So what have I been doing?
Just to let you know that I'm not slouching too much, I decided to give an account of an extraordinarily busy week.
Last Friday and Saturday I took part in the evaluation and planning meeting of the parish of Dulce Nombre. More on that later.
Sunday I was in Dulce Nombre again, this time to celebrate the first anniversary of the ordination of Padre Julio César Galdámez, the associate pastor. I really appreciate Padre Julio for his real love of God and the people. He also has a special gift of working with youth.
Monday I spent the morning with the program staff at Caritas in their weekly meeting, though at this time of the year a lot of the work is preparing year-end reports.
About 11:45 am Padre Efraín asked me to go to Tegucigalpa for a meeting with Misereor, a German Catholic church funding organization. A funding request for working on mining issues had been turned down and Padre Efraín thought that a meeting connected with it had been canceled. Wrong! So I went home, took wash off the line, packed a change of clothes, and got a quick lunch before returning to the office to leave for Tegucigalpa at 2 pm. Luckily I didn’t have to drive and the driver, a young guy whose father is also a driver for Caritas, was great to talk with and respected my need to read over the grant request and also get a little nap.
We arrived about 8:30 pm after trying to find our way to the hotel where I was meeting. I arrived and found not only two people from Misereor but two people from the Tegucigalpa Caritas office. Hum? The one hour meeting was tense but important and I am glad I went.
Tuesday we returned to Santa Rosa – another six and a half hours in the car. I went right away to a meeting on Citizenship Participation with members of the national Caritas office and teams from our diocese and the dioceses of Trujillo and Comayagua. I spent two hours there and then went home and crashed! But they didn’t end their work till about 9:30 pm.
Wednesday morning I went back to the meeting for a bit.
Then I went to the Comedor de Niños – the lunch program for kids in the diocesan building, partly to tell them about a party for 40 of them this Saturday at the Catholic University. There were probably 50 kids there that day.
In the afternoon there was a meeting with the national director of Progressio, an English Catholic group, that sends professionals to work with projects.
I spent a little time later Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning with the Caritas Political Participation groups. It’s interesting to observe the conflicts that the current situation have created even in groups that work with the poorest in terms of promoting their participation.
The archdiocese of Tegucigalpa and as far as I can tell all of the Caritas groups except ours promoted the elections, with different degrees of enthusiasm. But I sense there are even deeper areas of potential conflict because many of those working in the area of political particiaption find that many people conscientized by this process are sympathetic to the Resistance. And so…
Yesterday afternoon and today I have been at the Caritas office, trying to catch up on things. I did, however, go back today to the Comedor de Niños and there were about 48 kids. While there I entered the list of kids who had signed in the last few weeks and it was exactly 100. They don’t all come every day but in the past two months there have been between 40 and 60 most every day. Some of this increased demand may be due to the fact that there is no school. But I also think that there may be more hunger and so the kids are willing to walk 30 minutes or more for a decent lunch.
Tomorrow I’ll be taking about 40 kids to a project at the Catholic University. I told them we could only take the first 40 and so we may have some disappointed kids. But I bought a bag of candy to share with those who don’t get a chance to go.
Next week will also be busy. Monday and Tuesday the country director of Catholic Relief Service will be here. I hope we can persuade him to look at some programs for our area.
Thursday and Friday we’ll have an evaluation and planning meeting here at Caritas but after that the office is closed for a few weeks for the Christmas holidays.
Speaking of Advent and Christmas, I hear that Iowa got over a foot of snow. Ah. It doesn’t feel like Advent here since it’s uncommonly warm and dry. But we’re all waiting for the coming of the Sun of Justice, Jesus, whom we all need.
Come, Lord Jesus, and break the chains of injustice and poverty.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Jesús in Latin America
December 10, 1968, Thomas Merton, Trappist monk, spiritual writer, companion of peacemakers and justice seekers, died. His work has been an inspiration for me since I read his autobiography Seven Storey Mountain during high school.
I think the following quote is quite appropriate today, especially in light of US policy toward Honduras.
I think the following quote is quite appropriate today, especially in light of US policy toward Honduras.
