvador once. He told me how the people were fleeing from the Salvadoran military, lest they be massacred. I don’t remember the details but his account was chilling.

The family returned to El Salvador in 1990, first to Chalatenango, but joined the community of Haciendita Dos in the municipality of Suchitoto, in late 1991.

Esteban was a small, simple man. He could be a little rigid at times but he was a man of deep faith.

Esteban and Rosa Elbia, December 2010

Esteban and Rosa Elbia were a special couple, full of love for each other and for their eleven children. More than once they took in a child who needed care for a while. Living in poverty, there was always room to feed more. They hardly raised their voices with their children, even when correcting them.

Esteban was sensitive, hoping for unity in the community.

In May, 1992, when I lived there, the pastoral team of the Haciendita II visited almost all the houses, including those of two evangelical (conservative Protestant) families in the community. In those homes, instead of praying the Rosary, they substituted a Bible reading and a group reflection on one of the mysteries of the Rosary. As Esteban explained, this was important to preserve the unity of the community. This is a very interesting and probably rare example of ecumenism at the base, especially important here where some conservative Protestant sects are bitterly anti-Catholic and are sometimes manipulated by right-wing groups.

Because of his commitment to justice he could at times be a thorn in the side of people in the community. But he sought always to find a way to promote reconciliation. But it wasn’t easy and there were many conflicts, which troubled him.

He was a hard worker, in his milpa (corn field) and sugar cane fields, with his pastoral work, and around the house.

I will miss him. I am glad that I got a chance to see him last December. He was weak but still as welcome as ever.

He is for me one of the unrecognized witnesses of the resurrection, who suffered persecution, exile, poverty and more, but retained a deep faith in the God of Life.

It is many months since he died and passed on to the Lord. My prayer is the antiphon "In paradisum" for the incensing of the body at the end of the Requiem Mass:

In paradisum deducant angeli,
in tuo adventu suscipiant martires,
et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem.

Chorus angelorum suscipiat
et cum Lazaro, quondam paupere
aeternam habeas requiem.

May the angels receive you into paradise.
May the martyrs receive you as you come
and lead you into the holy city Jerusalem.

May the choir of angels receive you
and with Lazarus, who once was poor,
may you have eternal rest.

God bless you, Esteban. Thank you for a life of love, a sign of God. You welcomed me, a stranger into your poor home. I am confident that God has welcomed you into Paradise. Pray for us.

Hope and inspiration

2011-09-29T17:40:00.000-06:00

From Monday September 19 to Tuesday September 27 I was in Perú as part of the training team for World Vision’s process for religious communities to work on HIV and AIDS. Fourteen countries from Latin America sent 28 representatives to this training, all of them connected with the Church, some working in diocesan or national offices on health issues. The program was cosponsored by CELAM, the Latin American Bishops’ Conference.

It was a lot of work, but it was a joy to meet so many deeply committed to responding to HIV and AIDs. It was humbling to be in their presence for some of them have worked for years, often opening homes for people with HIV.

World Vision started working with evangelical groups, trying to sensitize them to what HIV and AIDS are and providing training for educating people and motivating them to respond as churches. In some parts of the world, especially in Africa, they are also working with Muslims. In the last few years they have begun to work with the Catholic Church in Latin America and soon hope to have an agreement with CELAM.

I was trained here in Honduras in January 20010 and have been involved in a few training and sensitizing sessions.

I am especially interested in their process of education. It’s definitely not academic, which is good; rather it uses adult education methods to help the learning process. I have learned a lot from the training I attended and from being involved in workshops – all, by the way, in Spanish! I have also profited by learning the methodology and trying to apply it to my work here in Honduras, especially in the formation program of the parish of Dulce Nombre.

I brought with me a copy of an icon Father William Hart McNichols, SJ, Mary, Mother of God, Light in the Darkness. It became part of our prayer and was placed next to the candle which we lighted each morning, reminding ourselves of our call to be salt and light.

In one exercise, used after the presentation of statistics on HIV and AIDS, we were asked to find stones representing those we knew who were infected with HIV, both the living and the dead, and place them by the candle and icon. I was amazed as some brought hands filled with stones. These are very committed people.

I am very glad I had the chance to be a part of their training session. They do provide Channels for Hope – or, Canales de Esperanza, as the program is called in Spanish.

But God is very good since the training was book-ended between meeting two extraordinary missionary priests.

During the retreat I facilitated with volunteers of La Finca del Niño in Trujillo, I met a Jesuit priest who has been in Honduras for 34 years. He came in the late 1970s because he saw the incredible work the Jesuits were doing with cooperatives and other empowering programs. He worked with Father Guadalupe Carney, who was later thrown out of Honduras; Father Carney, later went to Nicaragua and returned clandestinely to Honduras as chaplain with a group of Honduran guerrillas. He was captured and killed by the Honduran military.

The priest I met had his run-in with the local authorities for his solidarity with the people and their organizing efforts. He was once picked up by the Honduran military and held several days. The US authorities were not helping in getting him released.

He worked in some of the most remote parts of northeastern Honduras, and now works in a large parish where he spends several days each week in the countryside.

It was a delight to meet him and I’m hoping to keep in contact.

On my last night in Perú I visited an Irish priest who serves with the Society of St. James. Friends of mine had lived in Lima for a year and had found his parish.

Part of a mosaic of Jesus the artisan in the parish church.

He has been in Perú for 44 years and is also a long term missionary who got it – the pastoral ministry which forms the poor to be followers of Christ in service of the Kingdom of God. He was among one of the groups that met with Gustavo Gutiérrez, the father of liberation theology, in the late 1960s and has continued to use a liberating pastoral practice with his parish. He has

We talked long about his experience and the trials and joys of his ministry. I had a chance to see him at work with a small group that prepared the readings for next Sundays liturgy. The group, all women – though a man or two occasionally comes, provided a very insightful conversation, spurred on by the pastor’s questions. I found out that a few of the women are in a group he formed that is reading Barbara Reid’s Taking Up the Cross: New Testament Interpretation Through Latina and Feminist Eyes, in Spanish, of course.

We shared our great love for the people and our appreciation of the wisdom they share, especially when reading the Bible.

Again it was a blessing to be with him and I plan to stay in contact.

What a blessing it was to meet these two long-term missionaries who have lived through difficult times and still struggle to live the Word of God in a liberating mode. I pray that I may be like them.

The suffering of children

2011-09-19T18:18:00.002-06:00

On the plane to Lima I finished Uwem Akpan’s Say You’re One of Them, a series of short stories by this Nigerian Jesuit. It was not an easy book to read – partly due to the use of African English phrases, partly due to the many details of the two longest stories, but mostly because of the subject – Africa terrorized, from the perspective of children.

All of the stories, except one, are told by children. The children are extraordinary, in their ability to survive in the midst of poverty, child-trafficking, war, and inter-group violence.

The effect on me was cumulative, with tears in my eyes at the end of the last story. It is almost as if the evil and pain in the stories builds up until the final tale.

