Dulce Nombre de María Parish report, September 2017
Dulce Nombre de María is a
parish in the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán, Honduras, covering four
municipalities in the department of Copán (Dulce Nombre, Dolores, San Agustín,
Concepción) and some aldeas (villages) in the municipality of Santa Rosa
de Copán.
The main parish church is in
Dulce Nombre de Copán.
Masses
The pastor, Padre German Navarro, visits
each of the approximately fifty villages at least once every two months. Normally,
Sunday Masses are celebrated in at least five different locations – one on
Saturday (Dolores, Copán) and at least four on Sunday (two in Dulce Nombre de
Copán, one on Concepción, Copán, and one every other week in San Agustín,
Copán; on the off-weeks there is often Mass in El Zapote Santa Rosa,
Candelaria, or Plan Grande.) The deacon, John Donaghy, often assists at one of
the Sunday Masses.
Celebrations of the Word
Almost all
the villages have Delegates of the Word who lead Sunday Celebrations of the
Word in their communities. Nine communities have extraordinary ministers of
communion who often lead Sunday Celebrations with Communion. A permanent deacon
also leads Celebrations with Communion several Sundays each month in different
communities, while also accompanying the pastor in Mass in at least one place
most Sundays.
Major feasts
Holy Week is
a major celebration in the parish.
The Friday before Palm Sunday, the parish
celebrates a parish-wide Stations of the Cross in the streets of Dulce Nombre.
The Stations are reflections on the Way of the Cross of Jesus in light of the
situation of Honduras and the parish and include strong social messages in the
light of the Gospel.
There are Palm
Sunday processions in most of the communities in the parish, including a major
procession with Mass in Dulce Nombre.
This year
members of the parish went on mission to other villages in the parish from
Sunday to Wednesday of Holy Week, visiting homes and having Celebrations of the
Word.
Holy Thursday
began with the Chrism Mass in Santa Rosa de Copán, which the pastor, the
deacon, and several parishioners attended. The deacon presided at a Celebration
of the Word with Washing of the Feet and Communion in Concepción on Thursday
afternoon.
There was one
Mass in Dulce Nombre in the evening, followed by adoration until midnight.
On Good
Friday, most communities celebrate the Stations of the Cross outside in the
roads and villages using the materials provided in the parish Stations of the
Cross. In the afternoon they have the Celebration of the Passion (with
Communion if there is a priest or deacon or extraordinary minister of Communion
present.)
In some
communities there are other processions, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
There was one
Easter Vigil celebration in the parish in Dulce Nombre de Copán with about 30
baptisms.
Parish events
In 2016, as part of the celebration of
the Year of Mercy as well as the centennial of the diocese of Santa Rosa de
Copán, the parish made two pilgrimages to church with the Holy Door – the
shrine of Our Lady of the Remedies in Tomalá, Lempira, and the shrine of the
Merciful Christ in Quezalapa, Copán. Several busses went from various parts of
the parish.
Last year the
celebration was in Concepción. This year the celebration will be in El Zapote
Santa Rosa. It will be celebrated on Sunday, November 19, since the feast of
Christ the King is the same day as the Honduran elections and large public
assemblies are prohibited on election day.
Sacraments
Religious
education is decentralized with preparation for baptism, first communion, and confirmation.
There are training sessions for catechists at least five times a year.
Baptisms of infants and of children under
13 are celebrated in the villages, usually during a Mass, though there have
been a few celebrations of baptism by the deacon during a Celebration of the
Word with Communion.
Baptisms of
persons over 14 take place at the Easter Vigil, after their participation in
the Catechumenate process.
Confirmation
is celebrated once a year by the bishop. This year we expect about 230 to be
confirmed in three different locations in the parish at the end of October.
In August
about 110 began the catechumenate process – for non-baptized older than 14,
planning to be baptized at the Easter Vigil 2018.
An increasing number are preparing for
sacrament of matrimony, including some older couples. The pastor is getting the
deacon involved in the pre-marriage interviews.
The pastor
continues to visit the sick, bringing them Communion and celebrating the
sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.
The deacon
and the extraordinary ministers of Communion frequently bring Communion to the
ill and elderly.
Extraordinary Ministers of Communion.
Presently
there are thirteen extraordinary ministers of communion and seventeen in
formation. A major part of their ministry is visiting the sick, the elderly,
and the home-bound, bringing them communion. They also distribute Communion at
Celebrations of the Word with Communion in the villages – and assist when there
are Masses in their villages. They are also responsible for mornings of prayer
before the Eucharist once every two months in the sectors of the parish and for
Hoy Hours on Thursdays in their villages.
Youth
There are
youth groups or base communities of young people, in various stages of
organization, in at least nine communities in the parish. The leaders have met
several times this year and in January we had a workshop led by two Dubuque
Franciscan sisters. The deacon is working with the leaders. A council composed
of one member from each group is being organized.
Missions
Members of the parish spent a week last
October in mission in villages and towns in the parish. The pastor sent them
forth with a cross and a special blessing. They also spent three days during
Holy Week in mission. In August they were invited to visit homes in their own
villages to promote the family. In October this year they will also spend a
week in villages and towns throughout the parish. They have had continuing
training sessions.
