ON CHOOSING PARTICIPATORY DEMOCRACY FOR PORT HURON

Political power often occurs as a reverse pyramid scheme--{this one apparently six-sided}--most benefits concentrated at the top 

The Times Herald 8-18-11 editorial laments a lack of candidates participating in our city council and mayoral elections. Only 12 have filed to vie for the 6 new council positions, and 3 for the mayor’s spot. Whatever the new city charter has done with its mix of 3 at large and 3 voting district positions, it has not increased participation in the process.

  full size availabel at http://bit.ly/p50SJC

This should be no surprise. There have been 10 wards / precincts in the past, which have never, in the past generation, been each represented by its own council member. North of the Black River personages most often have been in the majority of council positions, with roughly 5 precints equal north and south. Detroit, with all its recent corruption, has finally converted to electing its council from each and every ward. Our wards may need to be recomputed from recent census data, but why can’t we have 10 or more seats at our city council table? And each ward, as an equal self-contained playing field, will invite more political involvement.

Good old boys club--don't know what they're missing, in possible solidarity with the common citizen

If we truly want more participation in our democracy, we must choose systems which promote participatory democracy. Elections should be about ideas and service, not about celebrity and name recognition. Immediate neighbors who know their territory, not just the city’s “in-the-know,” should be campaigning for city council.

Politics, locally and nationally, has become dysfunctional because those in power are all about consolidation of power. And when that power breaks under its own weight of protected interests, then emergency managers are imposed to further the choke-hold on democracy. We need to move in the opposite direction, making use of the creative energies that derive from all citizens, rich and poor and middle class.

In our fair city, which is undeniably facing diminished resources, much of this due to conditions imposed from the federal level, much the fault of our own miscalculations, it is the old system, not any more buildings, that needs demolition. Open up to full ward based elections. Give democracy a chance.

Blessed are the men and women - the deep spread roots of democracy

There follows a dialogue on this local issue, between Mike Connell, respected columnist of the Port Huron Times Herald, and myself.  He helped me be more precise on my final draft of article for the paper, on the north & south precinct divisions.

Mike M.,

The Black River essentially divides the city in half in both area and population.

Of the 10 precincts, 5 are south of the river, 4 are north and one is divided by the river but is mostly in the north: http://bit.ly/p50SJC
In terms of votes cast, the north end dominates. Not sure why anyone thinks north-enders should be penalized because they actually bother to vote.
In essence, that is the argument you appear to be making. Southenders have the votes, but they do not choose to exercise them. That does not suggest anything sinister to me. I simply do not believe that someone who accepts his or her civic duty can be held responsible for the apathy of someone who is too lazy or disinterested or self-absorbed or whatever to vote.
To use another example, congressional representatives from Detroit inevitably are elected by far fewer voters than those elected from elsewhere in the state. In essence, an individual Detroiter's vote carries considerably more weight or value than yours or mine. Now that may be a problem, but if it is, I don't think it is caused because too many out-staters choose to vote.

Participatory democracy includes the right not to participate. That does not make it less democratic. Trying to compensate for apathy by fiddling with the "one-dude, one-vote" philosophy is sailing democracy onto dangerous shoals, or so it seems to me.

Mike C.

Mike,C

Thanks for the clarification on precinct divisions north & south [see correction below]. I'm not trying to increase those divisions, and don't disparage the north's history of participation, but do think that moving towards ward based voting districts will improve the south's vote counts. Apathy is reinforced by systems that protect privilege [in this case "at-largeness"]. My experience has been that giving people a better chance results in their investing in the opportunity. Lets watch the Detroit vote numbers over the next couple years [compensating for its de-population], and see what the ward system does for them.

A ward system here would only be a small step in the midst of our problems, but I'm not afraid of one dude one vote democracy. It takes time to fight apathy with opportunity, but I welcome the struggle. Thanks for your having taken the time to respond in detail.