I am probably more sensitive to these stories after this past week.

I spent Tuesday through Friday leading a retreat with the volunteers at La Finca del Niño. Then I spent Friday afternoon till Sunday morning at the Finca, resting before my journey to San Pedro Sula and then to Lima, Perú.

Closing circle for the retreat around the Eucharist

The Finca cares for some of the myriads of Honduran children who are orphaned, abandoned, abused, and hungry. It’s a drop in the bucket – but a needed drop since they hope to prepare the children to contribute to building up their country.

As I spoke to a few of the volunteers I heard concerns about the kids but also hopes for them, especially when an elementary school child shares about wanting to help in the future.

I was at La Finca for one morning prayer, Lauds. The kids prayed and sang. but what really impressed me was how well the kids read. Some of them read much better than kids their own age in the Dulce Nombre parish and even better than some pastoral workers whom I know in the diocese. It’s obviously because the teaching is better and the kids are encouraged to read.

But I think of all the other kids I run across, especially the kids at the Comedor de Niños in Santa Rosa. Some of the children are really sharp; others are very shy. And then there are the rebellious. What will become of them?

Thanks be to God there are some people good at working with kids and are culturally sensitive, not coming in as if they have all the answers.

That’s what Honduras needs.

A retreat, in more ways than one

2011-09-17T21:45:00.000-06:00

Last Monday, I left Santa Rosa de Copán on the 4:00 am bus to San Pedro Sula and arrived in Trujillo on the north coast at 2:30 pm. It was three long bus rides to facilitate a retreat for the volunteers at La Finca del Niño.

A few months ago I got a message from one of the volunteers there, Sheena Jacobi, the sister of one of the peer ministers I worked with at St. Thomas Aquinas in Ames. She asked me if I’d be interested in leading their annual spiritual retreat. Although I had never led a retreat myself, I said yes.

Later I had a series of contacts, including a visit in Santa Rosa, with Jacob Hurst, the director of volunteers, himself a volunteer at La Finca with his family. His insights helped me structure the retreat.

The participants – from the US and Nicaragua – are working with Honduran children in La Finca del Niño, The Farm of the Child, a Catholic program that provides a home, education, and Catholic faith formation for more than 36 children.

I arrived a day before – and was immediately identified by one of the kids as Mister Miyagi (from the movie Karate Kid.) This is not the first time this has happened.

The retreat went well. Looking back it ended up being structured in part on the progression of St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises, but I also tried to situate the retreat within the framework of the two major feasts we celebrated this week – the Exaltation of the Holy Cross and Mary, Our Mother of Sorrows.

The retreat was held in a beautiful center for the parish of Los Santos Martires de Centroamerica - The Holy Martyrs of Central America, in Bonito Oriental. One of the real joys for me was meeting the pastor, Jesuit Father John Donald, who came out for confessions and Mass. Padre Juan has been in Honduras since the late 1970s. He came here and took the church’s commitment to the poor seriously, so much so that he got into trouble with the government authorities. He’s written a short book on his experiences which I had a chance to read. He’s a real sign of God’s love in action, still going strong at 72 years old.

The other joy was to see how seriously these young men and women take their faith and how they are living this out through a two year commitment to La Finca. The life is not easy. Except for a few who live in La Ceiba with those attending high school there, they live and work together on the grounds of La Finca, where the children also live. I was very glad to be able to meet them and talk at length with a few of them.

After the retreat I stayed Friday and Saturday at La Finca, mostly just resting, but seeing a little of the volunteers' interactions with the children.

An added attraction to my stay at La Finca was the chance on the beach. This is my first time on the Caribbean. The water was warm and the view was gorgeous. I took loads of pictures, marveling at the glory of God’s creation. (Some of them are in a set, here, at my Flickr site.)

A Caribbean beach outside Trujillo

Twilight at the each outside La Finca del Niño.

An Iowa connection with the Finca. Two of the volunteers are from Iowa. Sheena Jacobi is ending her two year commitment in a few months and Scott Satterlee and his family are beginning a several year commitment with La Finca in their La Ceiba work. Sheena is from Cedar Falls and Scott from Cedar Rapids.

Scott, Sheena and me

A note on my travels: Sunday it is off to San Pedro Sula, though this time in a pickup. Monday, I’m off to Lima, Perú, as part of a training team for a workshop.

Though it is good to travel, I am missing Santa Rosa de Copán. I also feel as if I am out of the circuit in terms of what’s happening in Honduras. Even though I am near the Lower Aguan valley where there is a lot of conflict over land and a number of deaths, it feels so far away. It’s so easy to be insulated from the violence and injustice around us.

A final note. On the way back to Trujillo from the retreat center in Bonito Oriental a bridge was closed and so we had to cross the river by ferry. A very interesting experience, especially since the ferry carried two cars and two motorcycles.

And they added our car - a Land Rover


Midstream

Busy weeks

2011-09-14T15:04:00.001-06:00

These next few weeks I will be busy outside of Santa Rosa de Copán. I now am leading a retreat for the volunteers at La Finca del Niño en Trujillo, on the north east coast of Honduras. Then I will be in Lima, Perú, as part of the training team for World Vision’s Canales de Esperanza program which is oriented to involving the churches in responses to HIV and AIDS. Almost 30 people sent by Latin American bishops’ conferences will be trained to lead activities in their countries. Then, after two days back in Santa Rosa de Copán, I’ll be off to the US to visit friends and family, give a few talks at the University of Detroit-Mercy, and spend time in Ames, mostly with St. Thomas Aquinas Church and Catholic Student Center which has been sponsoring me here and is developing a relationship with the parish of Dulce Nombre de María here in Copán. (If anyone has a place for me to speak, let me know.) Thus the past week has been full, trying to put everything together before I leave.

The Sunday before last I took the Eucharist out to the village of Piedras Colorados for their Sunday Celebration of the Word.


Luis Alonso leading the celebration in Piedras Coloradas

After the celebration I spent some time with them talking about what they had been doing. They proudly showed me the poles which will bring electricity to the village and told me that the government electric company and the municipal authorities will help with the cost of getting the power lines to the houses. However, each family will have to pay about 3,500 lempiras ($160) for the installation of electricity inside the houses and for setting up outlets, light fixtures, and so on. The price sounds high to me, since most of the houses are fairly small. But most of the people don’t have that kind of money and, since the installation of the lines to the houses won’t happen until after the houses are wired, there is some urgency. What to do? Some mentioned that they might have to take out loans at 5% interest. That didn’t sound too bad until I realized that 5% per month – a whopping 60% per year. This makes it really clear how people take advantage of the poor and they have so few options.

Tuesday I led a presentation for the retreat for confirmation candidates on the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. I have taken the list for granted and actually found it quite challenging to try to make them understandable.

