AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast

32 Churches, 29 Schools, 40 Miles, 1 Parish: How Lay Leaders Build the Church | A Pilgrimage to Belize, Part 2

Last week, we began our pilgrimage to Belize. We met Fr. Brian Christopher, the superior of the country-wide Jesuit community. And we heard a little bit about the hopes and heartaches of the people of Belize. We saw how Ignatian spirituality has a role to play in helping crystalize the character of Belize, and how important collaboration is in a country made up of such a rich and diverse history. Most importantly, we heard from Fr. Brian how the work of the Jesuits in Belize today isn’t about making plans and wracking up successes but rather that of humility, of accepting the possibility of failure. The key, Brian said again and again, is accompaniment: walking with and learning from and cheering on the people of Belize. Last week’s episode ended with a reflection on synodality — that all-important theme of Pope Francis’ papacy. How are we called to listen to the voices of those members of our global church that so often get sidelined? Today, in our second of our two-part series on Belize, we return to that theme of synodality: you’re going to hear from several lay leaders that are working closely with the Jesuits. Perhaps even more importantly, you’re going to hear how essential these lay leaders are in building up the local church. It’s not an exaggeration to say that without these lay leaders, the Catholic church in some of the most remote parts of Belize may simply not exist. So, let’s continue our pilgrimage.

Duration:: 32m
Broadcast on:: 20 Nov 2024
Audio Format:: other

from the Jesuit Media Lab, this is AMDG and I'm Eric Glaton. Last week we began our pilgrimage to Belize. We met Father Brian Christopher, the superior of the country-wide Jesuit community. And we heard a little bit about the hopes and heartaches of the people of Belize. We saw how Ignatian spirituality has a role to play in helping crystallize the character of that country and how important collaboration is in a country made up of such a rich and diverse history. Most importantly, we heard from Father Brian how the work of the Jesuits in Belize today isn't about making plans and racking up successes, but rather that of humility, of accepting the possibility of failure. The key Brian said again and again is accompaniment, walking with and learning from and cheering on the people of Belize. Last week's episode ended with a reflection on synodality, that all-important theme of Pope Francis's papacy. How are we called to listen to the voices of those members of our global church that so often get sidelined? Today, in our second of our two-part series on Belize, we return to that theme of synodality. You're going to hear from several lay leaders that are working closely with the Jesuits. Perhaps even more importantly, you're going to hear how essential these lay leaders are in building up the local church. It's not an exaggeration to say that without these lay leaders, the Catholic Church and some of the most remote parts of Belize may simply not exist. So let's continue our pilgrimage. Let's leave the hustle and bustle of Belize city and head south to Punta Gorda, a small town in the Toledo district, in the southernmost point of Belize. I made this journey. Quite literally, got on a crowded school bus, crammed myself into one of the seats, the one above the tire of course, and watched as five hours of Belizean scenery passed me by. It's a long journey, and it's a world apart. Punta Gorda feels far from the center of Belize, and that theme of distance is an important one. The Jesuit parish, the center of the Jesuits' influence in Punta Gorda, is right on the coast. You can stare straight out at the Caribbean Sea from the veranda of the rectory. It's peaceful and very hot. There's a large tree just down the hill that hosts a flurry of hummingbirds each morning. And beyond that tree, across the sea, you can spot any number of ships. But most days aren't spent on the veranda. Most days are spent on the road. My name is Father Matthew Rule on the pastor of St. Peter Claver Parish here in Punta Gorda. The parish is a parish most unusual to anything that you would see in the United States. We have 32 mission churches in the hills, in the Maya Mountains. We have 29 schools with about 4,000 kids, 400-some-odd teachers, 110 buildings. And we're probably about 40 miles long. As you can imagine, ministering to a parish with such a wide-ranging campus is a challenge. Here's Father Eric Strano, the associate pastor and a priest who was sent for his very first priestly mission to Belize, who explains how this small team of three Jesuits approaches this relatively overwhelming task. Some days are the main days, go out and do masses in the villages, and then hang out in the community, get to know people, often visit the sick, do anointings, give communion to the sick. That's on Sundays. And then the rest of the week is, be in the office, meet people who come wanting sacramental preparation for baptism, marriages, as well as going out and doing school masses. We do a lot of stuff in the schools, again, each church has a corresponding Catholic school, Catholic public school. Yeah, also helping retreats, formations with the catechists and chassier retreats. Faith formation as well, offering prayers to people, retreats, more retreats, and generally just be with the people. Listen, I can't emphasize enough the distance that needs to be traveled in order to do the basic