A mural for the church of Dulce Nombre

The main church in the parish of Dulce Nombre de María is unique. The building was designed by Father Juan Gennaro, an Italian missionary, who was pastor for many years. Rather than build a church like the many colonial churches, he looked to the Romanesque churches of his native Italy.

In the past two years the parish has been doing some major repair work, including repainting the interior. Removing the stucco on the two towers revealed the stones which had been quarried by members of the parish and used for the foundations as well as the towers. The pastor decided to leave the stones exposed. It’s impressive. 

Much of this work has been done with the support of the local parish. A major activity, until the pandemic closed the country, had been the selling of food outside church before and after the Sunday evening Mass – mostly pasteles and empanadas/pupusas. This has resumed in a different form in the last month or so. 

The inside of the church, now bright with the new coat of white paint, is impressive but the pastor and I have thought that it might need something. In particular, we thought of a mural for the apse above the sanctuary. After some conversation, we invited a muralist to paint this. I had seen his work on the exterior of the natural medicine and foods center of Padre Fausto Milla in Santa Rosa de Copán and I was impressed. 

The artist, Alejandro Carbajal, came here last year and we had some preliminary discussions, but we couldn’t get started on the work because of the restrictions on travel imposed to lessen the impact of the pandemic. But ab out ten days ago, with some busses running from Tegucigalpa to Santa Rosa, he came and began working. 

The first week was planning, talking about design, and preparing. One of the major problems was putting up the scaffolding so that he could work safely. One scaffold was put up and ready for some work this Monday. Another scaffold was put into place. 

To help facilitate the process of painting the mural, Alejandro worked with Fernando, a seminarian with us in the parish this year. We put together a mock-up for the upper part of the mural. At the center of the apse will be an image of Mary, inspired by an icon of Mary.

Computer generated first draft

Monday, Alejandro began working, first by painting the outline on the curved apse. The image was projected and Alejandro proceeded to work on this. During the work, he also referred to a printed version of the icon. 

 When the projection was turned off, the outline was clearly visible. To say the very least, I was deeply moved. 

Wednesday, after picking up supplies for Alejandro in Santa Rosa de Copán, I went into the church and saw his initial painting of the image of Mary and Jesus. I was blown away.

As the work progresses, I will try to keep a photographic record of this process and share our work. When this is done, we will, I believe, have a unique apse that, I pray, may inspire our people for many years to come. 

I will post all the photos on my Flickr site in this album.