Several of the gifts are knowledge related – wisdom, understanding, knowledge (ciencia, in Spanish). But I wanted to avoid explaining them in merely intellectual terms. And so I thought awhile about ciencia (knowledge, learning). One explanation of this gift is that it what helps understand and distinguish the true and the false in regard to worldly things. So I compared it with the knowledge people have in terms of how to plant well and how to make tortillas well. (It’s important to affirm the dignity of the work most of these people do.) I think they grasped it because when I had them connect up saints with the gifts they immediately connected Saint Isidore the Farmer with ciencia.

Bishop Santos and Padre Efraín at the confirmation

Thursday was the feast day of the parish of Dulce Nombre de María, the Sweet Name of Mary. I went for the confirmation Mass, with Bishop Santos, Padre Efráin, and the former associate Padre Julio César. The Mass was a little more subdued than some other confirmations but it was moving. What really struck me though is that after the normal petitions during the Prayer of the Faith, Bishop Santos said a long prayer for peace. He has obviously been concerned about the growing violence here. But I was struck by the emotion he put into the prayer.

Friday and Saturday, I went to the Zone 2 and Zone 3 meetings in the parish. Nothing special, except for a few conflicts that need to be dealt with but still a good chance to see folks.

Sunday I took the Eucharist to the community of Cerro Negro for their Sunday Celebration of the Word. The village is quite poor – with many people who have to rent land for raising corn or beans. But I’m always touched by the devotion of the people.

Musicians in Cerro Negro

The choir at the celebration was not the best – in fact, they seem to have devised different melodies for two songs I know well. I did remind them of the training for choirs at the beginning of November. I hope some of them can go.

After twelve hours on a bus, I arrived in Trujillo, Colón, Honduras – almost the furthest that one can get from Santa Rosa. I passed acres and acres of African palm raised for the oil to cook snack food and to make biofuels, and most of it owned by Miguel Facussé, one of the richest men in Honduras.

This is also a very conflictive area since many campesinos claim that Facussé has taken over land underhandedly or illegally. Over the last few years, here have been over 40 deaths in this area related to the conflict. But, except for one truckload of soldiers it is not apparent on the main road, though there was at least one sign with graffiti right outside of Trujillo.

Military, get out of the Aguan!

But I also saw a Dole plant, since they export bananas from here, as well as other fruit.

I spent the night at La Finca del Niño and hope write more on the retreat and the Finca later.

Full days, scripture, and the Eucharist

2011-08-28T21:29:00.000-06:00

Sometimes scripture really comes alive.

Thursday I went to El Zapote de Santa Rosa, a village in the Dulce Nombre parish with about 800 inhabitants. They had asked me to come out for their Holy Hour so that they could have exposition of the Eucharist. I was very happy to do this since it’s a very welcoming community.

When I arrived I found out that it would not only be exposition of the Eucharist but there would be a form of the Celebration of the Word and Communion.

The church was packed with about 200 people – women, children, and men. As usual, in addition to some men inside the church there was a group of men, mostly young man, at the church door and just a little outside– interested, curious,

They don’t have a monstrance so I propped the large host in the ciborium they have so that all could see the Host.

Before we started we decided to use the readings of the day. Marco Tulio would comment on the Gospel and I would comment on the first reading, a reading full of meaning for me.

In the morning when I read the passage, 1 Thessalonians 3: 7-13, I was awestruck by the reading. I could have written almost the same as Paul did, but about the people in El Zapote and the other villages in the parish: “What a consolation this faith of yours is for us in the midst of our troubles and trails. It is a breath of life for us when you stand firm in the Lord. How can we thank God enough for all the joy that we feel before God because of you?”

I shared my feelings with the people in the church that night, because it was what I feel. But I added that Paul, though praising the Thessalonians, had a challenge for them. The Spanish is stronger than the English translation: “Que el Señor los llene y los haga rebosar de un amor mutuo y hacia lodos los demás.” – “May the Lord fill you with love for each other and for all others and may that love overflow!”

Communion was moving as I shared the Body of Christ with the many who came forward to receive.

At the end of the exposition, before putting the Eucharist back into the tabernacle, I decided to carry the women ciborium down the aisle so that even the guys at the door might have a chance to worship.

A twilight view in El Zapote de Santa Rosa

That night I slept well but got up early since I was going with folks to a workshop in Dulce Nombre on Liturgy. But before I left I gazed in wonder at the marvelous landscape before my eyes.

The workshop was for folks in Liturgical Ministry in their villages as well as for those in the formation process to become extraordinary ministers of Communion in their villages.

The morning was a test – to see what they learned. Surprisingly I found that two of the forty people there were illiterate and so we had to do an oral test with them. Some did very well on the written test but not all. Many of these people are barely literate or have vision problems that make it hard to read or are not used to taking tests. After the written test, I had them work in groups to see if they could put the parts of the Mass in order. That worked out well.

Looking at the tests I think most of the people grasp most of what we have tried to teach them about liturgy, especially the Mass.

Sor Pedrina

After the test, Sor Pedrina led a number of sessions to help them understand how to prepare for Masses in their villages. Saturday morning we led sessions on the relation of the Eucharist and justice.

I am time and time impressed by these people – their faith, their commitment. I am also challenged by learning difficulties many of them experience, because of lack of good education. I don’t know if anyone in the group there, except for two retired teachers, had even six years of formal education. And so I try to find ways to help them learn using methods of popular education – learning by doing; use of examples, stories, and pictures; and songs. It’s a challenge but it’s something I love doing.

One of the major challenges for formation and organization of pastoral workers is their low levels of education and so I’m looking into ways to help them read aloud better and develop better comprehension skills. We did some of this on Saturday morning and I hope to find ways to incorporate this into other training sessions. These people do so much with so little and I’d like to find ways to help them even more.

After the workshop I headed to Gracias to the blessing of the new convent of the Dubuque Franciscan Sisters, Casa Betania – Bethany House. Sister Nancy Meyerhofer and Sister Brenda Whetstone are member of the Franciscan Sisters of the Holy Family, based in Dubuque. They have been working in the Gracias parish – Nancy for about five years, Brenda for about two.


Erica and Sistesr Brenda

Sister Nancy and Padre Loncho

They have recently built a house outside of town as the congregation’s center here in Honduras. They hope to promote vocations here – and they have one postulant.

The house is beautiful and more than 100 people showed up for the blessing. Padre Loncho, the pastor of the parish of Gracias, celebrated Mass and blessed the house.

It was a joyous occasion – marking a new milestone in the presence of the sisters here in Honduras.

And again it was celebrated with the Eucharist – Christ present in bread and wine and in the lives of the poor.

Weather, land, and the poor

2011-08-23T14:23:00.000-06:00

It’s been hot here during the day and raining almost every night. So there’s been lots of mud. This is especially tricky in the countryside where I got stuck in the mud on Sunday as I tried to pull over to let another care pass. I was going out to Mass in the village of Quebraditas.

Padre Efraín at Mass in Quebraditas

The front right wheel got stuck in about 20 inches of mud. Six guys tried to get me out but it took another pick up truck pulling and the guys pushing to get me out.