Mike M

On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 11:20 AM, Michael McCarthy <mccpax@comcast.net> wrote:

Mike C

 Again thanks for helping always, and your critical response. I'm putting my oped on my webpage, and would like to include our dialogue below, as it well illustrates our divergent opinions on the issue. What say you? Of course you may submit a rejoinder to my 8-24 note if you like. And thanks for all you do to make our community a better place.

Mike M

Yes, Mike, it would be fine. Hope it gives people something to think about. Every issue worth debating has at least as many sides as a casket.

OPEN LETTER TO AMERICA'S CEO'S--RESTITUTION IS THE BUDGET SOLUTION

The Sermon on the Mount

Dear President Barack Obama, our Commander in Chief Executive Officer,

                Please put an end to pseudo-conservatives fiscal crisis machinations right now.  Take charge with an executive order to raise the debt ceiling to the required limits for the next two years, and end the off-budget wars in Iraq and Afghanistan {and Libya} immediately.  President Reagan, though remembered as conservative, raised the debt ceiling 17 times while fighting Iran-Contra wars in Central America, and Star Wars with the Russians.

Promise our citizens that the real contract with America on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, will not be broken while you are president, under assurance of your veto power.  Charge Congress to balance the disposable budget without raiding social insurance programs {they’ve already been doing this for years--{see link http://www.ctj.org/pdf/def0706.pdf }. 

ut the Department of Defense, all wasteful military & homeland security programs, and equitable taxation of the wealthy, at the center of the budget balence table.  Thank you for taking on the difficult duty of President.  "Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people." -- Martin Luther King

This is a matter of national security.  Certain powerful elements in our country are trying to feed us all a steady diet of national insecurity.  We need to be led out of this self-absorbed abyss.  The diffident defeatists / war profiteers are deadening any chance for democratic discussion.   Time for the richest most creative country in the world to demand full egalitarian positive participation and investment in society—starting with the most privileged, and including the most disadvantaged. 

The captains of industry & Wall Street have to stop pretending they are the captains of America.  Our political institutions are not meant to sail under their command.  Whatever privilege they have includes the duty to serve the common good of the country, and all its citizens.  Their success has been built on the backs of every other American.   The crashes of our stock markets, devaluation of dollar & home values are not true losses, but redistributions into the deep pockets of the cleverest, often most ruthless, corporate financial wizards.  The restitution of excess profits gained in unnecessary wars protecting the international oil companies, is the only way to rebalance America and its budget, and benefit all of us, even the wealthiest---if the Gospel is to be believed. 

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, there's is the kingdom of heaven."   -- Mt 5:3

"That extra coat you keep in your closet belongs to the poor."   -- St. Vincent de Paul

From today's Gospel at daily mass--

"Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you frauds! ...

You declare, 'If a man swears by the temple it means nothing, but if he swears by the gold of the temple he is obligated.'
Blind fools!" Mt 23: 15-17

CHIAPAS 2011--THE MEDICINE OF FRIENDSHIP, SERVICE, AND LEALTAD {LOYALTY}

"Never more a Mexico without us."

This most recent trip into the indigenous mountain highlands of Chiapas probed themes of friendship, service and loyalty.  Making the journey for the first time with me was George Moger, retired special ed teacher and basketball coach of long successful service in Port Huron.  His main purpose was to immerse in Spanish language, while helping out with basketball or construction skills.  I was to work in medical clinics as in 6 previous visits. 

View of Tila Sanctuario from bell tower--Clinic is white with white railing in front.


George showed courage ascending bell tower---does not like heights.

When we got there we found most all regular basketball had stopped when school got out for the summer, and no real construction projects.   Don Ramon, now retired middle school principal, was available for some Spanish classes, a couple of hours, on half the days, but that left a lot of time.  And one of the problems of immersion [I still have it after 7 visits] is that trying to keep up with the regular conversations of our hosts at the parish often makes one’s head spin, leading to episodes of language fatigue.

Don Ramon reads names of the confirmed as Padre Heriberto congratulates.