If only North Americans had realized . . . that Latin Americans really existed. That they were really people. That they spoke a different language. That they had a culture. That they had more than something to sell! Money has totally corrupted the brotherhood that should have united all the peoples of America. It has destroyed the sense of relationship, the spiritual community that had already begun to flourish in the years of Bolivar. But no! Most North Americans still don’t know, and don’t care, that Brazil speaks a language other than Spanish, that all Latin Americans do not live for the siesta, that all do not spend their days and nights playing the guitar and making love. They have never awakened to the fact that Latin America is by and large culturally superior to the United States, not only on the level of the wealthy minority which has absorbed more of the sophistication of Europe, but also among the desperately poor indigenous cultures, some of which are rooted in a past that has never yet been surpassed on this continent.
So the tourist drinks tequila, and thinks it is no good, and waits for the fiesta he has been told to wait for. How should he realize that the Indian who walks down the street with half a house on his head and a hole in his pants, is Christ? All the tourist thinks is that it is odd for so many Indians to be called Jesús.Thomas Merton,
“A Letter to Pablo Antonio Cuadra Concerning Giants”
in Emblems of a Season of Fury
I include this quote in materials I give to folks visiting here, though most of my visitors aren't the tequila-drinking tourists. The message that the US is not superior to Latin America, though, can be quite disturbing. And meeting Jesús can evoke conversion.
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By the way, in some Latin American countries Jesús is used as a name for both men and women. In El Salvador, Jesús is sometimes shortened to Chus for men and Chusa for women.
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By the way, in some Latin American countries Jesús is used as a name for both men and women. In El Salvador, Jesús is sometimes shortened to Chus for men and Chusa for women.
Saturday, December 05, 2009
WIth the people
Friday and Saturday morning I took part in the year end evaluation and planning of the parish of Dulce Nombre de María. This year the pastor, Padre Efraín Romero, was not there to lead it and so the associate pastor, Padre Julio César Galdámez, led it. And I had the role of writing the evaluations and then the planning on my computer as it was projected on the wall! A challenge but I think it went very well. (Luckily Word has spell check in Spanish and that Word only crashed once!)
It is always good to be with these people – most of whom have limited formal education but many of whom are quite sharp and articulate. Only two or three of us in the room had more than a high school education – the priest, a sister, and me. There were a few retired teachers (I argued very pleasantly with two of them, about the “coup”) but I would guess that the rest had no more than six years of schooling.
But what really struck me were two conversations I had after the meeting.
Standing around in the park before lunch, one man asked if there was anything I could do to help him. He is a devoted pastoral worker in his community. He talked about the poverty of many people in his area who work for the church. He mentioned how many people in his area get handouts from the Missionaries of Charity and then also go to get handouts from evangelical groups. he felt that pastoral workers (all volunteers) really weren’t getting anything.
He was concerned most of all about housing. He mentioned how his fourteen year son had talked to him about improving their house. They made adobe bricks and used what tin they could find for roofing. But he felt he needed more.
These are great needs – but what I told him is that he should try working through the church, talking with the pastor. I don’t want to get into the position of finding funds for individuals and undercutting the structures. What I think might be worth discussing is establishing a revolving fund or a micro-finance project for pastoral workers in the parish which would help them with small loans.
As I walked away I had a conversation with another pastoral worker, Ovidio. I visited his community last year and he asked me when I was coming back. He’s very astute and has an inquisitive mind. I think he gets this from his father, Salatiel. The first I met this man who is about 80, he asked me where I was from. When I told him I grew up in Pennsylvania, he asked me if the capital of Pennsylvania was Harrisburg .
Ovidio also places value on education. His daughter is studying in the Catholic girls school in Santa Rosa on a scholarship and his son is going (on bicycle) each day to the Honduran equivalent of junior high, in a town near his home.
He is also blessed with having land to use since his father has a nice plot (which I think he got after the land invasions and land reform of the 1960s and1970s.)
Ovidio proudly told me that this year he has gotten double the yield on his corn field than last year. Why? He claims it’s because he is not using chemical fertilizers and between he is using frijol de abono, the velvet bean, to fix the nitrogen in the soil. He has learned some of this through the agricultural education programs the parish has offered.
