Praying to the true God in face of the idol of gold

The community of Azacualpa in the municipality of La Unión, Copán, is in the middle of a serious controversy. The mining company wants to move the cemetery because there is a vein of gold under it. Some have agreed and been paid by the mining company to allow the removal of the bodies, but some have continued resisting. For now, the mining company is prevented by a judicial action from continuing the removal of remains from the cemetery

But the situation is critical. In early September the diocese of Santa Rosa de Copán released a strong statement against the situation of Azacualpa and the continuing mining in the diocese, especially the mining which has caused such devastation to the area – deforestation, destruction and contamination of water sources. To make visible the support of the diocese for the people, the Santa Rosa de Copán bishop, Monseñor Darwin Andino, went to preside at a Mass in Azacualpa on Monday, October 29.

GETTING TO AZACUALPA

When we met the bishop and the other priests in Cucyagua, we heard that mining supporters were blocking the road. When we reached the new town of San Andrés Las Minas, the parish priest of the area spoke with the police and they escorted us up to Azacualpa.

As we passed the curve up to the town, we saw a grand crowd of supporters screaming at us, but we passed through safely. 

But just past the turn, we stopped, seeing a large group of people who were hidden in the forest. They came out and filled the bed of one of the pickups. They had hidden from the crowd of angry supporters but wanted to come with us to Mass.

THE MASS

The Mass was celebrated beside the church. There were probably about 150 or more people there and we – the bishop, eleven priests, and a deacon (me) – accompanied them.

Providentially, the first reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians (4:32-5:8) spoke strongly of greed.

“no immoral or impure or greedy person, that is, an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.”

THE BISHOP'S HOMILY

Monseñor Darwin Andino, the bishop of Santa Rosa de Copán, spoke strongly.

He asked the people who was here first, the community or the mining company. The community, of course, responded the people. He then spoke of the Machiavellian efforts to divide the people in order to conquer them.

He emphasized that the church is not against development, but for integral development, that develops the whole person and the whole community.

His strongest words were framed in terms of the reading from Paul to the Ephesians. Henoted the motive of avarice, which is, in Paul’s word, idolatry. The mining companies want to remove the bodies from the cemetery in order to extract the gold, but, as the bishop said,

“More valuable [than the gold under the cemetery] is what is above – the people buried there. For greed and avarice, for love of money, it doesn’t bother us [the mining company]to destroy a mountain and to damage water.
For they only think of their money – money which is dirty (cochino), damned (maldito), and stained with blood (manchado de sangre)".

He condemned the money of the mining companies and also mentioned the killing of environmentalists for defending the environment.

He also urged them to continue their struggle and to realize the presence of the church with them.

“Be courageous. I invite you to not bend your knees, be strong.”

A part of the homily can be found here on You Tube.

THE PROCESSION

After Mass, the people walked in procession to the cemetery, led by a cross carried by three young men. 

The bishop and the priests accompanied them in their vestments. The people sang and at one point began to pray the rosary.

As we approached the road up to the cemetery we saw a small crowd of supporters of the mining company. Thanks to the presence of the police we were able to pass by, with no violence. But as we prayed and sang, the mining company supporters screamed at us. There was not a confrontation but a parting of the seas of anger with prayers and hymns.

In the cemetery

When we arrived at the cemetery, we passed through an empty space where a tomb had been and went to a spot in the middle of the cemetery.

I looked around at some of the above ground tombs – some still contained the coffins of the dead, but others had obviously been taken away.

We stood around and finished the rosary while young men prepared a hole for the cross. 

I noticed at least one older man grieving.

At one point I noticed that the bishop was holding what were bones of the dead. They had been found scattered at the back of some graves. Later someone picked up another bone, just in front of me.

The bishop then noted that Catholics respect the bodies of the dead. We hope for the resurrection and so we need to respect their remains. And so he buried the bones beside where the cross would be erected.

We prayed as the cross was erected and waited, praying and singing, as the young men filled in the hole. I was moved and went to help move the dirt, praying in penance for all that the nations of North America had done to bringing such pain and injustice on the poor here in Honduras. The mine is run by a Canadian corporation, but Honduras has suffered many decades of control and exploitation by US governments and corporations.

After the cross was erected, the bishop offered a space for the people to speak. One articulate man recalled the prayer of Agur, a passage from Proverbs 30: 7-9:

Two things I ask of you… Put falsehood and lying far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches; provide me only with the food I need; lest, being full, I deny you, saying, “Who is the Lord?” or, being in want, I steal, and profane the name of my God.

Looking down on the devastation

After praying in the cemetery, we were led to a place where we could look down on the mining operations. What tremendous use of resources to take the gold out of the earth.

As we were walking back, a young twenty-five-year old man told me how he had worked in the mine for a time but began to feel very uncomfortable with that kind of work. He quit his job, despite having a wife and two kids. What an example of courage and of conscience. These small acts of a man are signs of the power that is in each person, the power of that small voice of God we call conscience.

I think he is not alone. As I looked around at Mass and in the cemetery, there were a few spies. But there were even more young men and women present, praying and singing and participating in what must be risky for them. I admire their simple, yet profound, courage.

The struggle will surely continue, but it was good to be present where the church offered a sign of accompanying the people – not in a partisan political way, but as fellow human beings seeking dignity, justice, and respect for all.

I was glad to be there and I pray for these people and their community, in the midst of trials and sufferings.

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More photos can be found in this album on Flickr.

Workshops, Masses, and More

I’ve been a bit busy.

Catechists’ workshops

These past two weeks I facilitated four workshops for catechists in the four zones of the parish. About 105 catechists came.