George & I had agreed to speak Spanish, instead of any English, most all the time we were there [except for short time outs for necessary full comprehension], and we both held to this fairly well.  But whatever help I might be was limited, as I had two trips, one overnight, for extemporaneous medical clinics in remote villages.  All parish staff were busy with preparations for the Bishop’s coming and confirmation of over 200 teenagers [average age 15—diocese believes they should be a little older, well trained 5 years, and more mature].

Dishes on the kitchen porch

George found an admirable solution.  The woman who came in daily to work in the parish kitchen, only hired for half the day, could use help.  Reina is 4ft.6’’, about 45 years old, very capable, and of kind disposition.   Chol is her first language [as for most all in Tila] but her Spanish is very good. George is, with basketball prowess, at least 6ft.6’’ and the most polite gentlemanly person I know.  Every day he’d spend 2 to 3 hours helping with dishes, mopping floors, and she’d patiently explain language, her work, and life in Tila.  How much he’d really taught her about friendship and service we didn’t find out till the last day there.

Matias [seminarian], George, Reina

Reina gave us each a gift she’d made, handicrafts of her side business-- George a bright yellow-bodied red-combed woven chicken tea cozy, and me a white embroidered with local fruit patterns mantilla, to wrap tortillas in.  We took pictures, said goodbye, and then she told me to be sure it was well understood, and to tell George, “I’m very glad I met him, because I thought all from the U.S. were bad, and now I know that is not true.”

With incense & statue of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in the lead, Padre Heriberto & comunidad in procession at Carmen [Carmel] Chinal.

This was the second time I’d heard something similar expressed on this visit, not said during any of the 6 visits over 12 years previously.  When we were finishing the Offertory rite, midway through the 3 ½ mass, in the village of Carmen Chinal, in the midst of copious wood chip indigenous incense burnt in a foot-tall goblet of baked clay, Padre Heriberto introduced me to the people crowded into the simple cement floored tin roofed chapel.  Before he handed me the microphone, and a huge downpour, rain on tin, made me cut short my words, he gave preamble.  “Mike has visited us 7 times and brings simple medicines and will offer brief medical ‘consultas’ for those interested after mass.  He is a friend that shows us that not all people in the U.S. are bad.”

Padre preaches at 3 hour mass at Carmen Chinal, before 4 hour clinic ending 10:30 pm.

This need to exonerate and testify for the moral fiber of a U.S. citizen is something new.  Even when some of the Chiapas villages were being regularly overflown 10 years ago by helicopter gunships {donated by the U.S.to the Mexican army cause of occupying rural Chiapas} I hadn’t heard such general criticism.  Mexico since the 1920’s has been our [somewhat reluctant] friend.  The ambient feeling in Mexico now is that our recent wars of choice Afghanistan/Iraq/Libya, financial crisis, NAFTA, and drug war weapons support to both sides [traffickers & swat team soldiers] is killing them with collateral damage to life limb and economy.   They can’t understand our self-imposed fears, addictions, & debt woes.  Mexicans, from the wealthy middle-aged woman playing video games on her tablet and young dapper business man in the other seat next to me on the return plane trip to Detroit, to the faithful villagers and parish-house cook in remote Chiapas, are baffled by our behavior.

Community of Joljatiomtyak, family of Rogelio, shucking frijoles--kitchen/living room on left, bedroom/my clinic on last 2 visits to Chiapas.

Because of this, travel---meeting, working, serving, and praying together, one to one and community to community---is becoming ever more important.  We need many U.S. citizen ambassadors in many nations to dispel the many mutual misconceptions that have steadily arisen due to the activity of powerful interests at the top of U.S. society.

With part of Rogeio's Joljatiomtyak family--Chol speakers who tolerate my Spanish.

Friendship and service we did experience in Chiapas.  But this brought to mind an important value lamented by Padre Heriberto as on the wane in all parts of society—lealtad, loyalty.  He’d had friends leaving the priesthood; we all see promises under siege, in marriage, friendship, churches, business, politics, banking, pensions, labor contracts, social security.  One’s word counts for little anymore-- only the day to day scrimmage for personal gain.

