July has been busy - prison, rains, and psychologists

We're only in the first week of July and it's been busy.

And rainy. 

  

JAIL 

July began with a visit to the Santa Rosa jail. 

No, I wasn’t incarcerated. The parish had been invited to make a visit to the jail as we’d done in previous years. Before the pandemic, parishes would visit the jail about once a year, bringing a meal and celebrating the Eucharist with the incarcerated. But since March 2020, there have been no visits. So, the pastor mobilized us for the visit, their first for over a year.

Currently, there are more than 650 persons in the jail, only 26 are women. Many are waiting sentencing. Pre-trial detention is not uncommon, sometimes for extended periods.

So, several groups of women in the parish were mobilized for the meal on July 1 – more than 1500 tamales, 4000 tortillas, and arroz con pollo - rice (100 pounds) with chicken, as well as four jugs of juice.

The pastor, Padre German, the associate pastor, Fr. Fernando, three women from the parish, and I went in four trucks, full of food, to the prison. For a number of reasons, we arrived late and so we started distributing the food before Mass. During the distribution, some of us went and visited with the women. 

 Mass was well-attended with hearty singing. Father Fernando gave good sermon that spoke to the condition of the prisoners.

A TRIP TO SAN PEDRO 

 On Saturday, July 3, I went to the San Pedro airport to meet two Dubuque Franciscan Sisters returning from the US. Sister Pat had been there for a short visit. Sister Katy had been there for more than a year, as part of her formation. She finished her novitiate there and made her first profession of vows on June 15.

It was great to see them and get a chance to talk with them about many things. There are now four Dubuque Franciscan Sisters in Honduras.

I began the trip with 9,999 kilometers on my odometer. That's since December 2020. The average per month is about 886 miles, with just a few trips outside the parish. 

PSYCHOLOGICAL HELP 

This week, the parish is taking advantage of an offer by the diocesan CARITAS office, which has sent us two young psychologists to visit with people in the parish. After two hurricanes, with the continuing pandemic, and with cases of domestic abuse and some killings, there is a real need to help people work through the trauma and disruption of life. We’ve arranged for the two psychologists to visit five locations where they will be seeing people. 

Monday, they were in Dulce Nombre, Tuesday in San Agustín, today here in Plan Grande. It will be interesting to see how this goes since the people do not have much experience with psychological counseling and often look on it as only for the “crazy.” 

It was good, though, to see that one rural village sent people for seven sessions. I gave them ride to and from San Agustín, with a full truck (since many brought children.)

My concern is what type of follow up is needed and how can we see to it. I would really like to be able to find a psychologist to come out to the parish for one or two days per week. At the very least, I hope we can find a way to get psychological assistance to the people who need it. 

ONGOING AND UPCOMING

The rainy season is here.

During this part of the rainy season, it is often sunny and hot during the day followed by heavy rains in the afternoons and evenings. Because of the precarious nature of the soils, especially after last year’s hurricanes, there have been a few small landslides.

I am concerned that we may have major problems if there are severe hurricanes later this year. I am hoping to meet with the village coordinators of social ministry and we’ll try to work on ways to prepare our communities for any such emergencies. 

We are slowly opening up and even beginning to work on religious formation for confirmation. There have been two training sessions for catechists for confirmation. We want to help them see their ministry as more than just giving classes. We hope they see the importance of forming the young people and also helping the young people develop an ongoing commitment to live their faith. We also hope that some of them form youth group or youth base communities.

I will also be having new meetings with the other catechists. I met with most of them in small groups a few months ago, mostly in the sectors of the parish. We may have some larger meetings, in zones, but being very careful in light of the continuing presence of COVID. 

COVID-19 is still among us and there have been cases in several rural villages. Masks and gel are increasingly important. I wear a mask, even though I am completely vaccinated, mostly to give good example to the people. I have noted to them that I am vaccinated but I wear the mask for their health and safety, just in case.

