Mary's Magnificat and Honduran street demonstrations

He has cast down the mighty from their thrones
and raised up the lowly.

He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty.

Mary
Luke 1: 53-53

Today is the second day of a nation-wide strike in Honduras. In many parts of the country, teachers, medical professionals, university students, and others have taken to the streets. The government security forces have come out and often responded with tear gas and, according to a few reports, with live ammunition. In a few cases there has been violence by the protestors.

This has not affected me directly in our parish, but it concerns me.

What has spurred this round of major demonstrations is a new law in Congress that affects the education and health systems.

The health system here is, in many ways, a disaster. There are hospitals and health centers without medicine. There are some rural health centers that have no personnel.

The educational system is also problematic.

In addition, these public sectors and others are affected by the political system that often hands out employment based on one’s political affiliation. In the last election, some public health employees were told to publish propaganda for the governing party on their social media pages. Nepotism and cronyism are not uncommon.

I do not know the details of the laws but what many fear is the privatization of health and education. According to one report I have heard, the money for these sectors may be placed in the hands of local officials who, if they cannot run the programs, may contract out to private corporations.

Decentralization sounds good, but in a corrupt system this will lead to even more corruption. Who will get the jobs? Who will get the contracts? Who will oversee the expenditures? Who will determine if the private companies will work for the good of the people or be more concerned with their corporate profits?

People are suspicious, especially in light of the semi-privatization of the electric systems. Many people experienced extremely high bills. Electric outages continue.

But the current unrest is happening in a context – both nationally and internationally.

There are more and more reports that high government officials have been and are involved in the drug-trade. The brother of the current president is in jail in the US, denied bail, on charges of major drug trafficking. There have been investigations of the previous president and his wife, mostly on corruption charges. There are also rumors of major investigations of the current president and his advisers.

There have been major increases in the cost of living for the poor and the tiny middle class. The minimum salary (which means almost nothing to the people in the countryside) doesn’t cover the cost of the basic food basket.

Coffee prices are extremely low and the small coffee farmers are struggling.

Then there is the increased emigration.

This is a complicated issues and my opinions are complex. So I won’t comment much in this blog. But one of the effects of the emigration is the exodus of men, especially young men and fathers of families, from the villages.

In light of the immigration, US president Trump has called for ending of humanitarian aid programs in Honduras. I have heard reports that USAID, that does have a number of projects aiding farmers, is pulling out.

Yet the Honduran government, with the aid of the US and Israel (among other nations), is increasing the militarization of the country, including the militarization of police forces, as well a buying lots of military equipment. There is enough money for weapons and tear gas and bullets, but there is not enough for health.

All this – and more – has brought us to this point, where the people are on the streets.

My hopes are that the government will respond to the demands with care for the needs of the poorest, without violence, and that the forces of opposition will be more engaged in activities that help the people to organize themselves and initiate creative responses to the problems facing the poorest. I also hope that the US will change it immigration policies.

But today the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of the Visitation of Mary to her cousin Elizabeth, as recorded in Luke 1: 39-56.

Mary’s response to her cousin’s greeting is the beautiful and revolutionary hymn, The Magnificat. Rooted in the hymn of Hannah in 1 Samuel 2: 1-10, the hymn presents us with a God who takes on the cause of the oppressed, turning the world upside down.

So today, I will pray this hymn with even more attention – to the world as it is around me in Honduras with the hope and the determination that the Lord – with our participation – will make this country anew, where “the bows of the mighty are broken” and the Lord “raises the needy from the dust,” and where “the hungry are filled with good things.”

 ---

 Image by Ben Wildflower.

Sad, yet hopeful

Monday I served as a deacon at a funeral Mass for a woman from a remote hamlet, Pasquingalón. I had visited there once for a Mass and the family there had sent me home with some grapefruit and plantains. They also had a beautiful garden, looking out on a beautiful valley.

Last week at the celebration of the feast of St. Joseph the Worker in La Colonia San José Obrero I had seen Saúl from there – and he had played and sang at the Mass.

It was his mother who had died.

The Mass was in Dulce Nombre, because the burial would be in the Dulce Nombre cemetery. After they brought the body into the church and placed it before the altar, I saw Saúl and asked him how he was feeling. “Triste, pero con esperanza”, he told me.

I was floored. He grasped the meaning of death and resurrection and put it in these four words.

He is for me a living witness to the words of St. Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:13:

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

In some ways, these words of a campesino help me reflect on my reaction to events in the last few weeks.

This has been a difficult time here in Honduras.

Migration is increasing. Last Sunday at Mass in Plan Grande we prayed for fourteen persons who had left in the past week in the hopes of reaching the US, finding some work to improve the lives of their families. We also prayed for a man and his son who had reached the US.