Debt-ceiling-fight by Phil Ebersole Wordpress--[President Reagan raised the debt ceiling 17 times]

We resolved to continue and expand our connections, “Si Dios Quiere,” Lord willing.  There is hope Detroit diocese seminarians and other faithful will come to know the people of Chiapas, and their pilgrimage to Nuestro Señor de Tila.  Our church is Catholic—in diversity there is strength and loyalty.

"Is not one of our problems today that we have separated ourselves from the poor and the wounded and the suffering?  We have too much time to discuss and theorize and have lost the yearning for God which comes when we are faced with the sufferings of people."   -- Jean Vanier {founder of communities inclusive of the disabled}

 

On the current financial crisis--
We are being rolled by powerful Wall Street bankers and politicians. Those hating Obama, as well as all appearing alien, are willing to drag the whole country down just to defeat him and the outsiders.  Our self-inflicted fiscal suffering is directly connected to our sin of racism.  Blessed Franz Jagerstatter, intercede for us.  May God grant us the grace to purge greed, war, and racism from our hearts and nation.   {Two more days of the Jagerstatter novena--but please keep praying for these miracles.}

From today's old testament reading at daily mass, Dt10:12-22---

For the LORD, your God, is the God of gods,
the LORD of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome,
who has no favorites, accepts no bribes;
who executes justice for the orphan and the widow,
and befriends the alien, feeding and clothing him.
So you too must befriend the alien,
for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.
Illumination by Kathy Brahney

Click on images to enlarge.

BLESSED FRANZ JAGGERSTATTER--FAMILY MAN WHO WOULDN'T FIGHT IN HITLER'S WARS

"Dear father come home," Easter message from his daughters when he was in jail before trial

Franz Jagerstatter, an Austrian Catholic who was executed on August 9, 1943 by the German Reich because he would not fight in Hitler’s unjust wars, has been recently recognized as on the path to sainthood.  Franz was beatified on October 26, 2007 in Linz, Austria.  He was a loving husband and father of four small children, a peasant farmer, and a sacristan at the local church.  He knew the wars of Hitler were unjust, and that faith in the Fatherland was taking the place of faith in God.  He couldn’t understand why more German Christians didn’t see this danger.

 

 ranz was born in the small farming village of St. Radegund near Linz, Austria on May 20, 1907.  Due to the poverty of his parents {servants too poor for marriage}, he was raised during early childhood, in the home of his grandmother who had 13 children of her own.  He was as hungry for learning as for food, both which were limited in those days.  His natural father died in World War I.  When his mother did marry in 1917, he found more opportunity for learning, with a good library in the farmhouse.  From early on a lover of books, Franz later advised his godson, "People who don't read will never be able to stand on their own feet and will all too easily become a football for the opinions of others."

As a young man he is remembered as fun-loving and popular, went to dances and the pubs, owned the first motorcycle in town, sometimes a “Raufer” [brawler], and also took part in the yearly Passion Play.  In his Catholic region this play was thought equal to Oberammergau’s.  He’d had a child out of wedlock, the mother’s family wouldn’t allow marriage, but he remained a supportive loving father, very unusual for those times.  Franz went then to mass regularly and attended social events at church, where he met his wife Franziska. She was a great joy and inspiration for him. They had three small daughters to whom he was dearly devoted, and they together operated the family farm.

The Jagerstatters continued attending daily mass and were well respected in the village. Yet some thought they were carrying things too far in their criticism of the Third Reich.  The family rejected the state’s social aid payments, and then Franz refused to report for army duty, when called up, after basic training, a second time.  For this he was jailed in March 1943 and sentenced to death that summer.  He could see clearly that Hitler’s wars were unjust, and knew that he was one of those given the grace to resist this evil.

By Erna Putz

Franz had been in prayer constantly the six months he’d been in jail, praying the scriptures and the rosary.  On the day of his execution, a priest at the prison, Fr. Jochmann, offered spiritual readings. With an unforgettable joy in his eyes, Franz replied, “I am completely bound in inner union with the Lord, and any reading would only interrupt my communication with my God.”  The priest later stated, “I say with certainty that this simple man is the only saint that I have ever met in my lifetime.”