THE PARISH CENTER 

The parish is continuing the work in the main parish church and in the parish center – including the construction of a new area for formation. The church is almost completely finished, except for the possible installation of a few stained-glass windows. Most recently tow statues of angels were put in place as the base for the new main altar.

The new auditorium is in progress. The roof is finished but a concrete floor has to be laid.

We are planning to have a major celebration on September 12, the parish’s feast day. The main church has never been consecrated and so the bishop will be coming to consecrate the church. There will also be a blessing of the new formation area which will be named “Auditorio Santo Tomás de Aquino,” St. Thomas Aquinas auditorium, to recall the assistance of our sister parish, Saint Thomas Aquinas in Ames, Iowa. We hope that some people can come from St. Thomas to celebrate with us.

PERSONALLY

I continue going to rural communities on Sunday mornings for Celebrations of the Word with Communion. I usually go to a Mass in the afternoon. I often am expected to preach - giving the priests a break.

I will trying to do more visits to the sick in rural villages where there are no communion ministers nearby. It is a very important part of my ministry and one which I value.

Updates: birthday, Corpus Christi, prison

As some of you may have noticed, I’m writing less on my blogs this year. Part may be due to the noonday devil (sloth), part may be due to busyness, and in part I may not want to burden readers with lots of little details.

By the way, sloth and busyness are not incompatible. But that’s an extended theological discussion.

Last Friday was my birthday. I got lots of greetings through Facebook, Messenger, e-mail, phone calls, and hugs. Two celebrations were especially moving.

I’ve been trying to find a time to invite the Dubuque Franciscan here to my house for a meal and time to share. Finally, we arranged a meal on May 31, the day before my birthday and a few days before the birthday of Erika, the Honduran member of their congregation.

It was a delightful visit – conversation and food galore. I made lentil soup (one of my specialties), baked whole wheat bread and cornbread, and made a bean salad. Nancy brought one of her incredible chocolate desserts. It was a great time.

After the meal, I left to get to Delicias, Concepción, to expose the Eucharist to initiate their Forty Hours of adoration.

My birthday was filled. In the morning I went to Dulce Nombre to speak with Padre German. Since it was the First Friday, a devotion to the Sacred heart which is very strong in the parish, there was Mass, where I served as a deacon and preached. During the prayer of the faithful, Padre German made a moving prayer for my parents, on my birthday. Then, at the end of Mass, there was the traditional birthday blessing and drenching with water.

In the afternoon I went to Oromilaca for the exposition of the Eucharist for their Forty Hours which began at 5 pm. I hurried back to Plan Grande where we initiated Forty Hours at 7 pm.

Saturday, I got up early to get to Delicias for a 6:30 am ending of the Forty Hours there with a Celebration of the Word with Communion. Before I left I stopped in at the church in Plan Grande to see four young people there for adoration.

I got to Delicias late, because I was confused (too little sleep?) and started out to Oromilaca. I got there at 6:45 am.

I had to hurry back to Dulce Nombre for a 9:00 am interview with a young couple getting married in a few months.

In the afternoon I ended up going to El Zapote to see the coffee association. I brought the device to measure humidity in coffee that I had gotten for them and we also talked about the upcoming shipment to Ames. I also stopped by the church where they too were celebrating the Forty Hours devotion.

Sunday, I went to Oromilaca for a 9:00 am Procession and Celebration of the Word with Communion. The church was filled and I carried the Eucharist in procession to two nearby altars.

At the second altar, as we started our prayer, kneeling in the road, I heard some people singing a hymn that I’ve often heard at Eucharistic adoration, “Dios está aquí” – “God is here.” I asked where the singing was coming from. From a group of evangelicals, I was told. I then invited the community gathered in front of the Eucharist to sing the same hymn. This suggestion probably confounded not only the evangelicals (when they heard the Catholics singing the same hymn) but also the Catholics, who are not accustomed to much openness to evangelicals.

After the Celebration, in which many received Communion, I left Oromilaca for Plan Grande, where we ended Forty Hours at 11 am.

