Of two minds

For years and years visitors to the little house in which Msr Óscar Romero lived on the grounds of Divina Providencia have seen this blood-stained shirt with a simple bullet hole through the left chest pocket. It hung in a display case alongside the alb and chasuble that San Romero was wearing at the time of his martyrdom. Intellectually, I knew the shirt was important, an artifact of a life snuffed out, a prophetic voice silenced and the hope of the Salvadoran people vanquished.

Now with the beatification of Msr Óscar Romero, now Blessed Óscar Romero, this shirt — not the alb, not the chasuble — this shirt drenched with his blood has taken on the level of relic. And with this change of status, the shirt no longer hangs in the display case for all to see but now has been carefully prepared and sewn (?) onto a pillow, which resides inside a glass-and-gilded box with a cross on its top. Said relic will travel from place to place before settling down at the cathedral (?).

In the thinking and style of Pablo Neruda in his poems on things or the French writer, Roland Barthes, who in his Mythologies takes on simple things and discusses the layers of meaning placed upon them, the object here has taken on more than its original simple essence. Thus, this grey shirt, which is a simple clergy shirt, becomes a museum piece to be further translated into an object of veneration, a relic.

I honestly struggle with the domestication of Romero's message, its appropriation, at times, by the right at the expense of the people for whom it was originally intended, the poor (one can argue that his message was also for the right and oligarchy, namely, to 'stop the repression'). And while I understand the importance of touching holy things and sites — I have done it myself countless times in helping out in burnishing the bronze mitre of Romero's third tomb — I still hesitate at the change that this shirt has undergone. That people venerate an object and that the spirit, the thoughts and the legacy of a person bothers me.

Rome's recognition of the importance of Romero is long overdue, no doubt about it. I am glad that Rome is gradually inching toward recognising what Central America and beyond have long recognised, that Romero is holy. I just wish this recognition would remember its origins — from the disenfranchised, the people in the streets, the poor, those without voice. I am not sure that such recognition is going to stick now that Rome has gotten in on the act 35 years later. I pray I am wrong.

As for me… I will not be venerating a shirt but trying in my own small way to continue to proclaim Romero's message of justice and his love for Jesus and love for his people.

Renewed

Some people may well think I am crazy to say that by going to El Salvador, I come back renewed, but that is always the case. Even though I may come back tired (and with a cold, thanks to flying), I am energised from the culture, the music, the food and, most of all, the people. This trip was no different from others.

Sunday the 18th, the bishop of El Salvador and I concelebrated at a congregation who was celebrating its patronal feast day of Saint Joseph. The following Sunday, I presided at the Eucharist in the small chapel in the diocesan office building. It was so restorative to be able to be a priest again in community after this long desert time.

I led a day-long Lenten retreat for the clergy and a half-day conference on Holy Week for the laity, participated in an interfaith event to commemorate Msr Oscar Romero, walked in the candlelight procession down Avenida Roosevelt from Salvador del Mundo to El Rosario (since Catedral has been occupied since 10 January with no sign of the occupiers leaving) and visited and met with my Salvadoran sisters and brothers.

One never knows whom one will meet... in this case, Gaspar Romero, Oscar Romero's brother, who spoke at an event sponsored by the Attorney General's Office on Human Rights.

Catedral Metropolitana

La Catedral Metropolitana de San Salvador as I first saw it in 1994. It was not finished, nor was it open to the public. We were amazed to see the banner of San Romero de las Américas hanging between the two bell towers, as well as people up in the towers. We gathered for a FMLN rally before the first free elections to be held after the 1992 peace accords (16 January 1992).

When I returned to El Salvador in 1996, the façade still had not been finished and the cathedral was still closed.

It was not until 2002 that I finally got to see the entire cathedral, inside and out.

And ever since that trip, I have always returned to the cathedral to take in the environment: the bustle of the city outside, the people coming and going and the peacefulness that comes from spending time by Romero's tomb.