tasks of parish life. The Jesuits load up their truck and drive off into the farmland, over precarious bridges and through roadways that are, after rainy days, simply disappear. When we were there, one of the trucks died, and we had to walk back to the parish to get another. Fortunately, we weren't too far away. But that's a real possibility, a real problem, and it certainly hinders the ability to form and minister to the parish. And the further away from the town of Punta Gorda 1 gets, the harder these tasks become. I think the biggest challenge is the poverty, again, that impacts everything. And a big thing too with the poverty is the communication. It's hard to get messages to some villages because they don't have electricity, they don't have Wi-Fi, and they don't have cell signal. So the churches that have cell phones, they have access to that. It's relatively easy to contact them, but the ones who are far, far away, I physically have to get them in the truck and then go to the village if it's something important, and there's time sensitive nature to it. One of my favorite things in the US to do is like Google things and find information about a town of like, where do I go get my haircut? And you don't really do that here in Punta Gorda. You have to talk to people and get to know, hey, where's the place to get a haircut? So for me, it was a huge adjustment of what does it mean to be in a community like that, not as plugged in or as tech-savvy as in the United States, but you actually have to talk to people and get to know the community, be out. And it sounds weird, but in the United States, it's easy to be insular in your own home or room, but here, you definitely are out with the people. And for me, I'm really grateful for that of being with the people learning about how they live their lives. Like Father Brian stressed last week, accompaniment is key. And accompaniment only works in community. The church only works in community, and that becomes crystal clear in the context of Punta Gorda. That's where lay leadership becomes essential. You just got to realize you can't do everything. It's impossible. It is impossible to do everything. If you've got that many churches, 32 churches, clearly you don't have a priest, and clearly we can't get around there, but once a month or so. So we have started these things called cursios in which we train lay leadership, and they will lead the churches in the villages. The Caddicus are very pivotal in being in the village church, bringing people together, bringing people to pray, and just maintaining a church community. So Caddicus, generally it's kind of similar to what a priest would feel like, a general call, like an individual call. You feel God calling you to this kind of work. And then you start exploring that, talking to others, praying. And we identify people, we get to know them. And then they start joining on the cursios, which are the retreats for Caddicus formation, where they learn to pray, most importantly. What does it mean to be Catholic, be part of the Catholic church? What does it mean to be a leader in the church, leadership skills, leadership formation? And most importantly, how to do communion services, funerals, organizing church leadership in a particular village, learning all of these things. This way of being church is not new. It actually comes out of the earliest days of the Jesuit presence and Belize and Punta Gorda in particular. Here's Father Matt with a breakdown of the history of the Jesuits in this area. In 1862, a Belgian Jesuit named John Genon came here and there was, there's a Garifuna community across the, the key, across the Bay here, Amatique Bay. And he would vote back and forth to serve these Garifuna and those Garifuna. Eventually, he said, okay, so there's more love over here and greater need for a church. So in 1862, he settled down here. It was the same year that Belize became a colony. So we've been here since 1862. We have Confederate soldiers escaping the war, after the war, who brought sugar cane down here. So you have Confederate soldiers buried just north of here and just south of here. You might recall from last week, two of the several ethnic groups that make up Belize. You have the Garifuna, who are descended from Africans who survived a shipwreck of a slave ship. And you have the Mayans, who are both native to Belize and nearby Guatemala. The majority of the more remote communities served by the Jesuits in Punta Gorda are Mayan. Probably the two great movements in that 162 years was a guy named Tank, either Tank. And the Garifuna are, first of all, they're very good with languages and they're very hearty and very intelligent. So he said, okay, I'm going to get a bunch of Garifuna men together and we're going to prepare them, educationally, and we're going to send them into all the villages around Belize. And it was just brilliant. But these Garifuna teachers faced hardship after hardship. There are stories, biographies of, you know, they would go, frequently they would travel with their wives who would bring the kids and there are stories of how, because the roughness of the journey and the children were born in childbirth, died in childbirth and they faced a certain amount of persecution. The Mayans kind of were generally friendly but could be uncooperative. And then the next great moment was a guy named Bill Mesmer, who was here probably 60s. And he said, we need catechists, we can't do all these villages. So that was his invention, these catechists were his invention. And it's been now, what, from 