Then, one night, I saw a note on a friend’s Facebook page, asking help for a relative’s seven-year-old son who had died, crossing the Rio Grande, in hope of getting to his parents. (Story here in Spanish,) They had recently fled to the US to earn some money to pay off a debt they had incurred trying to pay for the medical expenses of another child.

Meanwhile, this past week there were demonstrations, led mostly by organizations of teachers and medical professionals, in the face of a law that would, in their understanding, lead to the privatization of health and educational services.

As someone explained it to me, the money for these services would be provided to the municipalities who would be responsible for providing the services and, if they couldn’t, they could contract it out to private persons or businesses. In addition, this would mean that there would be a reduction of people with steady jobs and an increase of contracted jobs, with no guarantee of stability. As the person told me, this seems a sure way to provoke more emigration.

But what concerns me is that this seems to be a part of the Honduran government’s response to the International Monetary Fund’s policies of cut backs of funding in public services.

Massive marches resulted and streets were blocked – with some violence by some protestors, but there was massive military and police response, including the use of undercover agents, one of whom shot into a crowd of protestors. Various public leaders, including a church leader and, of course, the government, castigated the protestors. Though I am completely against violence, from any side, this seems like a way of blaming those who protest, ignoring their concerns.

The demonstrations were, surprisingly, somewhat effective. At least for a short time, the law will not go into force. But who knows.

But in the midst of this, there is a report that Israel is sending 1000 soldiers to train Honduran military and police. This is in addition to the arms that Honduras is buying from Israel.

I fear that Honduras is become even more militarized than ever. With increasing concentration of power in the executive, this is a dangerous situation.

But in the midst of this, I note that people are continuing to go forward.

I had two workshops for catechists recently. Even though the turnout was discouragingly poor, those in attendance were enthusiastic.

This past weekend I took twelve young people in my pickup to the diocesan youth encounter in Copán Ruinas. It was an all-night vigil that began with a procession from the main plaza. About 80 young people came from our parish.

The procession began in heat but soon encountered a torrential downpour – with hail! Many of us got soaked. And when we got to the place for the major events, we found a muddy field.

The rain stopped and some music groups played before the crowd of several thousand.

Mass began about two hours late. I served as deacon and helped with communion. I was a bit overwhelmed by the number of young people coming forward to receive. There is hope for the church in Honduras.

After Mass, there was a meal for the clergy and the groups that performed. (I feel bad that there was no food provided for the youth.)

I tried to get some sleep in the car – but to no avail. I was, therefore, awake to hear a great song written by one of the priests of the diocese – which resounded with “no” to corruption, to poverty, and even to a church that keeps silence (una iglesia callada).

When I got home I slept a bit – but there was an afternoon Mass for the ninth day after the death of Don Raúl, a good man whose son had been baptized at the Easter Vigil a few years ago and who had gone to the Youth Encounter.

There is more – both of sadness and hope.

I am reminded of the first words of Vatican II’s Pastoral Constitution of the Church in the Modern World, Gaudium et Spes:

The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the [people] of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these too are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts. For theirs is a community composed of [human beings].

More and more I feel blessed to be here. These words of Henri Nouwen speak to me:

"Here we see what compassion means. It is not a bending toward the underprivileged from a privileged position; it is not a reaching out from on high to those who are less fortunate below; it is not a gesture of sympathy or pity for those who fail to make it in the upward pull. On the contrary, compassion means going directly to those people and places where suffering is most acute and building a home there."

And so I try to live in my home – sad at times, but sustained by hope.

They are NOT rioting in Honduras

I have seen several Facebook posts recently, from US citizens here in Honduras, who talk about the riots.

What is a riot? When I think of a riot I think of violence, mayhem, people destroying property and looting, often as an expression of frustration.

Yes, there is some violence by the protestors. There are also cases of looting, but it is not clear that this is being done by protestors.

The protestors are taking to the streets, literally. They often try to block traffic, though they are insistent in letting emergency vehicles through. They often put tree limbs, tires, and other debris in the roads to block the traffic and they sometimes burn the tires.

But there is violence. Trying to remove the protestors some government security forces, mostly the military and the military police, approach the protestors. In a few cases, there have been efforts of dialogue with them by some protestors. But, often the troops move in, in force, often employing tear gas and shooting live ammunition. There have been reports of tear gas canisters being thrown into homes. At times, the protestors respond with rocks or even throw back the tear gas canisters. Much of the mayhem and violence happens when the security forces try to break up the demonstrations or takeovers of the highways.

Anyone who knows me, know that I am a pacifist, but not passive. Violence injures or takes human life and minimizes the chances of people coming together to make the changes needed in an unjust situation. Sadly, there has been hardly any training here in nonviolent resistance, that I know of.

What I see happening, from a distance, is not rioting. The deadly violence of government forces needs to be investigated and condemned. Those protesting need to be heard. Taking to the streets is a sign of desperation, a feeling that nothing else works, a cry in the wilderness.