In central Iowa

I’ve been in the US for two weeks for what I used to call a home visit. It’s been a good experience. But as I left Honduras in the plane I had this feeling of a reluctance to leave – and now have times of real homesickness here in the states.

I spent time with family and friends in the Philadelphia area the first week. I also had the chance to visit the University of Scranton and speak there in three classes and at a public lecture.

The hosts in Scranton asked me to speak about my journey and so I entitled my talk “From Scranton to Iowa to Honduras, via New Orleans.”

For me it was a blessing to be forced to relate the journey that led me to Honduras. I realize that much happened because I listened – usually was forced to listen – to the poor and to people in my lives. Being a “heady” person, that is still at times a big challenge. But I am deeply grateful that so many people have helped me become who I am and be where I am.

At Scranton, I spoke from an outline, but I really think I need to take time to sit down and write the story, at least for myself.

I was also touched by the chance to visit Rosellen, the widow of a college prof, Tom Garrett. He was a great mentor, an inspiration, and, as we both grew older, a friend. We spoke for a mere two hours, a time of blessing.

Monday, October 18, I flew into Iowa and I have been in Ames, connecting with friends, doing a little speaking to small groups and getting a few things I need (or want).

As I walk into stores, looking for something specific I find myself not offended by all the things, nor do I feel myself compelled to buy – even to buy lots of books – as I would have in the past. Honduras has almost vaccinated me against consumerism. What a blessing.

Last night a friend who is a Lutheran minister asked me how I felt seeing so much abundance and opulence. I don’t feel angry or resentful or irate. But I’m still not sure why. Perhaps it’s age, he suggested. Perhaps it’s because I’ve developed a different perspective. I’ve seen some people with large houses and good incomes but who walk about worried and anxious. Their money has not bought them happiness. And so I feel compassion – not pity.

Last Friday night there was a fundraiser at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Ames, that is supporting me and is developing a relation of solidarity with the parish of Dulce Nombre de María in Honduras. It was a trivia night and raised more than $2000 to help the parish build small housing units to be used by people who come in to the parish center for workshops and other events. Right now the facilities in Dulce Nombre are very poor and the people, some of whom walk up to four hours to get there, deserve better. It is good to see the generosity of people for the parish.

I’ll be here another week, spending some time with religious education classes. There are great opportunities to talk with the children and youth, who have been very supportive of the Honduras project.

I’ve also had time to reconnect with friends. As they asked questions and as we talked about my ministry many things have become clearer to me about what I’ve been doing and about what has been happening to me. I also have a better idea of how I hope to make changes in my life and ministry this coming year. I really hope I can spend more time with people in the rural areas of Dulce Nombre parish. My car will help make that more possible.

My visit has been good, but next year I hope I can take a little more time to visit the US and hope to speak in a few more universities in Iowa, visit friends in the Minneapolis area, and continue my connections with the good folks at St. Thomas Aquinas in Ames.

But I am anxious to return home to Honduras – that’s where I am called to be. My trip here is part of my mission. But now my home is Honduras.

U S Visit

I'm in the US for a visit, first to the east coast to visit relatives and to give a talk at the University of Scranton, and then to Ames, Iowa, to visit the parish which supports my presence in Honduras as well as projects with the parish of Dulce Nombre de María.

It's strange to be here. Though I've been here less than a week, it seems so long ago that I left Honduras - and I miss it.

I've had to go out and get some things in stores. What I find interesting is that I don't feel pressed to buy a lot - as I would have several years ago. I know what I'm looking for and that usually satisfies me - a new watch, a few clothes, etc. Has my experience in Honduras vaccinated me against rampant consumerism? (I hope so. It also helps that I have a limited budget.)

But there is so much here in the US.

There are good people who have been very kind to me. In Scranton I encountered some students at the U who connect with the poor in the US and elsewhere.

But it's another world and I really do feel more at home in Honduras.

Water

Today is blog action day with the theme of water.

Just one thought about the situation in Honduras.

In several parts of the country private companies are contemplating setting up major hydro-electric projects with dams that would inundate people’s lands and reap major profits for the private businesses. One major project is in the municipality of San Francisco de Opalaca, Intibucá, which would build two or three dams to generate electricity but result in major displacement.

The situation is rather conflictive for although the mayor and others signed an agreement there is major opposition from the indigenous people in the municipality and from a former mayor.

As I understand it, the project would benefit the multi-millionaire Fredy Nassr, a nephew of another multimillionaire, Adolfo Facussé, a major supporter of the coup.

Water must be used to support the common good – not private interests or profits.

The price of beans - and the church Honduras needs

Beans and corn are staples of the Honduran diet. Many don’t consider that they’ve eaten a real meal unless they have tortillas. And beans are usually eaten at two meals each day.

Note the pile of tortillas and the plate of beans.