1960, 70 to today, that the role of the catechists exists. And the catechists are accepted and respected. It's an accepted and respected role within the village. Catechists are essential. That much should be clear by now. And they've been essential to communities like Punta Gorda for a long time. But who are these folks? What drives them to become a catechist? Because what's important to know about the community members that come forth to serve in this way is that this isn't just a volunteer job, this is a calling. These catechists understand their role as part of their vocation. And they should, as we've already heard, these folks are pivotal to the life of the local church. So let's hear from a few of them. First, here's Angelina. My name is Angelina, but usually they call me Angelina because it's easier for the people. But my name is Angelia. It's A-N-G-L-I-E, Choco, and I'm a married person. I'm Catholic because my dad is a catechist. Her journey to being a catechist is representative of many others. She was inspired by someone in her family. It was part of her upbringing. And when I was young, I feel like I'm going with him. I think that encouraged me a lot because I'm there with him wherever he goes, for service or where they're inviting with people that are sick. I am ready to go. I'm always listening when it's time. I think that's what encouraged me now as being a catechist for my church here in Silver Creek. One of the challenges she faces, and again, this is very common in this part of Belize, is this competition from other religious groups. Well, the challenge is with now as a catechist with my church here in Catholic Church in Silver Creek. We have a lot of different religion and it's hard because we have a lot of members and sometimes when we don't go stay close to the people, I don't stay close to the people. I feel like those ones, they are always convincing them to change their religion during this. But I won't say anything because it's up to each one of us wherever we find comfort. That's how I'm trained. As my dad used to be a catechist, he always wouldn't want to force anyone. We have our faith, our own faith lead us to where we want to be. And that's the only challenge you may find with other churches here. Now, let's hear from Thomas. I'm Thomas Chuck Nary, and a catechist of Jacintos in Joseph Church, and as well, I'm the leader catechist in that community. A catechist, I believe it means a lot. A catechist means somebody who knows about Jesus Christ, and who can tell about Jesus Christ. A catechist is somebody who leads service. I do communion service, I do homily, I do a homily as well, and we do, I do a funeral service. All of this that I do. Catechists are responsible for these basic liturgical and even administrative tasks in collaboration, of course, with the Jesuit priests. But an essential part of their calling is going out to be with the people. Similar to Angelina, Thomas knows how important it is to check in on the members of his congregation. It's not really a big community, it's not a big congregation that we have, at least we have both 25, sometimes 30 people that come to church. Well, not every Sunday, but I know some of them come regularly. I love to work with them. Yeah, they are a time that they may not come, but I cannot give up. I would just come to them and tell you what happened, because we didn't see you this Sunday, or are you sick, I mean, that is what I do to them. So just this morning I was in somebody's house and he said that nobody comes to my house, nobody comes to my house, and I would love to be a Catholic. I was a Catholic, I don't go to this church, because when I was sick, nobody comes and look for me, and that gives me a mind that, okay, I think it's time for me to come and come again to talk with this guy. So that's what I get this morning. So I mean, in finding these people just stay in home, they were just wondering what they can do, but if you reach to them and tell them, "Oh, Jesus Christ," then I know they were very happy to hear that. And now let's hear from Teresa and Larsen Cacool. They're married and they're both catechists. They came to respond to this call in very different ways. And heads up, we talked to Teresa on her front porch. It was a very lively, very loud corner of the neighborhood, as you'll soon hear. My name is Teresa Cacool, from Cacool, and I'm a catechist here, very in the church, thank you, Seth Church, who I become a catechist, and well, at that time, when I was also thinking about becoming a catechist, I would say because my dad was a catechist at that time. But I think he was, he gets sick, he was sick, he can't do anything again. So that is where he, the cousins said, "Why don't you join the catechist program?" But I didn't pay attention to him. So he gets over his sickness and he's better again, so he continues to be a catechist. I think that's not too far when he gets dropped sick again. So he asked that same question again. So that is where I said, "Why is he, is he saying things to me like this? Why not the other sisters or anybody?" So but I think about it, and I, we talk about it with my husband, and I didn't see anything in this one. He said, "It's you, if you want to listen to that call, you can go for it." So I made up my mind, and I said, "I will join." My name is Larsen Cuckoo, I am 52 years old, married, two children, and well, my role in church at the moment in the catechists for the past five years, well, since it's since March for 29 years, but then we've been together and my