On August 9, 1943 he was beheaded in Berlin.  His consolation was his trust in God, and the promise that his family would be reunited in heaven.  Now in our time of terrible war without end, Franz is a shining example of faith in the Gospel life, conquering death by refusing to kill.

His widow, Franziska, attended his beatification in 2007, and met with Pope Benedict XVI in a general audience the following year. Cardinal Christoph Schonborn of Vienna commended Jagerstatter to the Holy Father, noting that he came to question how one could be “a soldier for Christ” and a soldier in Hitler's army at the same time.

 Icon available from Catholic Peace Fellowship website

In slightly edited form, my article above appears in the online national Knights of Columbus webpage, “Fathers for the Good.” 

 

Spanish translation of prayer published last week. {article above also available in Spanish--email me for copy}

ORACIÓN por INTERCESIÓN del BEATO FRANZ JAGERSTATTER--Para el fin de nuestras guerras en Irak y Afganistán.

Señor Jesucristo,

Rellenó a tu siervo Franz Jägerstätter
con un profundo amor por usted, su familia y
todas las personas.
Durante un tiempo de desprecio por Dios y
humanidad que le concedió
discernimiento inequívoco e integridad.
De fe, siguió a su conciencia, y
dijo que una NO decisivo para el régimen Nazi
y guerra injusta.
Por lo tanto sacrificó su vida.
Oramos para que usted pueda glorificar su
siervo Franz, así que muchas personas pueden
alentar a por él y crecer en el amor
para usted y todas las personas.
Su ejemplo puede brillar fuera en nuestro tiempo,
y usted podrá otorgar todas las personas la
fuerza para defender la justicia, paz
y la dignidad humana.
Por la tuya es la gloria y honor con
el padre y el Espíritu Santo ahora y
para siempre. Amen.

(Oración de la Diócesis de Linz, Austria)

Anual Novena de oración, 1-9 de agosto, comenzado en la parroquia de la Santísima Trinidad, Port Huron, MI, USA en 2008. Oración anterior es oró en cada parroquia recopilación y liturgia durante nueve días.

 Illumination by Kathy Brahney

PRAYER FOR INTERCESSION OF BLESSED FRANZ JAGERSTATTER--FOR THE END OF OUR WARS IN IRAQ & AFGHANISTAN

I submit this early, and have been 2 weeks away, in Chiapas.  Bishop Arizmendi there wanted a copy to pray with us in his diocese of San Cristobal, so it's translated and being sent.  The hope is that many churches in our country and world round will join in prayer. 

Lord Jesus Christ, 

You filled your servant Franz Jägerstätter 

with a deep love for you, his family and 

all people. 

During a time of contempt for God and 

humankind you bestowed on him

unerring discernment and integrity.

In faith, he followed his conscience, and

said a decisive NO to the Nazi regime

and unjust war.

Thus he sacrificed his life.

We pray that you may glorify your

servant Franz, so that many people may

be encouraged by him and grow in love

for you and all people.

May his example shine out in our time,

and may you grant all people the

strength to stand up for justice, peace

and human dignity.

For yours is the glory and honor with

the Father and the Holy Spirit now and

forever. Amen.

(Prayer from the Diocese of Linz, Austria)

Yearly Novena of Prayer, August 1-9, begun at Holy Trinity parish, Port Huron, MI, USA in 2008.  Prayer above is prayed at every parish gathering and liturgy for the nine days. 

SUPREME COURT LEAVES CHILDREN'S WINDOW TO THE SOUL, OPEN TO PURVEYORS OF VIOLENCE

Eye on top of the pyramid--from our dollar

On this Independence Day we should examine closely the real state of American independence.  One small indicator in last week news warns we are caught in our own contradictions.  The Supreme Court has ruled that our children are free to be exposed to the most violent video games.  Califorina’s law to protect youngsters from these games was rejected. The companies that make them are free to sell what are often first shooter, bloody war games, to children of all ages.  It’s their first amendment free speech right.   But are we to become so dependent on violence promotion industries, that we won’t shield our children from these visually traumatic activities?

