May the God of surprises fill you with joy during this season - where the followers of Christ celebrate the irruption of God into our world, as a poor tiny babe.
For those who want to know what I have been up to this year, I offer you this long letter.
Last Monday, I had a
tooth pulled and so I had to rest for two days. That was a good excuse to begin
to write a letter to friends. Today, Christmas eve, I am doing domestic chores
and preparing for the Masses – the first one at 9 pm tonight in the church in
Dulce Nombre.
This has been a year with
many challenges, some personal, some related to our world and to Honduras, some
related to my ministry.
I continue my service as
a deacon in the parish of Dulce Nombre de Copán. This keeps me busy with formation
of catechists, accompaniment of extraordinary ministers of Communion and youth
groups, assisting the pastor in the formation of Delegates of the Word and
parish missionaries.
I am also trying to get
the parish Social Ministry more active and organized in the parish. This is a good
challenge. Each community has people designated for social ministry and many
villages have a coordinator of social ministry. In the past this ministry has
been limited to raising funds for church projects in the parish and the
villages and some fundraising for the sick. Gradually the ministry is getting a
little more focused on assisting the poor and the sick, projects to protect the
environment (planting trees and clean-up campaigns), and occasional advocacy.
I continue trying to get
to a different community each Sunday morning for Sunday Celebrations of the
Word with Communion. I especially try to get to communities where there is no
communion minister. I often try to visit the sick and bring them Communion. I
have also gone a few weekdays to a few areas of the parish where a communion
minister doesn’t get.
I also usually go to one
of the Sunday Masses with our pastor. He has between four and five each Sunday –
in disparate parts of the parish. Since he needs a rest, he usually has me
preach.
I also attend the major parish celebrations - Christmas, Holy Week, Corpus Christi, Christ the King, as well as the rites for the catechumens who are entering the church.
I have also done my share
of baptisms this year – most often during Mass, though Padre German sent me to
a rural village when he was visiting his parents a few weeks ago.
I also have presided over
a number of funerals this year or led a Celebration of the Word at the end of
the nine days of prayer after death. These are times when God pulls something
out of me that enables me to offer what I hope are words of consolation and
hope. It is especially moving when I had visited the deceased beforehand,
bringing communion.
I am also interviewing a
good number of couples who are going to get married in the church. Our efforts
to encourage marriage may be paying off. I just heard of one village which is
preparing five couples for marriage. In a burst of enthusiasm, I told the
catechist that if three or more of the couples get married together, I’ll buy a
pig for their joint celebration.
I also find myself
preparing materials for the parish and the diocese. This year I prepared our
parish Stations of the Cross and worked with two priests to provide materials
for the base communities.
The parish church is being renovated and one of our projects will be a mural in the apse above the main altar. I am working with an artist who has done murals in the popular style and we may have a unique parish church. Watch for details.
I also am helping, when I can, with the parish coffee field. Mostly I help transporting the parishioner-volunteers to the field, but I also occasionally try my hand -my fingers, really - at harvesting the coffee. More often I'm taking pictures.
On the diocesan front, I found myself serving as
deacon at several diocesan events: the Chrism Mass, the diocesan youth
assembly, the ordination of two transitional deacons and at the priestly
ordination of one of them, and the announcement of the opening of the process
of investigation into the possible beatification of a delegate of the Word who
was martyred. But a highlight of serving as a deacon was at the Mass where a
young woman was received into the novitiate of the Dubuque Franciscan sisters who
are serving here in Honduras.
Connecting with the
Dubuque Franciscan Sisters has really been helpful for me. I meet them
occasionally, including meeting on October 4 for a meal with them and other
associates of their congregation. I also worked for five days with two of their
candidates to give them an introduction to Catholic Social Thought; I made a
special effort to connect this with the Franciscan tradition.
This Thanksgiving I had
my first real Thanksgiving meal since I came here in 2007. Amigos de Jesús, a home
for children and young people, some orphans but many of them have been
marginalized. It was a feast prepared by the directors and the volunteers –
Turkey, sweet potatoes, string bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and more. And the
desserts were out of this world. I brought bread and ate a large portion of
sweet potatoes (which are hard to find here.)
This Christmas will be
different. Since I came, I’ve spent Christmas with the Franciscan sisters, even
when it was only one of them. I will miss this sine they are in Iowa (enduring
the snow and cold) for a Chapter of Elections for their community. But I didn’t fail to make one of my Christmas
specialties, cinnamon buns (which I am about to put into the oven). This year I
didn’t find walnuts in time and so I’m going to experiment – one tray will be
covered with maple syrup, the other with a sugar glaze.
The year has been marked
by a precarious situation in Honduras – with the brother of the president being
convicted in the US of drug-trafficking charges and other members of the
National Party also involved. There has also been increased militarization of
the country with the aid of the US and Israel; not only is the military
involved in police work, there is talk of them being involved in prisons; there
is also an agricultural project of several hundred million dollars which they
are supposed to administer. With all the corruption, with ties to organized
crime and drug-trafficking of military, police, and government officials, with
the lack of a judicial system which investigates and prosecutes crime. The
situation is precarious.