wife, Curtis, has been a person going to church, regular, and everything. And that is where it happened that she had an opportunity to, she wanted, she had felt that color, she wanted to be a part of something. So she started to get training as a catechist, and it's good and I saw that it really works because then she was the one that encouraged me to become a catechist. When it really came, I have a big change in my life because then I would say that then before, I would say I don't have time to go to church. I don't have time to do this. But when I got involved with this, like everything just fit. I really like this story of Teresa and Larsen, how Teresa's father kept inviting her to become a catechist and then how she kept inviting Larsen and now all three are leaders in the church. All three have gone through this intensive training so as to serve God's people in that little corner of Belize. But Teresa also spoke of something else in our conversation, what's called the Myahak. This is a traditional Mayan ritual and I'll let her explain it. Myahak is very powerful, I would say, because elders would get together and had that prayer and they were incense and they do offerings and people would get together too and from other villages and they would come and join us with Myahak. And if another religious having Myahak, they would invite other religious to come and join with that first. It is a prayerful night and we say because it does Myahak during night. We heard about Myahak pretty frequently during our time in Punta Gorda. It's been a priority of the Jesuits to integrate the local spiritual traditions into the Catholic practice. Here's Father Eric again to explain. So the Myahak is a way of the Mayans pray and before it was offering sacrifice such as a turkey or offerings from their crops that they grow corn beans and they make an offering to God. And so as far as those kinds of prayers, they feel those prayers are very powerful because they want to give to God, they want to offer back to God things that they have received. And I think that Ignatian spirituality, I mean that's a big thing for Ignatius, you know, love is given and it's received, it's received and given, you know. First God loves us first and then we give back to that and as sharing of gifts. So I think using those images and using that kind of prayer, especially preaching at the Mass and then, you know, using those things that they know of like that's what we're doing at Mass, especially bread and the wine, the second procession in the Mass, we're giving back to Lord the good things that we have received and offering that sacrifice and ultimately uniting that to the ultimate sacrifice that is Jesus Christ, you know, His life for us and trying to link all of those things together. This isn't just about ritual, it's also really about culture and that really matters, right? And you have so many people from so many different backgrounds, so many different ethnic experiences, so many different languages coming together. So we have the Garifuna, we have Kechi Mayan, Molpan Mayan, Creole, some people from Guatemala here as well. So we have a lot of different groups and of course expats that come through here. I think Mass in general, everyone comes to Mass, they want to receive Jesus's body in the Eucharist, I think that showcases unity when we're all together in that and receiving that worshiping the Lord, but we also do like have certain cultural masses during the Garifuna founding day, we have a Garifuna Mass where there's a big parade with the Garifuna drums and they're singing and it culminates with the Mass in the church, so that's one example. When we go to the villages, we try and do Mass in Kechi, I'm trying to learn the Mass in Kechi. I can do the beginning and I can do the end, still working on the Eucharistic prayers, but trying to offer that because they do it in their own language, because especially because we want things to do things that are meaningful for them, you know, and a lot of people, especially in the back villages, they don't speak English, so doing things in their own language, I think really fosters that sense of their culture and, you know, God speaking to them through the sentiments, through the liturgy, that's crucial, but also of just everyone's welcome, Pope Francis says it all the time, everyone, everyone, everyone, and the Mass is a place of unity for all of these different cultures. I want to emphasize that last bit, the Mass is a place of unity for all, I love that and I think it's important for us in our own journey of faith, Punta Gorda gives us a snapshot of what it means to be church, some of the challenges and the joys. We see all of God's people with their different experiences and insights and backgrounds coming together to encounter that same living God. How do we make room? How do we empower others? How do we accompany the folks we meet along the way? And how do we let them accompany us? As inviting folks in, ensuring everyone is listened to and valued and welcomed, these are all themes we heard last week from Father Bryan. Sometimes in fact that's all we can do, particularly in situations where hardship and sorrow are so very present. We asked Father Eric to reflect on the Ministry of Failure, that same theme that Father Bryan spoke to last week. What does it mean to him? How does he deal with it? In short, as you'll hear, it means living with stories that don't always have happy endings. So I went to visit a catechist in one village and we were talking and he talked about how he was