This happened in El Zapote de Santa Rosa, a community I’ve often visited. Yet I didn’t know the guys who first came and helped. The car that passed by and finally got me out was full of folks I know, mostly from Candelaria. They were returning from helping with the Sunday Celebration of the Word in El Zapote. Again, relying on the kindness of strangers, of the poor here who help as much as they can.

Back in Santa Rosa, I took my truck to my mechanic and got the bumper and the wheel well fixed.

Mud is on my mind. They’re starting to work on the street where I live, preparing to pave. And so the street is a mess. I also have to store my truck at Caritas since they cut off the ramp to my garage and I don’t think my truck can navigate a twelve inch step!

But in the midst of these little troubles of mine, I am reading more about the situation in the northeast of Honduras in the Bajo Aguán. This past week there have been about 10 more people killed. This brings the death toll in that area to more than 40. In addition the Honduran government has sent about 1000 soldiers and police to the region.

As I have mentioned in an earlier blog post, I don’t know all the details of the situation. Some are claiming that the organized peasant groups have taken up arms, something I rather doubt. Others claim that there are groups of thieves who are stealing fruit and other items who are responsible for some of the violence. This is also an area where you can find some drug-trafficking.

But at the center of the dispute is the problem of land. Much of the good land, planted with the lucrative African palm – used for both palm oil and biodiesel, is owned by three persons, one of whom, Miguel Facussé, is one of the richest persons in Honduras and was a major force in support of the 2009 coup d’état. From what I can discern, he obtained much of the land in underhanded ways.

The issue of ownership of land and other resources is central to any effort to ensure a good life to the poor here.

I have recently heard of another potential land problem which may arise in future years. Groups are coming in to a region of the department of Lempira and offering money for land. Why is unclear, though some people think it is related to possible mineral deposits.

But why would poor people sell their land?

When you have to provide for your family who are starving, the offer of a few hundred dollars for your land is appealing since it offers a way out of the current crisis. Of course, it doesn’t solve the problem but makes it worse.

And so the poor suffer, the very people who will often go out of their way to help a stranger.

I, though, am privileged to be able to accompany them here in western Honduras. And I'll have more opportunities to be in the countryside in the parish of Dulce Nombre de María.

Last Tuesday, Padre Julio César Galdámez, who had been the associate pastor of Dulce Nombre, was installed as pastor of a new parish, San Juan Bosco. The parish includes parts of Santa Rosa de Copán as well as the municipality of Vera Cruz, which had been part of the parish of Dulce Nombre.

At Father Julio's farewell Mass in Dulce Nombre

Though this means the parish of Dulce Nombre has five less villages, there are still about 40 some towns and villages and more than 40,000 people.

I had been planning to do more in the countryside. This change makes it more urgent to help Padre Efraín Romero, the pastor.

And so I'll be going out more often. I'm starting this week, going out to a Holy Hour on Thursday to El Zapote. In September, I'll be taking the Eucharist to two remote villages for their Sunday Celebration of the Word.

It's a little thing I can do - but for the people it is important, since they have a deep love of the Eucharist.

I will be gone from this area for a while starting in September. I have been asked to lead a retreat for the volunteers of the Farm of the Child in Trujillo, on the north coast. Then I'm off to Lima, Perú. In January 2010 I was sent by Caritas Santa Rosa to take part in a workshop on World Vision's problem of encouraging local churches to respond to HIV and AIDS. Last November World Vision asked me to be part of an informational session in Bogota, Colombia, on the project for people from the Latin America Bishops' Conference (CELAM). This year there is a training session the World Vision is doing for CELAM in Lima, Perú, and I've been asked to help. They are paying my way there, but otherwise it's another way of volunteering to help those at the margin of society.

After that I'll be in the US for about five weeks for my annual visit. After a week in the Philadelphia area I'll be in Detroit for a few days retreat and then a series of talks at the University of Detroit-Mercy.

Then I'll get to St. Thomas Aquinas Church and Catholic Student Center in Ames where I'll be meeting with folks from the parish that is supporting me here and has a relationship with the parish of Dulce Nombre. I also have a few other speaking opportunities and am looking for more. (If you're interested, email me.)

The trip back to the US is important, though I really don't want to leave for such a long time. I see it as part of what people call "reverse mission," a way of sharing the wealth of the people in Honduras with people in the US.

It just again a little thing that I can do to witness to the faith and love of the people here and to invite people to join in solidarity with the poor and their struggles for justice and a decent life.

Dulce Nombre Youth at Padre Julio's installation as San Juan Bosco pastor.

Continuing ministry

2011-08-16T10:11:00.001-06:00

My life has been full of the little events that make up my life and ministry here.

Last Wednesday, the two seminarians who have been with me since June left to return to the US for their studies. It was good for them to be here. I took them to San Pedro Sula on Tuesday so that they could leave on Wednesday without having to get up very early and have a very long travel day.

The day after they left the diocese had a three day meeting for the coordinators of the social ministry in the parishes. I did a lot of the logistical work – signing people in, giving them a part of the costs of their travel, paying the retreat center, etc.

I did have two hours to do an introductory workshop on “Transformation of Conflicts,” which Caritas in Honduras is promoting. I used some of their materials but supplemented them with materials from other trainings I have had in the past, including the exercise, "Knots".

Sunday, August 14, I went to Dulce Nombre for Mass. Padre Julio César Galdámez, the associate at Dulce Nombre, has been named the pastor of a new parish, Saint John Bosco, which includes two barrios of Dulce Nombre, the chaplaincy of the Catholic University Santa Rosa campus, and the municipality of Vera Cruz.

Padre Julio at the Mass

Marco Tulio offers Padre Julio a net, as a sign of his mission

This will mean that the parish of Dulce Nombre will have one less municipality, which includes the town of Vera Cruz and about five villages. It will also mean that the chaplaincy of the Catholic University will be able to assist students or staff who have not yet received some of the sacraments.

It will be hard for the parish to have one less priest, but, as I’ve mentioned before, I will be trying to do some more pastoral work there, especially in the remote villages. I do look forward to this.

That ministry sometimes takes on unforeseen directions. I do visit the meetings of the zones and sectors of the parish and will be making more visits (probably overnight) to some of the villages.

But occasionally I am called on for something that challenges me in a deep way. A few weeks ago one of the pastoral workers in one of the villages called me. He was in Santa Rosa and wanted to talk. He had been here for several days since his child was in the hospital. As we sat and talked, with his three year old son there with us, he told me that the child had been in the hospital because he had been abused by a man in his fifties from another village.

He told me this very calmly, but with obvious concern. He also told me that he had taken steps to connect with authorities and the man had been jailed. This was for me a very courageous act, since so often people here do not denounce injustices committed against them for fear of reprisals and out of a sense that it won’t make a difference. But this time his action did make a difference. Officials of the Juzgado de Niñez – a government child’s advocate office – had investigated and were following up.

The next day the pastoral worker and his wife were going to the Ministerio Público to follow up. I went and met them at the office and stayed there while they went through the proceedings. They afterwards went to the office of the Juzgado de Niñez.