The corn tortillas here in western Honduras are thick – not the flimsy almost transparent tortillas they have in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. They’re hefty – and I’ve seen people put away five tortillas or more in a meal.

Combined with beans, the tortillas make for almost all the protein we need. Cheese helps fill in some of the protein unavailable in the corn and bean combination.

But beans may become a luxury. About 60% of this year’s crop is lost – mostly due to the severe rains and flooding. The cost of beans has tripled since July!

The Zelaya government established a strategic reserve after a 2008 shortage, but the coup government of Micheletti sold it off to make money for itself.

A good analysis of this can be found at Honduras Culture and Politics.

What does this mean?

The hunger situation is already very serious in our part of the country. Workers in the Caritas/CRS mothers and infant health program have been telling me for months about the scarcity of food in the countryside. Even some of the women they’ve trained as monitors of the health of mothers and infants are having a hard time getting enough food. The small stipend they received for their time in trainings makes a difference in their families’ diets.

And so, the struggle continues.

But here in the diocese the struggle is not just for enough food. The diocese has taken a stand for real change in Honduras. The clergy and the bishop have agreed to promote a “National Constituent Assembly” to rewrite the constitution, but an assembly that reflects the poor who are the majority here.

The diocese considers it important to have people who are critically conscious of the reality here, their role as Christian citizens, and what can be done. And so the “schools for governability and participation” are being held in 10 sites throughout the diocese. In addition, there are series of workshops on Catholic Social Teaching.

The Church Honduras needs (and has in some places)

This past week I went out to Gaujiniquil, in the municipality of La Virtud, in southern Lempira for one of the Catholic Social Teaching workshops.

It was five hours driving there, mostly on horrendous roads – both paved and unpaved. (There was one 22 kilometer patch of the best road I have seen in Honduras – between San Marcos Ocotepeque and Cololaca, Lempira.)


The vistas from the road were incredible, though I had to concentrate on the road, since in a few places it is on the ridge of a mountain, with deep drop offs on both sides. A few times I stopped to take photos which don’t reflect the awesome beauty.

But the real beauty, as almost always, is the people.

The workshop for four parishes in southern Lempira deanery was largely run by lay people who had been to a training session a few weeks ago. Padre Ildefonzo helped a bit, as did I, but two lay women did an awesome job.

Clementina and Dunia observing a small group working on a topic in the workshop.

This was the second of three sessions and so Clementina began the workshop, asking people to share what they remembered from the first workshop. It was incredibly good, covering almost all the topics we treated in Tomala in August. (I think it was so good because they had shared the material in their parishes.)

One of the exercises was to look at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT in English, FODA in Spanish) of the country, the deanery, and the parishes, as well as in the ministries. At one point they had to prioritize the weaknesses and threats of their original lists.

Some themes that came to the fore were the political and economic situation of the country, the breakdown of the family, and emigration. In addition, when they looked at the three ministries of pastoral work (prophetic, liturgical, and social), each group identified fear as a weakness, in one case the fear of denouncing injustice.

Some of them shared briefly the situation in this area in the 1980s, when delegates of the Word and other pastoral workers feared for their lives – and a few were killed by government or paramilitary troops.

The bravery of these people, their commitment to their faith, and their willingness to be involved in a church that has committed itself to those most in need is inspiring and challenging.

I’m continually reminded of this. On the way back I gave a ride to one of the participants and dropped him off on the way. He had to walk four hours to get to his village!

And what do they want? Justice, enough food for their families, land to work, and more.

And what do they want of the church?

One exercise of the workshop was applying a short article of Father Pablo Richard to their situation, answering the question “What model of church does Honduras need to overcome the present crisis?”

The responses included:

• a deanery that is unified from the lay people to the pastors, working for the same cause: the preferential option for the poor, defending their rights and denouncing the attacks and injustice that are committed against the people.
• a church that is the voice of those who don’t have a voice
• a united parish, in solidarity, seeking the preferential option for the poorest
• strengthening the church base community and the Triple Ministry [prophetic, liturgical, and social] looking at the example of the first Christian communities
• A transforming church that takes up the pain of the people with deeds, and not [only] with words
• base communities that are the seed or the starting point of the solutions and the demands [that come from] the Church’s social teaching.

I could write much more, but I think this is enough to get us thinking about what kind of Church do we need – and that we are called to live. What strikes me is that these people are thinking of a church that does not close itself off from the world, nor of a church that is serving their needs, but of a church that serves the neediest.

May we begin to see more signs of this here in Honduras – and throughout the world.

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One closing thought, Penny Lernoux, a journalist committed to the church of the poor in Latin America, died on October 8, 1989, 21 years ago. Her 1982 book, The Cry of the People: The Struggle for Human Rights in Latin America — the Catholic Church in conflict with U.S. Policy, is a classic for understanding what has happened and is happening here. Her later book, People of God, details the challenges that the liberating pastoral work of the Latin American Church faced. I recommend both books.