The message sent by the high court--virtual war and virtual interpersonal combat are not to be restrained in the land of the free.  Yes, the parents are responsible for controlling their kids’ access to violence simulation, but if in our stress-ridden society parents are increasingly missing in action, then exposing children to culturally approved mayhem that glorifies killing, is a right not to be infringed upon.

Two wars of choice in a decade of an undeclared, but all encompassing, War on Terror, have militarized the psyche of the nation, but not called for any real sacrifice on the part of the majority of citizens, and has enriched the financial and political leadership.  They bank on oil futures, and privatize our army, to doubly protect their interests.  The soldiers are the ones who suffer the most, along with the economy that serves the general public. 

From Universal Soldier film

These soldiers are being acclimated from childhood, made accustomed to violence, and then recruited, by war video games.   All age restrictions to this subliminal training are shot down now by the Top Court.  One sophisticated game 1  America ‘s Army [AA 3.1] , given free to interested kids, has a sidebar inviting contact with an army commander/recruiter versed in the virtual battles you may be game fighting on the streets of Baghdad.  Another was the cover photo for the Wall Street Journal article quoted below. 

The 2005 California law [now overturned by Supreme Court] prohibits selling or renting violent games to minors based on legislative findings that they reduce "activity in the frontal lobes of the brain" and promote "violent antisocial or aggressive behavior."  2

Obscenity laws that prohibit the sale of pornographic materials to minors are constitutional, but we can’t ban the sale of lurid violent materials to minors.  We are subjecting our kids to a giant canary test, down in the deep mines of a violence permissive society.  Every parent knows the painful fears evoked in a child that can’t sleep at night because of the cruel things they saw in a horror movie.  The technology of violence media is advancing beyond horror films.  If our kids are becoming more desensitized to it, fewer nightmares because the violence is video game normal, we need to heed these warning signs.

The eye is the window to the soul.  Letting the violence promotion zombies loose in our kindergartens is not the way to salvation.

From the film The Red Balloon
  

1         http://www.americasarmy.com/

2         http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304447804576411571732346148.html?mod=ITP_pageone_2

 

INTO THE CLOUDFOREST--TILA--SANCTUARY OF TROUBLES & BLESSINGS-part 2

Church as it was at time of first visit, 1998--parish postcard picture

Each time I’ve gone to Chiapas, parishioners at our Port Huron Catholic churches, and the Physician Health Care Network clinic staff where I’d worked, have contributed generously in prayers, medicines and money to our travels.  After ten years of our keeping connected, and the efforts of many working for peace, especially the catechists and believers of San Mateo parish, the violent threats have diminished considerably in this part of Chiapas.  The internal checkpoints that tried to restrict outside support, have been removed, and only one much smaller military post of the three in Tila remains.  Though only a few church workers were killed in the bad times, a bus caravan with Bishop Ruiz, Bishop Raul Vera, Padre Heriberto, and many catechists was ambushed—the bus pumped full of 150 bullets.

Counties in Chiapas that had Catholic chapels & churches attacked, or closed by local authorities in the period before April, 1998.
Miraculously no one was mortally wounded.  Many parishioners were imprisoned.  Now the violence has subsided.  Persistent work for justice, persistent prayer by many, persistent preaching and hearing confessions by Padre Heriberto and the committed clergy of the area—these have made the difference.  They believe in the power of confession.  The military employed locals to fight as paramilitaries, creating divisions Protestant and Catholic, even dividing Catholics within parishes and families against each other—lured by monthly payments in a land of poverty.  To reconcile these wounds the priests ask the perpetrators to come to confess their sin, make some reparation, and come back into community as brothers and sisters.  And the people are doing this.  Step by step, one by one. 