Beside arranging details for the coming 550 or so confirmations, I tried to help them find ways to be creative in their classes when they don’t have written material. That is not always easy, especially since the educational system is based on memorization of facts (or opinions) without encouraging real critical thinking.

As I was preparing for the workshops I began to wonder whether the catechists and the young people in religious education have a sense of the stages of the life of Jesus. So I had them share various events of the life of Jesus. We put them on pieces of paper and taped them to the wall in order.  It was not always easy, though they could name a large number of events. But I think a real problem was putting the events in context and in relation to other events. We’ll have to work on that.

To reinforce the lesson I shared the mysteries of the Rosary which provide a sort of resumen of the life of Jesus.

In response to the violence in Honduras, I decided to have one group dramatize the story of Saint Francis taming the Wolf of Gubbio, one of my favorite stories. I was surprised that a few people did not know who Saint Francis was and many never heard the story of St. Francis and theWolf.   

In three places the people were reluctant to try to dramatize. But in all cases, the story was one of the parts of the workshop they liked.

We have work to do.

Last summer the Vacation Bible School at St. Thomas Aquinas in Ames raised money which I used to buy crayons.  I passed them out at the workshop.

Mass in a front yard

Last Monday I went to the nearby village of Torreras. This village has just begun having pastoral work within the village. At this point a group from one of the other villages in the sector comes to lead a Celebration of the Word and to lead religious education. However, two young women who were baptized at the Easter Vigil and will be confirmed this October came to a catechist training session.

Last Monday Toreras celebrated its feast day, the Assumption of Mary, two days late, since Padre German could not get there on Saturday.

 It was a simple celebration in the front yard of one of the houses, with an improvised awning. People came from three other neighboring communities to help with the celebration. But it was great to see the people of Toreras beginning to become even more integrated into the parish. Padre German told them that he would be putting them on his calendar for Masses every two months.

Accompanying volunteers

A few months ago the directors of Amigos de Jesús asked me to help them with their volunteers from the US. Amigos de Jesús provide a home and a school for poor children, which now includes a dimension of bi-lingual education. They also have opened their school to some local children.

They have five to seven volunteers each year, mostly young college graduates who work in various ways in the home.

They came to Plan Grande for a day earlier this month for a little background on the church here in Honduras. I will be visiting them in Amigos de Jesús every six or eight weeks, to visit with them. It will be a way to us to just talk together. I will also try to help them think and pray through their volunteer experience.

It will be good to do something with young people in English.

Sending coffee

As some of my readers may know I have been accompanying a group of small coffee producers who are forming a cooperative. Five sacks of coffee are being sent for sale in the United States, thanks to the initiative of a young man who visited here in January 2014 and the efforts of St. Thomas Aquinas. I wrote about this last December here.

Delivering the coffee to the processor

It has been a sharp learning curve – with lots of details that tested my patience. But the coffee is on its way, thank God. I am hoping that this is the beginning of a growing market for these small producers.

What else?

I am also accompanying various communities on Sunday mornings, leading the Celebrations of the Word and bringing Communion. I am also accompanying Padre German several times each month as he goes to various communities for Mass.

I am also doing a lot of reading and studying as part of the formation for the permanent diaconate. I just finished an online course on Canon Law. That sounds boring and difficult, but I found it surprisingly helpful.

I am hoping to get to Progresso, Yoro, next Monday. I’ve been looking for an English-speaking spiritual director and I have a lead.

The upcoming months

September should be busy.

The parish celebrates its feast day, the Holy name of Mary,  on September 12. Lots of events are being planned, including a novena of Masses and a procession on the feast day. I’m sure that I’ll be involved.

There may be another Alternatives to Violence workshop in the Gracias prison.

I will also be going to Tegucigalpa for two days to help the coffee cooperative hand in its papers for legal status.

I am hoping to get to Iowa for ten days in October, to visit St. Thomas. It will be a short visit because the first set of confirmations are set for October 23 and 24 and I have to make sure that the communities have everything ready for the liturgies.

In addition another round of catechists’ workshops begins October 27.

And so, life goes on in the parish and I am glad to be part of this ministry.

Present in the midst of pain and death

Saturday afternoon I accompanied Padre German to a funeral Mass in a village I had never visited. Yesterday a leader in the church community had been killed, leaving a wife and seven children.

The village has no church building, though the man who had been killed had donated a parcel of land to build a church. So the Mass was in the porch of the home.

Padre German chose the Genesis story of Cain and Abel and the Gospel of Jesus on the cross.

He spoke strongly about the horror of the death and the need to forego vengeance. He noted that there was a huge crowd for the deceased – but the killer or killers would probably be experiencing loneliness and a fear that someone would come up and kill them.

This village has experienced a number of deaths recently – and this is at least the sixteenth death in the municipality since January 2014.

I don’t know the details but the real concern is that this will unleash more deaths. In a nation where less that 6% of murders are brought to justice, all too many people take the law into their own hands. And in a country where witnesses cannot count on protection, intimidation and death are often the means to prevent someone from testifying.

But what struck me was the pain. People are hurting. During the Prayer of the Faithful, Padre German invited people to state the names of people in the village and a nearby village who had been killed. There were six or so.

And so, for me, I feel more and more that what I am called to do, at the very least, is be present, in the midst of the suffering.

One of the passages of St. Paul that has moved me for many years are the first verses of his second letter to the Corinthians 1: 3-4:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercy and God of all consolation, who consoles us in our every affliction, so that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.

I have been blessed with much consolation in the face of difficulties, and I am now beginning to see that God has given this to me so that I can be a sign of consolation to others in affliction.

And there are many who need that consolation – that comfort – that encouragement.