This morning I read this quote from her in Robert Ellsberg's Blessed Among All Women: Women Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time.

You can look at a slum or peasant village ... but it is only by entering into that world — by living in it – that you begin to understand what it is like to be powerless, to be like Christ.

The economic reality of Honduras

A lot of people are afraid of class analysis, claiming it promotes class struggle. But even Ruby K. Payne, the editor of A Framework for Understanding Poverty acknowledges the importance of recognizing class, though her proposed solution is to make the US poor middle class, without acknowledging, I think, the dangers of middle class consumerism and individualism nor the intrinsic value of sharing as seen among some of the poor.

For the past few months the staff of Caritas has been meeting every Monday morning, for prayer, a short study of Catholic Social Teaching (which I lead), and a section of Caritas’ school on governability and participation.

A few weeks ago we did an exercise on the different economic levels in Honduras: the super rich, the rich, the upper middle class, the lower middle class, the poor with possibilities, the extremely poor, and the indigent.

Here were some of the reflections shared by the participants. This is not a scientific analysis but it is revealing.

The Super Rich: Millionaires, whose children study in prestigious expensive foreign universities, who drive this year’s cars, who have helicopters, yachts and planes. They live in mansions and have large plantations (haciendas), They own multinational business, franchises, banks, maquilas (piece work factories), dispensas (large stores – wholesale?), concessions for mining, rivers, etc. They would usually have chefs and nannies for their kids. They are usually thought of as being ten families. They are behind the scenes of politics. They are involved in the churches – but of the rich, with private baptisms and weddings, welcomed by some hierarchy.

The Rich: Landowners with haciendas (plantations), owners of transport and construction businesses. They have new cars. Their children study in private universities, They are the privileged clients of banks. They often speak English. They would often have good cooks and a nanny for their kids. They make up about 7% of the population. They are likely to be officials in the political parties and some of them would be congressional representatives.

The Upper Middle Class: Bilingual. Professionals, university trained, new cars bought on credit, owners of medium sized businesses, bureaucrats in administrative roles, are coffee or cattle farmers. They live in nice residential houses. The housekeeper/cook might also scare fro the kids at home.They are clients with loans from banks. Their salary is above 40000 lempiras (about $2100) per month. They are about 20% of the population. [I think this is a little high, but this might include both the upper and lower middle class.] In terms of partisan politics, they may hold positions and elected offices in departments and municipalities. Parts of this class would be sympathetic to the resistance.

Lower Middle Class: Used car, five years or less or an motorcycle. Nice houses but with mortgages. Small business owners, professionals in education. Small accounts in banks, clients of cooperatives. They have credit cards. Their children study in public universities and in public high schools. In political terms they might hold some public offices, as mayors, etc.

The Poor with Possibilities: a very modest home, and maybe an old car, animals. They are workers. Their children study in public schools or the distance education radio schools. They would deal with Cajas Rurales (rural borrowing and lending institutions), with private lenders (some of whom might be loan sharks). In political terms they would be party activists. They have some chickens and other animals. They would make between 5,000 and 8,000 lempiras ($260 - $425) per month. In this diocese they would be the mainstay of the base communities. Some of these would respond to the themes of the Resistance.

The extremely poor: Very poor houses - shacks, day laborers, live on credit. They leave school early. They work on borrowed land. They have cats and dogs. They eat “salteado” – tortilla with salt, and not much else. They are 40% of the population. They are often spoken of by international organizations as the “irrescatables” – the irredeemable. Not involved in church or politics.

The Indigent: Live in the street, wander around (sometimes selling trinkets), beg, collect food from wherever (trashcans, dumps), wear rags, steal. They, too, are often spoken of by international organizations as the irredeemable.

This is an interesting analysis of the situation. What I do find interesting is that the Caritas school for governability and participation is planning several pilot projects to involve base communities and some municipal governments in processes to help several extremely poor families.

As I understand it, the base communities of the local parish will seek out and suggest several really poor families and will “sponsor” them. The base communities will seek to find land that these families can work without paying rent. They will try to get the municipal government to provide loans to the families for seeds, fertilizers, and other supplies needed for growing basic grains (corn and beans). The municipality will subsidize the loan with public moneys and the families will pay back 60%. (In one municipality the mayor is proposing to subsidize it so that the loan is only for 50% of the cost.) The base communities will accompany the families and help them work through this process and hold them accountable.

It appears that this will be a reality in at least one municipality next year. Another seems interested but seems to try to put a partisan politics spin on the project. Another has expressed interest but has not yet come forward to have meetings to work on this.

This is a very interesting model since it seeks to respond to the extremely poor who are often neglected by nongovernmental organizations.

We’ll see where this goes.

In the mean time I'm sharing photos of this past week's session - where we provided drawings of our hopes for real communities where justice flourishes, human rights are respected, and nature is cared for. Here are the results from two of the groups.