Something has been done, in this one case, for a child in need. Would that there were more such cases.

Monday I went with most of the Caritas staff to the funeral of a woman who had worked in the bakery at Caritas and had died on Sunday of cancer.

The funeral was in a village way up in the mountains, above Belen Gualcho, Ocotepeque. It was 90 minutes to Belen Gualcho and then another 35 or so minutes by car and ten minutes on foot to get to the village of Hierba Buena (“Good Herb” or mint).

The area was beautiful, in the folds of the mountains. The small chapel, named in honor of Salvadoran archbishop Monseñor Oscar Romero, was packed.

Padre Efraín, director of Caritas, led a Celebration of the Word, after which the crowd walked to the cemetery, about 3 kilometers away.

The celebration in the church and the procession to the cemetery were moving, as people paid tribute to Orbelinda Pacheco as a woman of faith and a hard worker.

This is probably the first time I’ve had the chance to see a funeral in the countryside. The simple faith of the people, the quiet grief, the muyriad flowers, and the solidarity of friends and neighbors impressed me, as they accompanied Orbe’s parents and daughter.

People were there – from old women to babies at the breast. Death was a part of their life – but the death of a younger woman is not easy.

But somehow faith sustains them and they hope to live the resurrection – not as pie in the sky, but as a reality here in their daily lives.

And so my life and ministry continue, sustained by God and the witness of so many poor people whose deep faith continues to challenge me.

----

Other photos of the funeral can be seen here.

Hosting seminarians

2011-08-08T15:03:00.004-06:00

A few months ago, Jarrett Wendt, a Dubuque archdiocesan seminarian whom I’d known from his days at St. Thomas Aquinas in Ames, wrote and asked about the possibility of arranging a pastoral experience here in the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán. I said I’d work on it.

A few weeks later another seminarian, Kevin Earleywine, a friend of Jarrett’s at Loras College’s St. John Vianney House, wrote and also asked me about coming.

Jarrett, Kevin, and Ivan at a Mass in Delicias, Concepción, Copán

After talking with Padre Efraín Romero, the pastor of the Dulce Nombre parish, I said yes and the process started.

Kevin arrived June 2 and Jarrett on June 27. They leave in two days, August 10.

I had decided that one of the best things for them, in order to see the pastoral work here and to improve their Spanish, was to leave them in a few different villages. I chose the places carefully, villages and towns where the pastoral work was fairly well developed and where I knew and trusted the people.

And so they stayed in Plan Grande, El Zapote de Santa Rosa, Delicias, San Agustín, and Dolores. In none of these places did they find people who spoke English – and so they had to speak Spanish – sink or swim. I’m glad to say they swam quite well. In El Zapote, Kevin had to live without electricity. They both were “troopers.”

Jarrett and Kevin got a chance to see the role that lay leaders have in the communities, leaders with little formal education who lead Celebrations of the Word on Sundays and other days, teach religious education, lead base communities, visit the sick. They also went out and worked with the people in the community – planting, weeding, building. Jarrett also spent a day with one of the women leaders and learned how to make tortillas.

They helped unload my truck full of fertilizer in a rural village.

They went to meetings (lots of them). They sang with people in the villages.

Roberto, Jarrett, Kevin, Marco Tulio

They even wrote and sang a song for the parish ecological celebration. Listen to it here on You Tube.

They climbed an amate tree in Candelaria, Concepción, Copán.

Can you find them in the tree?

And Jarrett tried to cut grass with his machete.

What is the worth of this experience?

For them, it has helped them improve their Spanish, understand a bit of what life is like for the poor in Central America, experience a different way of being the Church, and experience being served by the people here who have welcomed them with great love.

For the people here, there was the chance to spend time with seminarians from the US, the chance to experience the presence of a wider church, the opportunity to share their lives and their pastoral ministry with people from another culture.

I think I could sum up what happened in two words – accompaniment and solidarity.

Thus the experience has not been of one group coming to do something for another – but an experience of mutuality, of sharing, of living as members of the same People of God.

Several times when I have visited the communities where Jarrett and Kevin have lived, I have told them that they have offered a service to the Church in the United States. They have been the teachers for these seminarians.

And I’m sure they’ve learned a few things from the seminarians, including the facts that there are fat people and poor people in the US.

Kevin with a boy in El Zapote

Jarrett told how some kids asked him if there were kids in the US. Yes, replied Jarrett. When they grow up, they become “gringos”? they asked. Yes, he replied.

Jarrett with kids in Agua Caliente, Vera Cruz.

The world becomes human – and more godly – because of these types of interactions.

The promotion of the sense of common humanity, of being all made in the image and likeness of God, of being members of the Body of Christ is what immersions should be. I’m glad I had a part in helping this happen.

Maybe there will be more opportunities of these types in the future .

Caniculas or chubascos

2011-08-03T09:36:00.003-06:00

Honduran Spanish can be quite colorful and specific.

We are in the rainy season here - winter, we call it - and its been raining much more than and with greater force than I remember. There are lots of chubascos, intense torrential rains, almost ever afternoon or evening.

Some farmers are experiencing problems. One of the seminarians visiting told me how the coffee field of a friend is in danger of being washed down the hillside, because of the intense rains that have soaked the earth.

The road up to Dolores

As a result the roads are worse. My street is a disaster, with some trenches in the middle of the street almost 8 inches deep. The roads in the countryside are even worse in spots, especially since there have not been a lot of intensely hot days to dry out the roads. There are foot deep ruts in some places.

But the real problems on the country roads are landslides and destruction of bridges. At one point the road from the international highway into Dulce Nombre is only a car wide, because of the mudslide. As I mentioned in a previous post, a bridge near Cementera, Lepaera, Lempira was washed out. I also recently heard that the foot bridge (and perhaps the waterline) into another rural community have been destroyed by the rains.

But not only are the roads affected. Visiting Dolores, Copán, on Tuesday, I got to see the damage the rain did in the church. Last Thursday a portion of one of the walls fell off - leaving the adobe exposed and destroyed the inside roof for a storage room inside the church. The rain had penetrated the walls and the adobe is in a precarious state. Repair work will need to be done quickly.

But much of this work is hard to do during the rainy season. But July 15 to August 15 is supposed to be a time of a canicula, a month with little rain. But that's not the experience this year.

Some people blame La Niña; others invoke the problem of global climate change.

Whatever the cause, the poor suffer more and what little they have is in greater danger.

Inside the Dolores Church

Some of the damage from the falling wall

But still they seek to go forward. The community in Dolores, in the expectation to be able to have the Eucharist reserved in a tabernacle in their church, have built a new altar and ambo and fixed their retablo.

Renovations in the church in Dolores, Copán.

A year of jubilee

2011-07-30T12:22:00.003-06:00

In this year of jubilee, then,
every one of you shall return to his own property.

Leviticus 24: 13

Today’s lectionary reading from Leviticus hits close to home, here in Honduras, where land is so badly distributed.