La salud no debe ser un lujo.  Health ought not to be a luxury.  Poster by Medicos del Mundo

 

 

When our mission group pulled into the village of Jolja, Rogelio’s whole extended family turned out to welcome us.  Plans were quickly made to have an impromptu clinic after lunch, and we were served tortillas and beans made fresh from crops grown in the community, cooked over the open fire without chimney in their kitchen hut, with chickens roaming freely under table to scavenge what they could from the packed clay floor. Hospitality was abundant and tangible.  Andrea and our young people were taken up the mountain to their fields, harvesting a couple of items by machete.  Bridget, Cassie, and D.J. are single, starting careers and finishing school.  Jolja young folk, also in teens and twenties, were well into supporting families, babies at their breast, and machetes at their side.   They were obviously proud of their land, their families, and their language--Chol.  They were greatly amused at our trying to pronounce basic Chol vocabulary, and kept provoking us with new words to attempt. 

"Chol" means "people of corn" -- deep roots of Mayan culture.  Image is framed picture in parish office area.

A Zapatista sympathetic community, they had known hardship, but were committed to preserving the beauty of their way of life.  Improvements were coming slowly, and with bad mistakes, as the government cut a new road through their area.  The trip to Tila now took only over an hour, where it had been many hours.  But the resultant drainage problems made horrible ruts and sludge pools in their hillsides. 

Challenged as to how fast everyone could make it up some of the steep slopes, most of our group had trouble keeping up with the Jolja children, yet D.J. [perhaps from years scrambling on hockey rinks up north] distinguished himself by keeping up with the young men.  For this he was re-christened, Comandante Ti Che [D.J., Chol pronunciation].  The clinic which we thought would only be for part of the afternoon, stretched well into the evening.  The people kept coming, so we opened up the door of our improvised care center, which was Rogelio’s parents simple sleeping space/living room, to more patients for half the following day.  The family had moved out to stay with others, so we could sleep there, that night in between.  With Rogelio his Dad translating, and Andrea who’s a nurse helping at times, we saw some 60 patients.  Many had routine complaints that could be addressed by advice, and some basic medicines we distributed.  Three children had chronic debilitating illness.  We emphasized with the patients’ families the important task of pursuing public health assistance.  Their names were referred back to our church clinic in Tila doctor, so hopefully they can make connection with ongoing health care.  It is too easy for people to fall between the cracks in these mountainous remote areas. 

Waiting outside improvised cinderblock home clinic in Jolja

When we returned to Tila, quickly and gladly we were re-directed to another rural community in the opposite direction down the mountains towards Tabasco, to pray with those who’ve re-opened their church, after years of it having been boarded up by the local government.


The village of Nuevo Limar had been a bad place to be a Catholic.  The 16 year old health promoter that I’d worked with ten years ago at the Tila clinic, was a refugee from this community who, at ten, had been beaten mercilessly by his Nuevo Limar public school teacher--for being a Catholic of the San Cristobal diocese. Returning this year with our small group of young people, we visited Jose now 26, and the father of two children, who now operates a medical clinic openly out of his own home.  We attended a prayer service presided over by his father, at the Catholic chapel which has re-opened in his village.  At the same time Padre BaldemarChol community, said mass in a neighboring town. This is happening in the same Zona Baja region of the diocese, so hostile that paramilitaries there {they go by the misnomer, Paz y Justicia} had ambushed the bishops’ & catechists’ caravan when they attempted to bring the celebration of mass nine years ago.

Jose Inez on left had been my translator 10 yrs ago- now has his own clinic in Nuevo Limar

The transformation has been remarkable.  Free to practice their religion publicly in this area, there was participation from all assembled [not as many as usual because some had gone over to the next town for Padre Baldemar’s mass].  Many young people did attend, and the scripture readings, homily discussion, and music were their responsibility, and done well.  Bridget worked hard to tune an infrequently played violin, Andrea played guitar, and with an enthusiastic youth choir, they all together made a joyful sound. 

