Good advice for missionaries and aid workers

Go with the people.
Live with them.
Learn from them.
Love them.
Start with what they know.
Build with what they have.
But of the best leaders
When the job is done,
the task accomplished,
The people will all say,
‘We have done this ourselves.’

Lao Tsu

I found this in Catholic Relief Services’ Water and Conflict: Incorporating Peacebuilding into Water Development which can be downloaded here.

A bizarre story

According to Honduran newspaper El Heraldo, President Lobo, it seems, has criticized Bishop Andino, auxiliary bishop of Tegucigalpa, for calling for the official government Truth Commission to be impartial.

Of course, I am a little skeptical of most newspapers here in Honduras because they are often used to promote political positions, mostly supportive of the political and economic elite of the country. In addition, they often get the facts wrong, misquoting or quoting out of context. And so they may have misquoted Lobo.

But what did the bishop say? According to another article in El Heraldo, Bishop Andino noted that, "The people are very divided; we have to work for reconciliation, but not just for any type of reconciliation, but a reconciliation based in justice and truth, not in lies….Let us no longer continue lying; there are many lies among us and lying is a sin and our neighbor has the right to know the truth.”

There’s much I find bizarre in this story –

First of all Bishop Darwin Andino is not a dissident. His statements after the June 28, 2009 coup put him, in my estimation, firmly behind the coup leaders. He was among those who saw the hand of Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez behind Zelaya, saying “Even a blind man can see that Zelaya is following Chávez’s line.” He spoke openly against Zelaya and Chávez both before and after the coup. He also was somewhat dismissive of the reports of deaths after the coup.

Secondly, I would think that a Truth Commission should be impartial, though that is probably not going to be the case. The Truth Commission (Comisión de la Verdad) was named by the Lobo government ostensibly to investigate the events surrounding the coup. But the Commission won’t release all its findings, holding some for ten years. Many here also think it will only serve as a whitewash of the situation, without serious investigation of human rights abuses since the coup, in order to placate the US and some other nations so that Honduras gets recognized.

In the face of this, the national Platform on Human Rights, representing several Honduran human rights organizations, set up a Comisión de Verdad, a True Commission. There are international human rights experts on this commission, including a Canadian lawyer, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate (the Argentinian Adolfo Pérez Esquivel), a Belgian Catholic priest (François Houtart), as well as several Hondurans, including the beloved radical priest from Santa Rosa, Padre Fausto Milla. (See my comments on Padre Fausto here and here.) The chair is Sister Elsie Mongie, an Ecuadoran Maryknoll sister, with much experience with the poor.

This True Commission is definitely sympathetic to the Resistance, but at least it has decided to listen to the complaints of those who have suffered under the coup.

As the bishop said, there is a need for truth and justice for real reconciliation. That will mean bringing to justice those who have wronged the people of Honduras, especially during the coup. In my mind, it will also mean that people examine how they may have caused or supported the coup by their intemperate accusations before and after June 28, 2009, as well as how they have failed to respond to the human rights abuses that occurred during the de facto presidency of Micheletti as well as under the current Lobo administration.

Impartiality is needed, but an impartiality that is willing to look at the reality, not to justify the perpetrators of injustice but to vindicate the suffering of the victims.

Who said 'Fear'?

¿Quién Dijo Miedo? -“Who said fear?” - is the title of a Spanish language documentary on the coup in Honduras, made by two Hondurans in exile in Argentina.

Last night, Saturday, the local Resistance group showed the nearly two hour film to a crowd of about two hundred.

Like many political documentaries it takes a position, in this case, against the coup and in favor of the Resistance. I found it interesting and helpful. If your Spanish is decent (or someone has subtitled the film), go see it.

Here in Santa Rosa we’ve been shielded from much of the violence by government authorities that has beset Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula. Though there are several clips from a demonstration in Santa Rosa, most of the film’s action takes place in Tegucigalpa or on the border with Nicaragua.

What struck me was the blatant use of violence by the army and the military. You can see people being beaten on the legs and people pushed away by the military. There are cases of people in the Resistance marches throwing stones at the government troops or throwing back gas canisters. But the use of violence by the authorities is striking.

The documentary is for the most part from the perspective of persons and groups in Tegucigalpa.President Mel Zelaya is, of course, a predominant presence – from a speech he gave a year before the coup to his departure from the Brazilian embassy in January of this year. But I was slightly surprised that when he appeared at the beginning of the video the audience erupted in enthusiastic applause and cheering. He is still for many people important and a symbol of the hopes for a more just Honduras.

René Amador of los Necios appears often in the documentary as well as two commentators whose names I cannot remember but whom I found very insightful. Amador’s presence, adventures, and thoughts provide a sort of a thread throughout.

There are short interviews with Berta Caceres, a leader of the indigenous, and Padre Fausto Milla from Santa Rosa speaks several times. But the voice of the rural poor is largely unheard, though I am sure most of the Resistance is deeply concerned about them. I wish people paid more overt attention to the situation of the rural poor and their hopes, dreams, successes, and challenges.

The crowd in Santa Rosa was mostly urban with a few campesinos. But I was surprised by the presence of two kids I know from the diocesan lunch program for kids. I’m not sure why they were there, though I think they might be looking for a free movie and maybe even free food! But when they saw me they ran up, shouting “Juancito,” and one of them hugged me. As I left he again gave me a hug. I should have asked him what he thought since he had stayed to watch the entire video. I’ll ask him the next time I see him.

Kids framed my day yesterday. In the morning I went out to El Zapote de Santa Rosa for a workshop for altar servers in training. I had to do the parts of the Mass with them. Luckily on Friday I thought of an active way to start and end the session – a type of jigsaw puzzle to see how much they knew about the parts of the Mass and if they could put them in order. It worked and I think they learned something (and I didn’t bore them that much.)

I had meant to take pictures of the process but forget, but here are some photos of the kids in El Zapote eating lunch after the workshop.

Fourth of July

“It seems to me that there are very dangerous ambiguities about our democracy in its actual present condition. I wonder to what extent our ideals are now a front for organized selfishness and systematic irresponsibility. If our affluent society ever breaks down and the facade is taken away, what are we going to have left?”

Thomas Merton

A bishop for others

Today, July 1, 2010, Bishop Francisco Claver, S.J., retired Filipino bishop died at the age of 81.

He was a very different bishop, who loved the poor, got involved in the nonviolent movement in the Philippines, and was probably responsible for the strong statement of the Filipino bishops against the dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Here are a few quotes from his book The Making of a Local Church, published by Orbis Books, in 2008, that I read last year.

It is the task of the Gospel to bring about personal conversion and spiritual growth in individual Christians. But those Christians in turn must work for the transformation and sanctification of the society in which they live. (p. 167)

Base Ecclesial Communities
are worshiping communities of faith-discernment and -action
at the lowest levels of the church
that try, in a participatory way
and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
to put life and faith together into an integrated whole. (p. 91)

Broad change in people as societies will not take place effectively unless the people themselves participate freely and conscientiously in the processes from beginning to end, setting ends, deciding on means, planning actions, assigning task, doing those tasks, evaluating them when done, trying new approaches, and so forth. (p. 5)

Would that we had more bishops like him.

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The photo is from UCA News with an interesting article.