The Dulce Nombre mural: the idea

I don’t know when we began to think about a mural for the church of Dulce Nombre de María. The church was being painted and was resplendent, a bright white lightening up the whole church.

The pastor, Padre German Navarro, and I began to think about possibilities. He originally wanted an image of Mary in the center with images of Fr. Juan Gennaro, who built the church, and me, the first permanent deacon here. I quickly nixed the idea of my image there. First of all, I’m not dead yet; secondly, I’m far from being a saint. 

I had seen the work of a muralist, Alejandro Carbajal, in Santa Rosa de Copán, on the front of INEHSCO, the institution founded by Padre Fausto Milla for the promotion of natural medicine.

Finally, I contacted Alejandro in late 2019 and he came to Dulce Nombre to talk with us. Then the pandemic arose and we had to put everything off. 

Finally, in September 2020, Alejandro came and began working in earnest on the mural. We talked about possibilities and modified original plans.

An image of Mary, based on an icon, would be at the center, in the curve of the apse. Below there would be images of Fr. Juan Gennaro on the left, Saint Rose of Lime and Saint Oscar Romero between the windows, and Saint Lawrence the deacon on the right. The artist would put images of the houses and landscape of the parish in the background. 

One day I drove Alejandro around parts of the parish so that he could see what the parish looks like. I took a lot of photos so that he could refer to them. He then incorporated houses and scenes from the parish into the mural. 

I helped him find images of the saints and of Fr. Juan Gennaro. We ended up using a woodcut of Ade Bethune as the inspiration for the image of Saint Lawrence. We also came across a photo of Monseñor Romero in a Mass in Chalatenango, El Salvador, where he was receiving a bag of beans in the offertory of an outdoor Mass. The image was captured by Brother Octavio Duran, OFM, who was a seminarian at the time and later, after emigrating to the US, became a Franciscan brother. (We got permission to use both images as inspiration for the art.)

We also decided to incorporate faces from the parish in the image of St. Lawrence. It would be a mural that reflected the reality of our parish. In many ways, we were trying to show the incarnational aspect of our faith – the Son of God became flesh among the people. In our mural, he, his mother, his saints, and his people are present in the lives of our people. I was particular insistent that the image of Mary would not be above the houses at the bottom of the dome. Mary was rooted in the people and so she is in the middle of the homes of the people.

We chose four other images for various reasons. I’ll develop the theology and spirituality in another post, but this is a short explanation. 

Father Juan Gennaro was an Italian missionary priest who spent years in Dulce Nombre. He was well-loved by the people, in town and in the countryside. He also designed and built the main parish church – in an Italian Romanesque style, very different from many churches in Honduras. He also designed several other churches, often using stone, including the church in Piedras Coloradas. He was, as I’ve been told, ecumenical, joining with a local Protestant church, the Central American Mission, in a procession in September, the month of the Bible. He also designed their church. Therefore, it was fitting to include him, together with an image of the Dulce Nombre Church.

Saint Rose of Lima, the first saint of the Americas, is the patron of our diocese, Santa Rosa de Copán; so, it is fitting that she is pictured. Saint Óscar Romero, martyred archbishop of San Salvador, is a Central American saint who identified with the poor and was their advocate. In a poor parish, it is a blessing to have his image before us as we pray.

Finally, there is the image of the deacon, Saint Lawrence. A deacon of Rome, he was called to surrender the treasures of the church to Roman authorities; he distributed the goods of the church to the poor and brought them before the Roman prefect and proclaimed that the poor, those present before him, are the true treasures of the church. Needless to say, he was martyred, according to tradition roasted on a gridiron. He is one of the patrons of deacons. Since the first permanent deacon in the diocese is serving in our parish (that’s me), it was fitting to feature Saint Lawrence. 

There is another aspect present in the mural, which I will develop in a later post. In our diocese, based on baptismal theology, we are organized around the triple ministry of the baptized – the liturgical, the prophetic, and the social. In baptized we are formed in the image of Christ, Prophet, Priest, and Servant-King. In a sense the murals reflect that. Father Juan Gennaro is baptizing – the liturgical. Saints Rose and Oscar Romer make present the Word by their lives and preaching. Saint Lawrence served the poor. 

At the bottom of the mural, above the presidential chair, the parish has placed a crucifix surrounded by a resplendent light. The crucifix belonged to Monsignor James Supple, the founder of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Ames, Iowa, which is our sister parish. It was given in 2007 to me when I left for Honduras. It is my mission cross. It is so fitting that the link with our sister parish is represented by the cross of our Savior. 

There is much more to say and I hope to be able to write about the spirituality of the mural in several posts, in English and in Spanish. 

For this mural is not a decoration, a mere work of art. We see this as a catechetical work, that may lead those who look upon it to deepen their faith, leading them to live in the presence of Jesus, Mary, and all the saints.