These surely are the most comfortable pews/benches anywhere. The cathedral is cool inside, an oasis on a hot afternoon.

The old tomb still speaks to me far more than the present one (2005), which is triumphalistic.

The people will always prevail... 26 March 2011, the people had covered the tomb with flowers.

People still pray at the former tomb. So do I.

Thus, I also am horrified by the stupidity of what has transpired: 26 December behind a huge white shroud, workers chipped away the façade tiles of Harmony of My People (Armonia de mi pueblo) by Dom Fernando Llort, the artisan behind the revival of the folk art that is commonly known as La Palma, from the town where he makes it, and from his workshop, Semilla de Dios, Seed of God. He spent a year of his life creating this work; it was paid for by donations from the people of El Salvador.

This is why so many people are up in arms that the Roman hierarchy decided to take down the mural with the feeble excuse that the tiles had faded, some of them had come unglued (why then did it take people with chisels to hack them away?) and might fall down on people. The apology consisted of the archbishop saying that he was sorry, he regretted not having consulted with the family and if they wanted, they could have a miniature of the façade in the cathedral.

In an article written by Episcopal communicator, Susana Barrera of the Iglesia Episcopal Anglicana de El Salvador, Bishop Martín Barahona of the same church comments on the recent artistic tragedy:

“Alabo la actitud de Monseñor José Luis Escobar Alas (Arzobispo Católico) de pedir perdón, pero le pido se repare el daño que se ha hecho a la cultura y religiosidad del pueblo salvadoreño”, demandó el Obispo Martin Barahona de la Iglesia Anglicana, quien ha dado seguimiento a los hechos.

"I commend the attitude of Archbishop José Luis Escobar Alas (Catholic Archbishop) for apologizing, but I ask that the damage that has been made to culture and religion of the Salvadoran people be repaired," said Bishop Martin Barahona of the Episcopal Anglican Church of El Salvador, who has followed the events.And more from the same article: “Lamento la situación que se ha dado, no comprendo a mi hermana mayor la Iglesia Católica, con tanta sabiduría y no consultar, no meditar, y cometer una prepotencia de esa naturaleza… definitivamente es una falta de respeto a los seres humanos”, reflexionó Barahona.

“I regret the current situation. I do not understand how my older sister, the Catholic Church — with so much wisdom — it could not have consulted or mediated [this situation] and [instead] committed an arrogant act of this nature. Decidedly, it is a lack of respect for human beings," Barahona reflected.

How long would it take to restore what has been taken down, especially since the hierarchy destroyed the work so that some image of El Salvador, Our Saviour, can be painted there instead?

Instead of this work of art that some lovingly, others less so called, 'The Towel,' because many towels sold are of the same style, this is what remains.

This gringa de corazón salvadoreño joins with the Salvadoran people in lamenting the senseless, arrogant and stupid destruction of a national patrimony that belonged to all the people... of El Salvador in particular and the world in general.

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

Looks like....

Does this look like a donkey or what?

Oh, oh, oh. It is going to be a very long 18 months. If only we would limit the electoral season to three months as other countries — El Salvador for one — do.

Pupusas

Belated wishes

¡Bendito día patronal al pueblo de El Salvador!

[photo from Co-Latino of fireworks over El Mundo, the round-about near the pro-cathedral of the Iglesia Episcopal Anglicana de El Salvador]

Ça commence

Go to the Lead for the full story.

Let's count how many days have passed since the great feast of Pentecost... two weeks.

It took the powers-that-be 14 days instead of 24 hours to kick those members of The Episcopal Church off the relevant Anglican Communion committees — the Standing Committee and the Inter-Anglican Standing Commission on Unity, Faith and Order and the Inter Anglican ecumenical dialogue committee. I guess things have slowed down some? After all, the election of a certain fabulous candidate for bishop suffragan made comment within 24 hours. (As a reminder, it took a week for the ABC's office to acknowledge the near-assassination of one of the Anglican Communion's primates, the Archbishop of IARCA.)

