The Bishop Writes

(From the June 11, 1998 edition of the Inland Register)

Trivial matters can often rule our lives. Pettiness can distract and absorb huge amounts of energy. Oftentimes it’s something like a close brush with death or a tragedy that brings us back to reality and helps us to appreciate what really is important. Even in Church, the values of love, unity and justice can be blurred by attention to lesser values which contradict the message of Jesus, the teaching of the Church, and a well-grounded spirituality.

In the last few weeks, two events in the Church in Latin America have had a considerable impact on me. They both point to people who live their lives on the edge -- not because of wrong decisions on their part but because of fidelity to the Gospel, to the Church community, and to the common good.

The first event is the murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi of Guatemala City, and the second is the massacre of 20 people in the city of Berrancabermeja in northeastern Columbia.

Bishop Gerardi was the auxiliary bishop of Guatemala City and the head of the Human Rights Office for the Catholic Church in Guatemala. Over the years, I have met him several times. While I was with the board of Catholic Relief Services, I had two meetings with him in Guatemala City. In the late 1970s, he was bishop in the northern part of Guatemala where much violence and displacement of peasants took place. Many catechists and priests were killed. After going to the Holy See to report on the status of the situation in 1980, he returned to Guatemala City, only to be denied entrance into his own country. He was not allowed to get off the plane and for some years was in exile.

Eventually, he was appointed the auxiliary bishop of Guatemala City (because basically his diocese to the north had to be closed down because of the threat to the catechists, priests and himself). He continued his work for human rights and just two days before his death had issued a report on behalf of the Church that in the years of violence 200,000 people had been killed (50,000 of these had disappeared). His call was to remember, but also, very importantly, to forgive.

We must hope that Bishop Gerardi’s murder will swiftly bring to Guatemala the justice and peace for which the people yearn so much. His life is an inspiration to all of us: a person deeply committed to the mission of Jesus and the Church. One also has to look at his life as a vocation in which God asked of him his greatest gift: his life. Perhaps his martyrdom can be a leaven for peace in a beautiful country where the people have suffered so much.

Last August as part of a visit for Catholic Relief Services, I visited the city of Berrancabermeja in Columbia. The city is about an hour’s flight northeast of Bogota and is located in flat jungle country. The weather was steamy hot when we landed. Bishop Jaime Prieto met us at the airport. He is the chair of the Peace and Justice Commission for the Columbian Bishops’ Conference. The city is relatively poor in the midst of a large oil field. As we drove to a remote parish of San Vicente in the jungle, the bishop pointed out to me cows in a field. He said the farmer had to pay $5 a head a month for protection money.

On the way to San Vicente, we met with a small parish community who just four days before had lost two men. One, the father of a family of four children, was killed; and the other man had disappeared. The "disappeared" are usually never found. I’ll never forget the moment when the wife of one of the men killed hugged me and sobbed uncontrollably. I promised prayers for her, her children, and her husband. My response felt so little in this sad and tragic situation.

E-mail has kept me informed about what Bishop Prieto and the diocese are doing to foster a sense of peace and justice following the massacre a couple of weeks ago. In a country where 97 percent of the crimes go unpunished, what a task he has. Yet, what a great opportunity the Church has to proclaim the Gospel, work for human rights, and better the common good.

We celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ on June 14. Jesus shed his blood and gave his life for all of humanity. He feeds us with the "Bread of Life." His great love must also be our great love of the Lord and of one another. May we together search out in our lives anything which will trivialize this love or relegate it to second place or no place in our hearts. May we also appreciate those whose blood is shed because of their faithfulness to relationship with the Lord and with the human family. Similarly, all of us must strive to be instruments of justice and peace, of building up relationships with out sisters and brothers in the Lord Jesus.

A blessed and grace-filled Feast of the Body and Blood of the Lord!

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