Leviticus 24 is a call to a release from slavery and a restoration of lands to those who have lost them, mostly through having to sell them to pay debts. It presumes that the first partition of the promised land was equitable, so that there was enough for everyone.

Whether the actual practice of Israel may have been, the jubilee presents an important challenge for social justice in a society.

When most of the wealth is in few hands – as well as most of the land – and most of the people have little or no land for even subsistence agriculture, something is wrong and people suffer.

That’s what’s happening here and in some places, like the Bajo Aguan, it’s led to violence and the death of over 40 poor farmers in the last 18 months.

This is a tragedy that a little biblical wisdom might change.

There are many and some of them have suffered.

A few weeks ago, Nery Jeremías Orellana, a young journalist, owner of a community radio station in the municipality of Candelaria, Lempira, was killed. The police called it a simple criminal act, but it looks very different.

Nery was a member of the Resistance to the coup and the current government, a movement calling for structural change in Honduras. He was also a devout member of the Catholic Church. I have been told that when he was studying in Gracias, he was a lector int he parish.

In Candelaria Padre Amilcar Lara, the parish priest, also sympathetic to the Resistance, has recently denounced some cases of corruption by organizations in the area. He has received death threats and one night, about 3 am, someone drove around the church grounds shooting a gun into the area in a vehicle owned by one of the organizations that is thought to be involved in corruption.

Shortly thereafter Monseñor Luis Alfonso Santos, the bishop of the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán celebrated a Mass in Candelaria and spoke out forcefully in support of Padre Amilcar and against corruption. As they say here, Monseñor Santo "no tiene pelos en la lengua" - there are not hairs on his tongue. He speaks what he thinks.

The Mass and homily was broadcast by the radio station, Radio Joconguera, which broadcast the homily many times after the Mass.

Nery also received death threats and then, on July 14 he was shot while riding to the station on his motorcycle.

Nery, Padre Amilcar, the mayor of Candelaria and others there had received death threats for their denunciations of injustice and corruption. But will there be a real investigation of Nery's death? I doubt it, if the recent history of deaths is any precedent.

And so I live in a country where the lives of the poor are not only precarious because of the injustice of the economic and social systems here but those who seek to take up the cause of the poor are threatened and even killed.

Interestingly, the Gospel reading for today is Matthew 14: 1-12, the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist by Herod, another tyrant and puppet of an empire.

Pray for us - and work with us for justice and jubilee!

Incarnating the Word

2011-07-28T10:36:00.000-06:00

Mural in the Hospital Divina Providencia

Today I ran across this quote from the martyred Salvadoran archbishop, Oscar Romero, in a blog entry of Brother Daniel Horan, OFM, on his blog, Dating God: Franciscan Spirituality for the 21st Century. I often hear homilies from parish priests and our bishop, which some might consider to be highly political. Here are some examples: Padre Efraín, Padre Fausto, and our bishop, Monseñor Luis Alfonso Santos. For the most part they are only trying to do what Romero was talking about in his November 11, 1979 homily, just four and a half months before he was martyred at the altar.

We not only read the Bible, we analyze it, we celebrate it, we incarnate it in our reality, we want to make it our life. This is the meaning of the homily: to incarnate the Word of God in our people. This is not politics. When we point out the political, social, and economic sins in the homily, this is the Word of God incarnate in our reality, a reality that often does not reflect the reign of God but rather sin. We proclaim the Gospel to point out to people the paths of redemption.

Here's the Spanish original:

No sólo … leemos [la Biblia] sino que la analizamos, la celebramos, la encarnamos, la queremos hacer nuestra vida. Ese es el sentido de la homilía: encarnar en el pueblo la palabra de Dios. No es político cuando en la homilía se señalan los pecados políticos, sociales, económicos, sino que es palabra de Dios encarnándose en nuestra realidad que muchas veces no refleja el reino de Dios, sino el pecado; para decirle a los hombres cuáles son los caminos de la redención.

A music festival to save the planet

2011-07-24T08:16:00.008-06:00

The earth groans, as if with labor pains

There is a lot of talent among the people I work with in the parish of Dulce Nombre. That became very clear the past Saturday when the parish had an ecological festival, inviting groups from the parish to come and sing songs they've written.

The theme was 'Let us save our planet."

Two of the best music groups in the parish didn't participate (those from Plan Grande and Yaruconte), but there were seven presentations in the competition and three others, including one of the judges and one of the two seminarians who are visiting here from the Archdiocese of Dubuque.

There were a few participants who could use a bit of help in terms of pitch and composition, but overall it was a good day and people were reminded of our need to care for the earth.

A few photos and two videos follow.

First Prize group - Voces de Cristo - from Quebrada Gande

Second prize group from Cerro Negro

A video of Luis:

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Kevin Earleywine & Jarrett Wendt (Dubuque, Iowa, Archdiocesan seminarians) got into the act.

Blogging about Honduras

2011-07-18T21:53:00.010-06:00

How does one blog about a poor country where one lives?

A temptation is to concentrate on the horror stories – either about oneself (getting ripped off or experiencing bureaucratic nightmares) or about others (all the violence or shacks).

Another temptation is to highlight the exotic – geckos (little lizards that sound like birds), fruit, or torrential rains.

Another temptation is to present the people as either totally decadent and lazy or as incredible individuals who overcome overwhelming difficulties.

Another is to share all the good that I have done – or all the frustrations I’ve experienced.

But what do I try to do?

I generally try to speak from my experience, what I see and hear, the people I talk or work with.

But I also try to put my experiences in context. Thus I often try to connect the story with the wider issues of the political, economic, and social unjust structures here.

I also often connect my experience with my faith, especially with the social teachings of the Catholic Church and the option for the poor at the basis of liberation theology.

I do occasionally write about events that I have not experienced but I try to make sure that I am being as accurate and fair as I can, which is very hard here where good information sources are hard to find. But I am reluctant to do this often and there are several US bloggers who do an extraordinary job of sharing stories or analysis of events here.

Of course, I write with a bias.

What are my biases?

The poor have a dignity as sons and daughters of God. They have as much worth as people with money and education.

The poor should be protagonists of their lives and their future. They don’t need gringos coming in and telling them what to do. They are capable and do a lot with what little they have.

The vast majority of the people in Honduras are impoverished, which is, I believe, a better term than calling them poor.

Honduras is beset not only with instances of corruption and lack of services for the poor. Honduras is best with major economic, social, and political structures that are unjust and keep people poor.

God loves the poor and looks on them with compassion.

God takes the side of the poor as he did throughout the Bible. God also has very severe words for the rich, especially those who hoard land and money.

Honduras needs radical change – that is, etymologically speaking, changes from the roots.

That change should come from the base of society – the poor. And they are capable, no matter how little formal education they may have received.

Where do these biases come from?

They come from my faith in a God who became a poor man, Jesus, in a country beset by an imperial power, but who preached a Kingdom of Justice, Love and Peace. He was killed for this but was raised up and therefore life and hope are real.