Solidarity Fund
The pastor
asked the deacon to start a solidarity fund to respond to the serious needs of
the people. Most of these needs are medically-related, though we have often
have to respond to families in need because of deaths or sickness.
The fund is
meant to supplement the efforts of the people to provide assistance to those in
need. St. Thomas Aquinas Church has donated seed money for this. We are trying
to revive the Social Ministry in the villages so that they can monitor the
needs and mobilize people to respond. In many cases, the local church leaders
will organize a collection to assist the person, but it is often much less than
needed. In the two cases assisted financially so far, the communities have
contributed significantly.
Base Communities
The parish is
largely organized from the base communities at the local level. These are
groups in villages or neighborhoods which meet regularly to pray and reflect.
Currently some use material based on the Sunday readings, developed by two
priests and a deacon in the diocese. They are developing materials for the coming
liturgical year.
Other expressions of faith
There is a
charismatic group in Dulce Nombre de Copán.
A Family
Ministry is in formation in Dulce Nombre de Copán and organized Friday Holy
Hours in August, the month of the family in Honduras. Mass or a Celebration of
the Word with Communion followed the Holy Hour.
Formation
One of the
priorities of the parish is faith formation of the parish leaders so that they
can help form the people in the widely scattered parish.
Some of the sessions are in the zones of
the parish, but many are in the church meeting room in Dulce Nombre de Copán.
This means that the people have to walk or pay for transportation to get to the
training sessions. In addition, those who can contribute to cover the costs of
meals. Volunteers from the villages assist the parish cook in the preparation
of meals for these sessions.
The donations
from St. Thomas help subsidize the costs of formation.
We have had
formation this year for catechists, delegates of the Word, the three-fold
ministry of the base communities, missionaries, and social ministry.
Social projects
There are two
social projects within the parish which are helped by aid from St. Thomas
Aquinas Church.
Because of the few middle schools and
high schools within the parish boundaries, there is a program called Maestro
en Casa – Instituto Hondureño de Educación por Radio, which provides
weekend classes to students in various places in the parish. Four of these
centers (in Bañaderos, El Zapote Santa Rosa, El Prado, and Dulce Nombre) have
benefited from partial scholarships to 130 students. The funding comes from St.
Thomas Aquinas Church.
An
association of 15 small coffee farmers has been working together for three
years to export quality coffee to the US with the assistance of St. Thomas
Aquinas Church. With the help of Caritas Santa Rosa, the diocesan social
development agency, they now have legal status. This year they sent 4,500
pounds of green coffee to St. Thomas in Ames. They are continually seeking ways
to improve their coffee and to provide a quality product.
Parish support
Many of the
towns and villages are very poor and so there is not a lot of financial support
for the parish from the parishioners. However, many donate basic grains – corn
and beans – for the use of the parish. There are also a few events during the
year to raise funds.
Several years
ago, a parishioner donated a manzana (1.72 acres) of land planted with
coffee. He also offered another adjoining manzana which was bought with
funding from St. Thomas.
Parishioners,
of all ages, come out various times during the year to work on the fields –
fertilizing, weeding, harvesting coffee. This provides several thousand dollars
a year. In addition, the quality of the coffee has been very high.
St. Thomas
Aquinas is also sending support to the parish four times a year.
Projects contemplated
1.
There is space on the land
by the parish coffee farm to erect a training center for the parish. The parish
plans to begin work in the next six to ten months, beginning first of all with
latrines and then a retention wall for the road above the field. Then a meeting
space with bathrooms, kitchen, and meeting hall is planned. We also plan to
build several small dormitories so that people can stay overnight.
2.
Because of the difficulties
and high costs of transporting the sick to the hospital in Santa Rosa as well
as to Gracias or San Pedro Sula when needed, the parish is contemplating
purchasing a good vehicle to transport the sick. Instead of paying a high price
for a trip, the cost would be for fuel as well as a small donation for the
driver and for the upkeep of the vehicle. The driver would receive training in
basic first aid so that he would know how to treat any patients transported.
The vehicle would also be used to transport volunteers to work on the parish
coffee field.
3.
The owner of a small
private institute for teaching English in Santa Rosa de Copán is interested in
a project to teach English to children and youth in a rural community, with
classes once a week. The costs would be minimal for the participants, based on
their ability to pay. The pastor supports this project. The deacon will be
discussing this with a community and school. The owner of the English teaching
institute is developing a proposal to consider costs and logistics.
Other institutions helping
in the parish
A St.
Louis-based medical group, AMIGAS, has come three times in the past two years with
a medical brigade in the various health centers of the municipality of
Concepción, Copán, which is in the parish. They will be coming again in
October. They are in the process of purchasing land in Concepción, Copan, for a
storehouse, as well as setting up ways to continue to come with a medical
brigade twice a year. The deacon often helps with translation and offers
hospitality to the two directors when they come.
A
congregation of sisters, Las Hermanas de María, run two centers of education
outside of Tegucigalpa exclusively for poor children. These boarding schools –
one for girls and, more recently, one for boys, offer free education for five
years (middle school and high school) as well as occupational training
(including welding, sewing, carpentry) and music and sports (including swimming
and dancing) for the young people. A number of young people from the parish are
participating in this program. To enter the program, the children have to pass
an admission examination and meet certain pre-requisites.
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Prepared
by John Donaghy, September 2017
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