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Week of June 27, 2005

Christian sect plunder our flock

U.S. fundamentalists have spirited away 40 per cent of Guatemala's Catholics

A Missionary's Musings

By FR. JACQUES JOHNSON

The last few days were particularly busy as 32-year-old Father Sergio and I drove off for a full three days of mission work.

We set out early as we had a long road ahead: some 50 kms! When the major part of the highway (can one really call it that?) is mostly potholes and bumps, one has to at times slow to a crawl. Some of these isolated communities are small and the assemblies numbered from 60 to 125.

Prayerful but poor

To reach San Pablo, we parked our truck at Cumbre del Amay and then walked on a mountain trail for an hour and a half. The trail is narrow and constantly going up or down. This climbing and descending eventually brought us to a small, very isolated community. People were kind and prayerful. They were also very poor.

Until the last 20 years, that area had been wild jungle for hundreds and possibly thousands of years. Even now we could hear the monkeys roaring fiercely in the distance. Our guide told us that the rarely seen Quetzal, the national bird whose name was chosen for Guatemala's monetary currency, could be observed in the area.

Here and there, one sees the half-burned trunks of giant trees with diameters of three to five feet that covered the hills and valleys. Houses were scattered here and there within the community. There were plots of corn and beans, but the plants were widely distributed 10 or more feet apart as if they had been planted that way. They probably yielded five or 10 per cent of the yield of fields we saw elsewhere.

Sergio explained that landless and poor people some two decades ago were allowed to settle in forest areas. The problem is that in these jungles there is little soil. People discovered, as they knocked down a section of the forest and planted corn and beans, that the yield was excellent the first year. The second year, it was substantially less.

After three years, they virtually gave up on that piece of land and started to slash and burn again, with the cycle repeating itself. So one could see a plant of corn here and there across the hill, a potential crop that could only lead its owner to certain starvation.

The Eucharist where I presided and Sergio preached was a prayerful experience. Three men played guitars and a two-string bass and led the singing for a small but reverent crowd. After Mass and a meal, two young men escorted us, carrying our packs back to Cumbre del Amay, the highest point of the area where we also celebrated the Eucharist with the local community.

Defiant youth

This Mass proceeded as usual with three or four young men leading the singing, playing various instruments. Young Mexican Father Sergio presided. Everything unfolded normally until the end of the Eucharist when the leader of the singers confronted us over the statue of Mary in the corner. They objected that she had no place there, as the centre of the Mass should be Christ and not Mary.

The young man told us that he and his three friends would quit their participation at the Mass if the statue of Mary was going to be in the church.

Sergio tried his best to explain the role of Mary, that we did not see her as a god, but as the humble servant of the Lord whom God had selected to be the mother of his incarnated Son Jesus.

I joined the discussion also, reminding them of one of Jesus' last words on the cross as he said to John: "This is your mother." And to Mary: "This is your son." And since then in the tradition of the Church, Mary is referred to as our mother, and we as her sons and daughters.

Jesus' mother

I also questioned how one can see himself as Jesus' friend while at the same time attacking and rejecting Jesus' mother. That seemed to soften up the leader somewhat, but the other two were adamant and even rude.

Later, Sergio reflected that the rudeness of one young man indicated that he was no longer a Catholic, if he ever was.

We agreed to move the furniture around a bit, so to speak, by relocating the tabernacle to a more prominent place. Mary's statue is not likely to be moved much as she's always had a prominent place in the hearts of Catholics, as indeed she should.

I doubt that this compromise will be accepted by all of them. Behind this situation is the targeted invasion of Guatemala by American Christian sects who see the Catholic Church as "the whore of Babylon" - an expression from the Book of Revelation meant as a condemnation of the Roman Empire when it was persecuting the Christians.

Sadly, the sects have been successful, as about 40 per cent of Catholics in Guatemala have joined them in the last 20 years.

Ecumenism and the respect of each other's beliefs in the Christian family still has a long way to go in this country.

Over the years, a series of corrupt presidents have attacked the Church and tried to silence its voice by bringing into the country so-called Christian people whose main object is to destroy the Church.

Alas, they've had some success.

Letter to the Editor - 07/18/05

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