These are some of my encounters with Hondurans that, though different, shape my view of mission – being with the people, accompanying them as they seek to live in the light of the Kingdom of God, sharing their joys and their sorrows. (Cf. 2 Corinthians 1, 3-7)
It is always good to be with these people – most of whom have limited formal education but many of whom are quite sharp and articulate. Only two or three of us in the room had more than a high school education – the priest, a sister, and me. There were a few retired teachers (I argued very pleasantly with two of them, about the “coup”) but I would guess that the rest had no more than six years of schooling.
But what really struck me were two conversations I had after the meeting.
Standing around in the park before lunch, one man asked if there was anything I could do to help him. He is a devoted pastoral worker in his community. He talked about the poverty of many people in his area who work for the church. He mentioned how many people in his area get handouts from the Missionaries of Charity and then also go to get handouts from evangelical groups. he felt that pastoral workers (all volunteers) really weren’t getting anything.
He was concerned most of all about housing. He mentioned how his fourteen year son had talked to him about improving their house. They made adobe bricks and used what tin they could find for roofing. But he felt he needed more.
These are great needs – but what I told him is that he should try working through the church, talking with the pastor. I don’t want to get into the position of finding funds for individuals and undercutting the structures. What I think might be worth discussing is establishing a revolving fund or a micro-finance project for pastoral workers in the parish which would help them with small loans.
As I walked away I had a conversation with another pastoral worker, Ovidio. I visited his community last year and he asked me when I was coming back. He’s very astute and has an inquisitive mind. I think he gets this from his father, Salatiel. The first I met this man who is about 80, he asked me where I was from. When I told him I grew up in Pennsylvania, he asked me if the capital of Pennsylvania was Harrisburg .
Ovidio also places value on education. His daughter is studying in the Catholic girls school in Santa Rosa on a scholarship and his son is going (on bicycle) each day to the Honduran equivalent of junior high, in a town near his home.
He is also blessed with having land to use since his father has a nice plot (which I think he got after the land invasions and land reform of the 1960s and1970s.)
Ovidio proudly told me that this year he has gotten double the yield on his corn field than last year. Why? He claims it’s because he is not using chemical fertilizers and between he is using frijol de abono, the velvet bean, to fix the nitrogen in the soil. He has learned some of this through the agricultural education programs the parish has offered.
These are some of my encounters with Hondurans that, though different, shape my view of mission – being with the people, accompanying them as they seek to live in the light of the Kingdom of God, sharing their joys and their sorrows. (Cf. 2 Corinthians 1, 3-7)
Thursday, December 03, 2009
The letter, maybe – but the spirit?
Yesterday the Honduran Congress reiterated its support of the June 28 coup, 111 -14.
This seems to fulfill the letter of the San José/Tegucigalpa Accord that demanded a congressional vote on the restitution of president Zelaya. But I have my doubts.
First of all, I wonder why it took so long, especially since the vote was so one-sided. The hope was that soon after the accord was agreed upon in late October that the Congress would vote. But delay followed upon delay and the vote came after the disputed elections. I have my theories but I won’t speculate here.
Secondly, Pepe Lobo who won last Sunday’s election talked about national reconciliation, but it was his party, the Nationalist Party, that proposed the resolution that was voted on. I hope Lobo has the courage to do something dramatic.
What concerns me most is that none of this really seems to deal with the real problems of Honduras.
First of all, I fear that the election and the Congressional vote will increase the polarization in the country - not only between supporters and opponents of the coup, but between the economic and political elites and the poor.
Secondly, I have my doubts whether the new Congress and Pepe Lobo will take drastic steps to deal with the dramatic inequality in Honduras, but will continue with neoliberal policies that have widened the gap between rich and poor.
Thirdly, I have my concern that hopes of the poor for more participation in determining the direction of their country have been frustrated.
Also, this leaves in place the bi-party system which distributes favors among their activists and uses programs and money to garner votes and support.
And, what does this mean for Latin America which has been moving toward strengthening democracy? Honduras was a “fragile” democracy and is even more fragile, especially in light of the failure of the US to be consistent in its opposition to coups. Will this give the green light to disenchanted economic and political elites in other Latin American countries to join with the military and overthrow leaders they don’t like?