My biases come from my parents who had incredibly large hearts and who also were blue collar workers who never graduated from high school but were very intelligent. They nurtured in me a love of learning and a love of the poor.

They come from teachers, friends, associates, who’ve taught me or accompanied me for many years.

And they come from walking among the poor – laughing with them, crying with them, hearing their fears and discouragement, asking them to share their faith and the way that has helped them live.

The first lines of the Second Vatican Council's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes, sum this up well:

The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts.

Transforming Conflict Workshop

2011-07-15T17:56:00.001-06:00

It may seem like using a thimble to put out a forest fire, but this week I facilitated a workshop on conflict transformation in the aldea of Cementera in the municipality of Lepaera in the department of Lempira.

Honduras is a country of conflicts, a society divided, where a 2009 coup d’état revealed a deep rift in a society where political and economic elites thrive while the poor continue to suffer.

But I went because the Caritas staff working there had noted the presence of several serious internal conflicts that have hampered the community’s ability to work together.

Cementera and two other aldeas are part of a project Community-Based Management of the Reduction of Natural Disasters, which helps communities develop their own plans and projects to deal with a wide range of disasters.

What I like about the project is that the paid workers are facilitators of a process in which the community analyzes its situation, plans what can be done, and holds government and other organizations responsible for what they fail to do. It holds the potential to empower communities. The style of education is thus very participative.

So on Thursday morning I left with two Caritas workers, Ismael and Francisco, for the community. We started late; we picked up two bags of fertilizer for a leader form another community, and then met a leader of Cementera in Lepaera. So we were behind schedule – nothing new here.

But the most serious obstacle was in front of us.

The road up the mountain is not too bad, though four wheel drive is necessary. But a bridge below the community had washed out because of the recent torrential rains. The only way up was through a steep, rocky and gutted road. A few times I thought we wouldn’t make it even in first gear in low four wheel drive. But we made it. La Bestia [the beast], my pickup, is powerful, my companions noted.

We got there and started about two hours later than we had planned, but the day went well with the participation of 22 leaders of different organizations in Cementera.

I’ve recently been able to participate in a few training sessions on conflict transformation.

Most recently I attended a week-end workshop by the Alternatives to Violence Project here in Central America which started in the US as a Quaker-led program in New York state prisons. I especially appreciate their very dynamic and participative process that works very well with campesinos and workers. They speak of the transformative power of persons to deal with conflict.

Last year I attended two of the three week-long workshops that Caritas Honduras sponsored for Caritas workers in the country. It was led by Caritas Colombia and used the work of John Paul Lederach who has worked in Colombia and other conflict areas, often with Caritas. A Mennonite he has academic posts at both Notre Dame University and Eastern Mennonite University.

In both the emphasis is not on resolving conflicts as much as transforming the conflicts so that there is not just peace but justice and real reconciliation. I mixed material from both sources for the workshop.

I tried throughout the day to encourage participation – but for the most part the participants are leaders who eagerly entered the process.

We started out, as almost always here, with prayer. Then I led a few exercises to held us recognize our dignity and the worth of our input into the community.

Using a series of exercise we talked about conflict, stages of conflicts, roles people assume in conflict situations, and more. I began by asking them what they thought or felt about conflict. Not surprisingly all the inputs revealed a negative view. But when I asked them if conflicts were ever helpful, they admitted there was positive aspects and could give examples.

After lunch I began with several activities to encourage them to use their imaginations. In a society where much of the education is rote memorization, this is sorely needed.

Finally we did an analysis of a conflict. Ismael and I had thought that a recent conflict over the preservation of a reserve on a nearby mountain would work to help them analyze the people, the problem, and the process of a conflict. But we were wrong. Finally they came up with a conflict in the community from the late 1990s.

The conflict – not unexpectedly about land ownership - did not turn out well for the community. Yet, using it and probing the memories of some of the participants helped them see the importance of careful analysis.

I offered to come back for a second workshop so that we might work on some of the conflicts in the community.

I closed my participation with a passage from one of Paul’s letters, Romans 12: 9-13, which seemed most appropriate:

Let love be sincere.
Hate what is evil and hold to whatever is good.
Love one another and be considerate.
Outdo one another in mutual respect.
Be zealous in fulfilling your duties.
Be fervent in the Spirit and serve God.
Have hope and be cheerful.
Be patient in trials and pray constantly.
Share with other Christians in need.
With those passing by, be ready to receive them.

I left as they cleaned up the church where we had met and went to find Ismael who was leaving with me. I had a deep sense of peace waiting in the truck, looking out at a incredible view of the nearby mountains and valleys.

I found myself grateful for the day, for the beauty of the countryside, and for the beauty of the people.

A side note. I talked with Josué, a kid in the community who took my picture when I came to the community for a video festival in May. It’s a picture that I love, because it captures me at my best – enjoying life and the people in communities like Cementera.

At my best

Josué, the photographer

A health update

2011-07-15T07:58:00.001-06:00

For the third time in four weeks I came down with a serious case of diarrhea. I finally decided to go to a different doctor in a private hospital here in Santa Rosa de Copán.

I arrived at about 3 o’clock but had to wait to about 5:30 to see the doctor. After a through examination she told me I had amoebae. I have several different medicines to take and have to go back next week to see here after getting a series of laboratory tests.

I am still feeling out of it, but managed to facilitate a workshop on conflict transformation in the aldea of Cementera in Lepaera, in the department of Lempira. I’ll write more on this later.

Transformation of conflicts workshop in Cementera

I am grateful that I got decent medical treatment but I realize that the cost of the prescriptions and the doctor’s appointment (about $80 in all – even with a senior citizen’s discount), was more than many Hondurans make in a month and is about a quarter of the minimum wage here.

This is a privilege of being North-American with access to half-way decent medical care. Many people have little or no access to decent health care, walking miles to a government clinic that is often under-staffed and does not always have the medicine that is needed for basic health needs.

All the more reason to be here, to help people here work for change, and to accompany them as they seek what is needed for healthy communities.

As I reflect on this I recall my visit last week to the village of Quebrada Grande in the parish of Dulce Nombre, accompanying one of the Caritas workers in a project to promote maternal and infant health. (The project is partially funded by Catholic Relief Services; a video on the project can be found on the CRS Operation Rice Bowl website, here. Ignore the written commentary which is about a different CRS project.) Volunteer monitors in the villages are trained to do monthly weigh-ins of infants under two.

Weighing an infant in Quebrada Grande

In Quebrada Grande a few months ago eleven out of the twenty-two infants were seriously underweight. Last week only nine were underweight, but that is still the worst percentage in the communities being served by this program. There are many causes, including poor water and insufficient food this time of the year. And so there are some efforts being made by Caritas and Catholic Relief Services to improve the diet and health of the people. The project helps the mothers improve the diet of their children, promoting breast-feeding and providing some training on healthful preparation of food.

I was recently able to get some fortified rice from a local evangelical group that is distributing packets prepared in the Mid-West by a group headquartered in Minnesota. One of the monitors prepared the rice and shared it with the kids and mothers. The mothers told me that the kids did like it - as opposed to some other enriched products that mothers and children dislike and reject.

