What’s wrong – and right – with Honduras?

Wednesday I facilitated part of a workshop on Catholic Social Teaching in Las Flores, Lempira, for sixteen pastoral workers in the parish of Lepaera.

Monday, the administrator of Caritas Santa Rosa asked me to do part of the workshop since she had to help with an audit by the national Caritas office. I said yes, even though what she asked me to cover I’d never taught.

I spent much of Monday and Tuesday preparing material on the Latin American bishops’ conference 2007 meeting in Aparecida, Brazil, Pope Benedict XVI’s latest encyclical, Charity in Truth, as well as the Honduran bishops’ 2006 pastoral letter. Fortunately I had read all of the documents and had some resources on some of them.

So, I prepared presentations – including three power points. When we got to the church we found that we couldn’t get the projector to work – and then the power went off for a bit. Back up plan – improvise!

Those who know me know that I like to have everything well-planned. But I’m learning to improvise – and today it worked. It also helped me to be much more participative.

At one point, I explained the methodology used by much of Latin American theology and pastoral work that springs from the option for the poor – See, Judge, Act. Then, at the suggestion of one of the participants, we did a short session where four small groups made a list of 8 to 10 problems in Honduras. I did this before we examined the analysis found in the Honduras bishops’ statement.

What did they say? Among the problems identified were: Corruption (3), poverty (3), the coup d’etat (3), education (3), alcohol and drugs (3), the environment (2), the economic crisis (2), violation of human rights (2), partisan politics (1), disregard for the human person (2), religious leaders against the poor (1), migration (1), violence (2).

Of course, this is a totally biased sample. These men and women are mostly involved in social ministry in a parish with a fairly radical priest who was openly advocating the cuarta urna, the ballot question about a constitutional convention.

But I found their remarks quite insightful and non-ideological. In regard to education I heard a critique of the teachers for not teaching and going out all to often for strikes. (Another young man had previously told me he couldn’t go past sixth grade because he can’t afford it.) Explaining the problem of religious leaders against the poor one person said this was not just about higher-ups but about people in the church as a whole.

After looking at their lists, it is clear that they parallel the remarks of the Honduran bishops in 2006:

Critical points about our reality
The elimination of poverty and the development of our people face obstacles which appear insolvable, including:

• Inequality in the generation and distribution of wealth;
• The low quality and insufficient coverage in education;
• The lack of attention to health services;
• Irrational exploitation of our natural resources and illegal utilization (taking advantage) of these resources;
• Widespread corruption;
• Theft of the goods of the State;
• Forgetting the common good, justice, and solidarity and loss of the sacred value of human life.

All these not only cause a continuous impoverishment of our people but they also produce a constant flow of Honduras out of the country in search of better living conditions.

A society with weak institutions.
The construction of a strong nation demands the strengthening of State institutions. They are weakened by the populism and the politicization of these very institutions; by the high incidence of corruption which brings about in the population disbelief and lack of confidence in institutions and those who lead them; by the impunity which weakens the state of law, putting the law at the service of private interests and laying aside its principal function of guaranteeing and assuring harmony in the local, regional and national community; by physical violence which increases insecurity among the people and demonstrates that life is not valued or respected.

I am really glad I had the chance to hear their voices. But I also want people to know that only one of the persons in the workshop had more than six years of formal education.

I’ll conclude with a quote from Thomas Merton in a letter to some students:

I believe sometimes that God is sick of the rich people and the powerful and wise men of the world and that He is going to look elsewhere and find the underprivileged, those who are poor and have things very hard; even those who find it most difficult to avoid sin; and God is going to come down and walk among the poor people of the earth, among those who are unhappy and sinful and distressed and raise them up and make them the greatest saints and send them walking all over the universe with the steps of angels and the voices of prophets to bring his light back into the world again.

Thomas Merton, to Sister Marialein Lorenz’s class, 6/2/49