Yet, there may be signs of hope – but not from the powers that be. (I originally wrote “not from above” but changed it, since hope really comes from “Above,” from God who identifies with the poor and oppressed.)
During these months since the coup, a movement has grown in resistance. It is distinct from the followers of Zelaya (and should be). People have raised questions and have been willing to take risks by advocating against the coup. Some have been beaten and about 21 or so killed. They have endured this without taking up arms. (Thank God.) There have been some violent outbursts in a few occasions, but the Resistance has adhered to nonviolence for the most part.
The struggle for justice and for real participation in Honduras will be long.
But this passage from today’s Catholic lectionary reading from Isaiah 26: 4-6 is a telling warning:
This seems to fulfill the letter of the San José/Tegucigalpa Accord that demanded a congressional vote on the restitution of president Zelaya. But I have my doubts.
First of all, I wonder why it took so long, especially since the vote was so one-sided. The hope was that soon after the accord was agreed upon in late October that the Congress would vote. But delay followed upon delay and the vote came after the disputed elections. I have my theories but I won’t speculate here.
Secondly, Pepe Lobo who won last Sunday’s election talked about national reconciliation, but it was his party, the Nationalist Party, that proposed the resolution that was voted on. I hope Lobo has the courage to do something dramatic.
What concerns me most is that none of this really seems to deal with the real problems of Honduras.
First of all, I fear that the election and the Congressional vote will increase the polarization in the country - not only between supporters and opponents of the coup, but between the economic and political elites and the poor.
Secondly, I have my doubts whether the new Congress and Pepe Lobo will take drastic steps to deal with the dramatic inequality in Honduras, but will continue with neoliberal policies that have widened the gap between rich and poor.
Thirdly, I have my concern that hopes of the poor for more participation in determining the direction of their country have been frustrated.
Also, this leaves in place the bi-party system which distributes favors among their activists and uses programs and money to garner votes and support.
And, what does this mean for Latin America which has been moving toward strengthening democracy? Honduras was a “fragile” democracy and is even more fragile, especially in light of the failure of the US to be consistent in its opposition to coups. Will this give the green light to disenchanted economic and political elites in other Latin American countries to join with the military and overthrow leaders they don’t like?
Yet, there may be signs of hope – but not from the powers that be. (I originally wrote “not from above” but changed it, since hope really comes from “Above,” from God who identifies with the poor and oppressed.)
During these months since the coup, a movement has grown in resistance. It is distinct from the followers of Zelaya (and should be). People have raised questions and have been willing to take risks by advocating against the coup. Some have been beaten and about 21 or so killed. They have endured this without taking up arms. (Thank God.) There have been some violent outbursts in a few occasions, but the Resistance has adhered to nonviolence for the most part.
The struggle for justice and for real participation in Honduras will be long.
But this passage from today’s Catholic lectionary reading from Isaiah 26: 4-6 is a telling warning:
the Lord is an eternal Rock.
He humbles those in high places
and the lofty city he brings down.
He brings it down, down to the ground,
flings it down in the dust.
It is trampled underfoot
by the feet of the needy,
by the footsteps of the poor.slightly corrected, 2:00 pm, December 3, 2009
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Find what gives life meaning
On December 2, 1980, four US missionaries to El Salvador were martyred by Salvadoran government forces: Maryknoll Sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and lay missionary Jean Donovan.
There's a beautiful letter that Sister Ita Ford wrote to her sixteen year old niece in Brooklyn:
There's a beautiful letter that Sister Ita Ford wrote to her sixteen year old niece in Brooklyn:
This is a terrible time in El Salvador for youth. A lot of idealism and commitment are getting snuffed out here now. The reasons why so many people are being killed are quite complicated, yet there are some clear, simple strands.One is that people have found a meaning to live, to sacrifice, struggle, and even die. And whether their life spans sixteen, sixty or ninety, for them their life has a purpose. In many ways they are fortunate people.A message for all of us - especially for those struggling for justice in and for Honduras.
Brooklyn is not passing through the drama of El Salvador, but some things hold true wherever one is, and at whatever age. What I'm saying is that I hope you can come to find that which gives life a deep meaning for you, something that energizes you, enthuses you, enables you to keep moving ahead.
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