A Lament for Honduras

A LITANY OF LAMENT

- COVID-19 continues to ravage the country, and there are rumors of more restrictions because of the effects on certain areas and the overcrowding of hospitals. 

- With corruption and lack of transparency, most of the population is not vaccinated. According to one report: "While more than one million Hondurans have received one vaccine shot so far, only 79,737 have received both shots, 0.8% of the population." (The population of Honduras is about 9.9 million.) 

- A weak and overburdened medical system.

- An economy that leaves the poor with unjust wages and unjust prices for their farm goods.

- Emigration seems to be increasing astronomically, even in the rural areas where I live.

- Continuing violence, including domestic abuse and killing for vengeance.

- Families torn apart by migration, as well as by domestic violence and alcohol and drug abuse. 

- A debilitated educational system, both at the local area and in terms of national policy. 

- The degradation of the environment, including destruction of forests and pollution, including pollution by mining interests.

- A government and others pushing for ZEDES, business zones out of the control of the government, which would enact their own laws, etc. 

- The Honduran Congress approving more hydroelectric dams (which raises the concern about environmental issues and respect for lands of native peoples and others.) 

- Government corruption and ties to drug-trafficking leave the country without adequate responses to the needs of the population. 

- With elections in November, there are questions about the fairness, justice, and transparency of the election processes. 

- A non-functioning judicial system that leave people fearing to testify against violent crimes. 

The list can go on and on and on. But those who are affected have faces and names. 

This morning, after seeing so many Facebook posts on the Pope’s stand on the use of the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, I thought of the real concerns, and the real issues, that people confront every day in the parish where I serve. 

They face these issues with the few resources they have and with the rich resources of their faith – even though many have access to Mass only once every few weeks.

They don't worry about the language of the Mass, but whether there will be Mass, whether the priest can arrive for the confessions of the sick and dying, whether a child can be baptized before heading out to the US with her father, whether there will be a priest to say a Mass for the burial of a loved one, and many other cares.

And so I began writing this litany of the needs of the poor, here in Honduras, and the threats they experience to life and well-being. It is a litany that could go on for hundreds more pages.

Lord, have mercy on us.