Padre German came for Mass and procession in Plan Grande late in the afternoon. We started the procession but had to end it quickly because of a downpour. Mass proceeded, with the noise of the torrential rains on the tin roof of the church. There were sixteen first communicants – 14 children and three young people. A meal followed for those involved.

Monday, I stopped at the church and then went to Santa Rosa for a  few errands.

Tuesday, the parish visited the Santa Rosa prison. Thirty of us went to the prison. A group of women had started at 1:00 am to cook a meal – rice, beans, chicken and veggies – for the prisoners. And so we had to fit thirty people, 16 large water jugs of juice, and four large pans of food in three pickups! We got to the prison and after a number of delays – bureaucracy at its finest – we got in and served lunch. We ended up feeding about 840 male prisoners and the 39 women there.

The kitchen and the food distribution were well-staffed and so I went around and talked with people. Surprisingly, when I entered the prison I was immediately met by someone from one of the villages in the parish who is imprisoned there. Like many others, he has not yet been brought to trial and he’s been there probably close to a year!

I ended up talking with a number of people, including a few young men – one of them named Jesús. Now I can say that I met Jesus in prison. They talked about the conditions; because of overcrowding some men sleep on the floor, without mattresses.

After lunch, we had Mass which was well attended. My guess is over fifty of those incarcerated participated with another twenty or thirty looking on from a distance. After Communion was distributed to the men, I went and took Communion to the women prisoners who wanted to receive Communion.

We left shortly after in the midst of a major rainstorm and got back to Dulce Nombre about 3:30 pm.

Today, I had planned to go visit the sick in San Agustín, but speaking with the Communion minister there, she suggested that tomorrow would be better. So tomorrow I’m off to visit the sick in the morning and then go with Padre German to Granadillal for their feast day Mass in the afternoon. (It’s the feast of the Sacred Heart.)

                                                              

Saturday I have another pre-marriage interview as well as meeting with the Extraordinary ministers of Communion. Next Monday, there’s a meeting with the youth leaders in the parish.

On June 13, next Wednesday, we celebrate Saint Anthony of Padua, who is the patron of more than four communities in the parish. Padre German will have a load of Masses and I’ll accompany him for at least one of them, because I want to celebrate. June 13 this year is the anniversary of my arrival here in the diocese in 2007 – eleven years.

God is good.

Learning forgiveness from prisoners

Two weeks ago I wrote on another blog on encountering a family which had forgiven the man who had killed two members of their family. Their faith in a God who called us to love our enemies gave them the strength to forgive the killer face to face.

A week ago, in a prison in Honduras, I learned even more about forgiveness.

Sister Pat Farrell and I were facilitating a second-level workshop of the Alternatives to Violence Program on forgiveness with ten of those in prison. We had never worked on this theme before and so there was quite a lot of reworking and even improvising.

For reasons of confidentiality I will not share the stories, but I saw men who were in need of forgiveness and in need of forgiving. Many of those in prison, having suffered from abuse and violence since their youth, having never learned to deal with alcohol and drugs in a healthy way, have ended up in prison – some falsely accused.

I was surprised to hear three of the men speak of experiences of forgiveness that they had seen or experienced – persons who forgave others despite the harm suffered. It was humbling.

It was also a reminder that we are so often besieged by the stories of violence and vengeance that we do not have our ears attentive to the stories of forgiveness and reconciliation which are more common than many of us believe.

This morning, I listened to two speeches of Fr. Greg Boyle, a Jesuit priest who has worked with gang members for decades. In his commencement speech at Pepperdine University this year he concluded his talk with these words:

Graduates, you go from here to the margins because that’s the only way they get erased. And you brace yourselves because the world will accuse you of wasting your time, but the prophet Jeremiah writes “in this place of which you say it is a waste there will be heard again the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness – the voices of those who sing.” Make those voices heard. For you go to the margins, not to make a difference, but that the folks at the margins make you different.

Those visits to the village and to the prison are slowly making me different.

Fr. Boyle’s 2017 Laetare Medal speech at Notre Dame can be found here.