Feeding her child Kids Against Hunger fortified rice

This village is fortunate to have good staff at the local health clinic (about 45 minutes away) and one of the nurses there came and spoke with the mothers with underweight children. Most of them were referred to the clinic later this month when a group of doctors will be there.

This is but a drop in the bucket of need here. As I have mentioned before there is need a major transformation here, what some people, mostly in the Resistance, are calling the Refoundation of Honduras.

Perhaps one day, all will have access to the health care I have been able to have, with my US dollars.

Contemplation

2011-07-12T19:54:00.000-06:00

This week I finished Jim Forest's All Is Grace: A Biography of Dorothy Day, just published by Orbis Books. I highly recommend this inspiring and beautiful book, filled with photos and quotes of Dorothy Day, the founder of The Catholic Worker.

One quote really struck me. About 1970 she visited Mother Teresa in Calcutta and spoke with the novices of her order, the Missionaries of Charity.

Christ remains with us not only through the Mass but in the 'distressing disguise' of the poor. To live with the poor is to live in the constant presence of Jesus.

Though I live, for now, in a fairly comfortable house in Santa Rosa de Copán, I often have the privilege of visiting rural villages, sitting in people's home, sharing a meal, and occasionally sleeping over. For me, this has been a real gift of grace. They are moments of contemplation, of encounters with God.

All this fills me with joy and gratitude to God, to the poor, and to the people who help me be here. Another quote of Dorothy day, from her early book From Union Square to Rome well expresses how I feel tonight:

Gratitude brought me into the Church and that gratitude grows, and the first word my heart will utter when I face God is "Thanks."

Deo gratias!

Dreams into deeds

2011-07-10T18:46:00.003-06:00

The last two weeks have been quite busy – including a second bout of diarrhea and a good number of visits to the countryside. There is much I could write about but something very simple touched me today.

If you have been reading my blog, you may remember that I have been working with the village of Piedras Coloradas for the last few months to help them work together to be a real faith-based community.

At the first meeting in April I asked them to identify their successes – they have a base community and a church; they have water (though it’s not enough); they pressured the mayor of the municipality to have two bridges built since they were isolated during parts of the rainy season when vehicles couldn’t cross the streams; they had provided money for a study for a project to bring electricity to the village and to provide their mandatory contribution to the project; they also had obtained land for a cancha, a soccer field.

I also have asked them in a meeting to dream about what they hope their village will be and, more recently, they have talked about priorities, which include electricity, housing, food security, and soccer.

Today, Sunday, returning from a visit to the Mayan Ruinas outside of Copán Ruinas with two visiting seminarians of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, I passed by the field and saw a game in progress. Seeing Julio Alonso Rivas and his father, Luís Alfonso Rivas there, I stopped. The cancha is fixed enough that the village team was playing a team from a nearby village and had blue jerseys!

I didn’t do anything but help them get thinking about what they could do – and they followed through. Having a team is very important for rural villages - and it's also a great way to keep the young interested in their community.

While I was standing there, Julio Alonso told me that the electric project is proceeding. They have to mark where the electric poles will be placed and will have to remove the trees in the way. Another step toward making a dream real.

A big concern will be housing. There are two woefully inadequate houses – one for a single mother with 6 kids, the other for an elderly couple who care for three grandchildren. I challenged them when I met them on July 2 to think about what they could do – even though they are very poor and have no money to fix the houses. They formed a six person committee – 3 men and 3 women – to begin to think about what could be done to help both families. I reminded them I don’t have funds but I told that they should try to think imaginatively about ways to help - including seeking help from the municipal government. This will be more challenging and I may end up trying to find funds for this and related projects. But I want them to have a sense that they are the protagonists and to remind them that they have done much and can do a lot more.

It’s a small village (14 houses) but I think it’s a good place to begin. And something has begun.

Details of the persecution of Padre Fausto

2011-07-05T14:54:00.006-06:00

In recent years, especially since his exile in Mexico from his native Honduras in the 1980s, Padre Fausto has opened centers of attention where natural medicine practices are shared with the ill. He has centers in Corquin, San Juan de Opoa, and Santa Rosa, all in the department of Copán.

Padre Fausto has been active with the Resistance since June 28, 2009, the day of the coup. He has spoken at rallies in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, and other places. He was appointed a member of the Comisión de Verdad – the True Commission – the Resistance’s alternative to the government’s Comisión de la Verdad (Truth Commission).

Padre Fausto in the Resistance's march at the end of the independence day parade in Santa Rosa, September 15, 2009.

It was a surprise to me and many others that Padre Fausto is leaving Honduras. But reading the details from an e-mail of COFADEH (El Comité de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos en Honduras) I can see the seriousness of his situation. Here is my edited translation:

Wednesday, June 29, 2011, Denia Mejía, Padre Fausto’s assistant, found in the e-mail of INEHSCO, a mail message sent Saturday, June 25, 2011 at 5:29:46 with this message under subject: Warning!! Warning!! Warning!! The same message was sent from a Yahoo-Mexico address of Asesinosxxxxxx. The messages contained threats disguised as extortion in which they gave 48 hours to make a deposit of $35,000 or they would kill Padre Fausto, fulfilling a contract to execute him.

In the last two weeks there have been phone calls from unknown parties who demand to know the routines and times for Padre Fausto’s travels; there has also been an unusual presence of police near his centers of attention to the public.

Sunday, June 9, 2011, two unknown men showed up at the Hogar de Salud (House of Health) in Corquin, and entered opening the front door without authorization. They entered the rooms where the patients were. Immediately they approached the young woman who worked there, pressuring her and harassing her with a series of questions related to the routines of Padre Fausto, including his schedule and his plans to travel to different places in the country, his contacts and their telephone numbers. They asked the patients the same questions.

These men traveled in a white car with polarized windows, much like a car the on April 13, 2011, followed Denia Mejía when she was traveling from the Hospital del Occidente (in Santa Rosa) to her house. Because the car continued to follow her, she took a taxi. To her surprise, when she got to her house she saw the car at the corner near the house. Seeing her, the car was started and left at high speed.

On June 24, Padre Fausto visited the Hogar de Salud in Corquín. When he left the Hogar headed to Santa Rosa, a woman he knows called him on the telephone to tell him that the vehicle which was following her was parked a block from the Hogar and that when they saw that Padre Fausto had they followed him.

For more information on this case, see my previous blog entries on Padre Fausto, including here.

UPDATE: The original Spanish of the COFADEH urgent action can be found here.

Padre Fausto fleeing the country

2011-07-03T10:03:00.000-06:00

Because of threats to his life which I wrote about earlier this week in a blog entry, Padre Fausto Milla announced at Mass today in the church of San Martín de Porres in Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras, that he is fleeing the country.

Padre Fausto has been a voice for the poor for decades, a voice which invites persecution from the powers that be.

Padre Fausto at Mass in San Martín church, November 2009