                                                                          eturning again to Tila, we arranged the next day for Cassie, who is a teacher in Chicago’s school system, to visit fifth grade classes in a Tila neighborhood school.  Don Ramon was our contact person.  I’d known him as one of the few active Catholics who’d been able to persist as a teacher in Tila’s public schools, very prejudiced against San Mateo parish.  He was now the principal of this public school – a tribute to his dedication in the cause of faith and education.  The children and staff welcomed Cassie, who could take in just a little of their lesson content with her beginning Spanish.  But she was impressed with their behavior, and they with her tall basketball & soccer skills.  Earlier that morning we’d all helped served these kids at a San Mateo daily breakfast program up a long cliff-side staircase from the grade school.

I learned later from my daughter Bridget, that she’d been offended by the commercialization of the feast day of Corpus Christi in Tila.  There were wall-to-wall booths filling all city streets, selling CD’s, candles, an assortment of religious objects to fit all pocketbooks, as well as everything you’d find at a county fair market day, engulfing the whole town and overwhelming the parish at its center.   There was even an electric light trimmed Ferris wheel jammed into the municipal plaza across the street from the church. 


The pastor Padre Heriberto was more directly affronted, I told her.  At a major afternoon mass he preached against those in the town who, most of the year, called the Sanctuary Nuestro Senor de Tila, and the faith of its people, a sham, a fairy tale.  Now those same local critics had become merchants-- selling religious articles, food and lodging to the pilgrims—and praising the miraculous blessings to be received.  The words of his homily challenged the hypocrisy--boomed out from the church loudspeakers, through the stalls in the streets into market, restaurant, and rooming house for all ears to hear.  It was a moment that profiled pastoral prophetic courage, especially with the history of town government hostility towards the parish community.  I wished that our young adult companions had been able to appreciate the Spanish clarity of the message.   In translation, I informed them that concern for a simple true faith, not to be cashed in on, was the unmistakable message from the pulpit.

Then, after a week in Tila, we were sailing down the mountain roads again, four hours starting in the dark mists of pre-dawn, under the guidance of the fast stop & go parish chauffeur towards Villahermosa, Tabasco and our airplane home.  This time I rode in the back bed of the large pickup, open to the “cloudforest” elements.  [Parts of this tropical/temperate high altitude area are an international nature reserve.] On the way up late at night, D.J. had been the open-air rider of these speedy switchback roads.  One had to keep well down on the foam mats provided, to stay stable and to ward off chill from the high altitude breeze, a little cold even in this state at the southernmost border of Mexico, in June.


Two flights later, having regained U.S. soil at the airport hub in Atlanta, where we were subjected to an astonishing run-with-your-bags helter skelter customs process, we rested in a not-so-fast food restaurant, and briefly reviewed our time in Tila.  Bridget, Cassie and D.J. concluded they’d been overwhelmed by crowds & language, sometimes bored, at times over-regulated by yours truly, and wished they’d been capable of acting on their own more independently.  Yet they were glad to have taken this first step, gone to meet these people in this far away land, especially those befriended in the community of Jolja, and learned something of their way of life.  Andrea and I were gratified we’d been able to help this happen, and hope that more connections like this, between first and third world young adults, can be arranged in the future--to nurture a faith that transcends borders, and trust in God who calls us all to be peacemakers.  At the recommendation of Padre Heriberto, and by our own good intuition, this won’t again be during the busy days of Corpus Christi celebrations.

                    Prayer to Our Lord of Tila

           Christ crucified, Lord of Tila,

          In this blessed image, made new 300 years ago, you have shown to all those who come confidently to You, the merciful love of God the Father.

          We give You thanks, and through You we give glory to the Heavenly Father, for all wondrous deeds realized and benefits received.

          You who said, “Come to me all you who are tired and overburdened, and I will give you rest,” look upon us with kindness.  As you already know our sufferings, and have invited us to ask confidently in your name for what we need, I ask you to hear me and grant my supplication…..{here add your petition}.

          As you allow me only what is for my good, enlighten me to discover and know the benefits that your love has conferred on me, to understand sharing the anguish and sufferings of my brothers, and sisters, and all who work for your kingdom, struggling for truth, justice, and peace.

                                                          By Padre Heriberto Cruz Vera

Illumination by Kathy Brahney