Golpe de estado – the fifteenth day

No curfew tonight. The BBC reports “The government said it had "reached its objective" of quelling opposition protests, in a statement read out on television and radio.” I guess that means that everything is “normal.” Yet I doubt that.

Today I accompanied Iowa State graduate Sarah Hood to San Pedro Sula so that she can fly out tomorrow. I know Sarah from her time at Iowa State and her involvement at St. Thomas Aquinas Church. She’s now teaching Spanish in Houston.

She has been with me for a month helping out in various projects – teaching English in the jail, in a weekend educational program sponsored by the Catholic Church (Maestro en Casa), and at the Franciscan Sisters house down the street. She got more than she expected when the coup of June 28 overtook us. It must have been hard for her, but she held up like a champion!

On the way to San Pedro Sula we had a comfortable air-conditioned direct bus and I slept a bit during the short two hour and 15 minute ride. (The driver was racing most of the way.)

On the way back I took the first bus I could – no air conditioning for three hours on hard seats. We passed at least two military checkpoints, but we weren’t stopped. And it took three hours!

But it was good, since I found myself among the regular folk. I read my book on Gandhi and had a lot of time to reflect, especially on Gandhi’s emphasis on Truth.

I also had some time to reflect on the homily that Padre Fausto gave this morning at the San Martín chapel, just a few blocks up the hill.

He was prophetic as he often is, though he started out telling us that he had decided not to preach this Sunday until he read the readings. He stuck fairly closely to the readings at first.

Here are some of his thoughts that struck me.

1. The Psalm (85) includes the phrase “justice and peace shall kiss.” We are talking about the peace of Jesus, Padre said, not peace which is imposed, the peace of the empire. Jesus said, “I give you my peace,” not the peace of weapons, not the peace of violence.
2. At one point he quoted Al Gore to the effect that “The incestuous marriage of power and money is the worst enemy of democracy” – and of the church, Padre Fausto added. Pastors need to be far from power and money.
3. Injustice is always supported by weapons of the lie.
4. He spoke passionately about the presence of Billy Joya as a security adviser of acting president Micheletti. Joya was involved with the military group 3-16 which has been accused of torture and of collaboration with death squads. Padre Fausto then spoke of his experience of being held in a jail in the 1980s and hearing the screams of a young man who was being tortured in the jail. As they dragged his limp, tortured body past Father’s cell he heard them telling the boy something like, “You SOB, you didn’t sing today. But what will we do tomorrow to make you sing.”

I hesitated identifying Padre Fausto by name, but decided to do it since he is not afraid to speak out. He spoke out last weekend in Tegucigalpa and appeared on television world wide. I pray for his safety. I sensed his concern when he said at the beginning of homily that he had to preach even if it was his last homily.

The last thing I’d like to pass on is what Pope Benedict XVI said in Saint Peter’s Square today, after praying the Angelus:

In these days I am following the events in Honduras with lively concern. Today I would like to invite you to pray for that dear country so that, through the maternal intercession of Our Lady of Suyapa, the authorities of the nation and all its inhabitants can patiently follow the way of dialogue, of reciprocal understanding, and reconciliation. That is possible if, overcoming particularist tendencies, everyone makes an effort to seek the truth and pursue the common good with tenacity: This is the condition for assuring peaceful coexistence and authentic democratic life! I assure the beloved Honduran people of my prayer and impart a special apostolic benediction.

Seek the truth and pursue the common good – with tenacity!