In the midst of this the
Catholic bishops of Honduras have released three strong statements which can be
found (in translation) here, here, and here.
Another major threat to
the lives and health of people is the mining industry. At nights I can
sometimes see the lights of the San Andrés gold mine. The mining company found
gold under the cemetery and has been trying to remove all the bodies of the
dead of the community of Azacualpa, La Unión, Copán. There were also rumors
that a mining company was going to mine Cerro Quetzal near San Agustín, in our
parish. People came together against this and even the mayor and two owners of
land on the mountain came out against it. A temporary victory but the mining
companies are devious – and the power of money is terrible. We will keep an eye
on this in 2020.
Our sister parish, St.
Thomas Aquinas in Ames, is providing scholarships for junior and senior high school
students in an alternative weekend program. This is one way to help our young
women and men get an education.
I have been working for
several years with a coffee association in El Zapote Santa Rosa. This year they
exported about 2700 pounds of coffee to a group in Ames that is roasting,
packaging, and selling it – and providing a decent price for the producers.
This is important, because most coffee growers received very low prices for the
last coffee harvest. Because they are organized they have also been approached by
a Spanish foundation that will help them improve the quality of their coffee, learn
and use environment-friendly ways to deal with the pulp and water used in
coffee production, and provide assistance to develop programs for food
sustainability, especially for the women.
I have a Honduran friend who
established a school in Santa Rosa to teach English, at an affordable price. I
had been talking with him of my dreams of having a program somewhere in our
parish. Finally, with the help of the Plan Grande grammar school principal, we
had a class for about 19 kids between 10 and 13. A subsidy from St. Thomas Aquinas
helped keep down the costs for the kids, but the price was extremely
reasonable. The first series of classes ended in October. There is hope to continue
this in 2020.
A medical group from
Missouri, AMIGA, has been coming to our area twice a year for several years. I
try to accompany them, including translating. It is very important for our
parish.
What else?
I didn’t stay all year
here in the parish of Dulce Nombre – although my hermitical streak is coming to
the fore.
In March I visited the east
coast of the US. I gave a lecture at the University of Scranton, my alma
mater. I also was given the opportunity to preach at a Mass and to give a
presentation at St. Anastasia’s parish outside of Philadelphia. My cousin, Sister
Mary Barrar, arranged that.
I also got to visit a
priest friend in New Jersey, whom I’ve known since we both attended Don Bosco
Camp in Newton, NJ, one summer when we were in grade school. I also got a chance
to visit a classmate from Callicoon, who is now a lawyer living in NYC (with
his lawyer wife.) But the great surprise and joy was to visit someone I went to
school with at the University of Scranton and who is now a monk at the Episcopal
Monastery of the Holy Cross on the Hudson. It was a short visit but it was as
if we were taking up a conversation we’d begun before. I had been in contact
with him by e-mail, but this was the first face-to-face visit for almost fifty
years. And it was a delight to stay at his monastery.
In September I got a
chance to visit friends in El Salvador. It’s so close but I hadn’t visited for
about three years. I visited Haciendita II, the community where I stayed for
part of each week when I was volunteering in the parish of Suchitoto, during a
1992 sabbatical. It was a delight to see the little kid who always cried when I
came; now he is married with two kids, and he is also a Communion minister in
his parish.
In October I made my
annual visit to Iowa. The main purpose is to connect with our sister parish,
St. Thomas Aquinas (where I served in campus ministry and social ministry from
1983 to 2007).
I had a chance to meet with and speak with several groups –
including the coffee organization, Café El Zapote, which is importing the
coffee from here.
I also spoke at the Iowa
City Catholic Worker. I was moved by their commitment to migrants, their accompaniment
and housing of those who left situations of violence and poverty in Honduras and
other countries. Their solidarity really gives me hope – in the midst of all
the ugly stories I hear or read about in relation to migrants.
In November I was invited
by the Conference of Religious of Honduras to give four days of talks in December
for a group of religious who are responsible for the formation of new members.
The topic: the reality and the stages of formation of religious. I at first
demurred; the group probably knows more about the situation than I do (as a
non-Central American) and about the nature of religious life. But after talking
with two of the Dubuque Franciscans (who had done a session with them a few months
before), I went ahead and prepared the week.
The week was great – even
though I found myself preparing each night for almost two hours, after spending
many days in November working on this. A perk was that I read, for the third or
fourth time, Walter Brueggemann’s The Prophetic Imagination.
Now I am looking forward
to a new year. I am not sure of where it will lead me, but I need to grow in my
trust in God’s loving providence, showing me a way where there seems to be no
way.
Tonight and tomorrow, as
I assist at the altar, I will keep you in my prayers. I ask for yours.
Peace and all that is
good.
John
-also known as Juancito here and Jack to my cousins.
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A photo of me caught in the act:
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