feeling threatened. During one communion service, a drunk man came into the church, pushed him down and smashed their incense, their bowls of incense, and then left. He reported it to the police, hoping the police would come, the police didn't come. The same man came to his house with a machete and threatened, "I'm not gonna hack you to pieces. You need to come out of here right now." The catechist, he stayed in his house. The man, he did some damage to the water filter and then he left and I didn't quite get the story of what the tension was, but the catechist, he was afraid to leave his house. It was through translation I was hearing this, I was there in the house and he was telling that story and I could see it, like he didn't go to church anymore because the incident then happened and he didn't go to his farm, to his field, well hardly at all. And then he said the story and then right before we were getting up to leave I asked, "Do you want us to pray, pray for you right now?" He said, "Yes, please." And so then we started praying, him and his wife knelt down and then there were three grand children knelt down and then as I started praying, they just started weeping as they were afraid of like, they didn't always gonna happen to him with this crazy angry drunk guy coming at him with a machete and I prayed for protection for them and they didn't know what else to do. I think part of accompaniment is feeling utterly powerless in those moments. I asked Father Eric to reflect on that Ignatian principle of indifference and like a good Jesuit, he rattled off the first principle and foundation from the spiritual exercises. But then he turned to his own life, his own current mission and how he understands it. The difference means like, you know, whoever you're just handing, handing yourself over to God and saying, "Lord, where do you want me?" With working with people in the United States who in our universities, high schools, who do need God, need the formation and hope that they can go off and, you know, make a better world. But also being here with the people who really are victims of a lot of things, of, you know, world economics, climate change, all these things, they have no control over and who are really suffering. Where do you want me, where do you want me to serve and then handing that over and trusting that God speaks to superiors, especially my provincial, the planners for the province and also to the local people here, listening, how is God communicating to us. If you go into a classroom full of Maya children, it's a heart-melting experience. They are so beloved. They are such a magnificent little human beings and I just, every time I go to a village and I walk into their schools, my heart melts, I love them and it's the same with these little griffing of kids over here. They're just such little, beautiful beings and it's, you know, when I do get tired and angry and frustrated, that's why I carry on. The children of the Toledo district motivate me more than anything has ever motivated me in my life. I mentioned at the top that there was a tree full of hummingbirds, not far from the Jesuit residents. Each morning, I'd wake up early and walk down to just to see them. It was a remarkable sight, one that has really stayed with me. All these tiny, stunning, delicate creatures, just fluttering about, cliding into one another, dropping toward the sea and then shooting straight back up into the air and into the tree. It was chaos. It was noise and it was beauty and it was delight. That image comes back to me when I called a mind my time in Punta Gorda and I wonder if it's not a good one for us to end on. Isn't that God's creation in a nutshell, chaos, beauty, delight, but how easy it would have been to miss it? How much simpler to stay in my bed to keep sleeping? We've been talking about this two part series on Belize as a pilgrimage. Any pilgrimage, whether you're going to Belize, walking the community Santiago or just going across the street, any pilgrimage takes a certain disposition. We have to go out to people. We have to step out of our comfort zones. We have to insert ourselves into the chaos and beauty. We have to risk. This is just one place, one opportunity, but the lessons learned, the need to listen to people, to embrace failure, to accompany others, even and especially in hardship. That's what it means to be pilgrims together along the way. Thank you for listening. AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States in Washington, D.C. This episode was edited by me, Eric Clayton. Our theme music is by Kevin Lasky. The Jesuit Conference Communications Team is Marcus Bleich, Michael Lasky, Becky Sandalar, and me, Eric Clayton. Connect with the Jesuits online at Jesuits.org, on X at @ JesuitNews, on Instagram at @wearethejesuits and on Facebook at facebook.com/jesuits. You can also sign up for our weekly email series, now to discern this, by visiting Jesuits.org/weekly. The Jesuit Media Lab offers courses and resources at the intersection of Ignatian spirituality and creativity. If you're a writer, podcaster, filmmaker, visual artist, or other creator, check out our offerings at JesuitMediaLab.org. If you or someone you know might be called to discern a vocation to the Jesuits, connect with a Jesuit vocation promoter at via Jesuit.org. Drop us an email with questions or comments at media@jesuits.org. You can subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. And as St. Ignatius of Loyola, may or may not have said, go and set the world on fire. [Music] (chimes) You