The Church of Canada and Southern Cone are respectively being asked to 'clarify' their positions on not 'obeying the moratoria.' Guess border-crossing is less a threat to the uniformity of the communion than teh gays.

So once again, TEC is the ABC's favourite kicking post. The gut says let's pack up and go but that just means that in the vacuum, the more shrill and exclusionary voices will be heard.

Operating from the head, I say show up anyway and hold our heads high for there is nothing of which we are to be ashamed.

I can't really write too much because I am peeved enough with this basura to be coherent. All I can say is: More and more my plumbline is proving true:

Is a decision/teaching/attitude of Christ or of the Church? If those of the Church contradict those of Christ, then I eschew them.

Right now those decisions of this particular branch of the Church, in this particular office of a certain archbishop, are not anything remotely connected to those of Christ.

A week later

Here is what Hurricane Agatha left in El Salvador... swamped corn fields that are unrecoverable.

Selected cats

Just three photos to let you know things are fine... none of Miss Grey Lady; she does not hang out with the hoi poloi, you know.


This morning all three decided to camp out in my bedroom.


I liked the way he draped his tail in the window this evening.


Then he decided to join me in reading 'Así matamos a monseñor Romero,' an investigation by Carlos Dad in El Faro (San Salvador). Very well read cat, I dare say.

Agatha in Guatemala and El Salvador

Storm kills 142 in Central America

GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- Flooding and landslides from the season's first tropical storm have killed at least 142 people and left thousands homeless in Central America, officials said Monday.

Dozens of people are still missing and emergency crews are struggling to reach isolated communities cut off by washed-out roads and collapsed bridges caused by Tropical Storm Agatha.

The sun emerged Monday in hardest-hit Guatemala, where officials reported 118 dead and 53 missing. In the department of Chimaltenango -- a province west of Guatemala City -- landslides buried dozens of rural Indian communities and killed at least 60 people, Gov. Erick de Leon said.

''The department has collapsed,'' de Leon said. ''There are a lot of dead people. The roads are blocked. The shelters are overflowing. We need water, food, clothes, blankets -- but above all, money.''

[...]

In El Salvador, at least 179 landslides have been reported and 11,000 people were evacuated. The death toll was nine, President Mauricio Funes said.

About 95 percent of the country's roads were affected by landslides, but most remain open, Transportation Minister Gerson Martinez said.

The Lempa River, which flows to the Pacific, topped its banks and flooded at least 20 villages, affecting some 6,000 people, said Jorge Melendez, director of the Civil Protection Agency.

Officials warned that the Acelhuate River, which cuts through San Salvador, was running at dangerously high levels and threatened to spill over into the capital's streets.

Agatha made landfall near the Guatemala-Mexico border Saturday as a tropical storm with winds up to 45 mph (75 kph). It dissipated the following day over the mountains of western Guatemala.

The rising death toll is reminding nervous residents of Hurricane Mitch, which hovered over Central America for days in 1998, causing flooding and mudslides that killed nearly 11,000 people and left more than 8,000 missing and unaccounted for.

Rescue efforts in Guatemala have been complicated by a volcanic eruption Thursday near the capital that blanketed parts of the area with ash and closed the country's main airport. Officials are now allowing helicopters and propeller planes to take off, but commercial flights remain grounded.

Oraciones hoy y mañana

Prayers today and tomorrow for the Anglican Episcopal Church of El Salvador as they meet in their annual convention and tonight as they ordain three men to the priesthood.


Here are candles in our chapel, seven to represent the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit along with a little incense.

Back on the east coast

to a backlog but I will put down some of my impressions about the consecrations yesterday in Long Beach but let me post two photographs that mean a lot to me.


Archbishop Barahona came up from El Salvador to participate in the consecration, his last act of Primate of the Anglican Church of the Region of Central America. Post consecration he spoke of how powerful it is at the moment of laying on of hands because the Holy Spirit is so present. In the evening, he talked about how support of the LGBTI community is a question of human rights because our sexuality is a part of human nature and a gift from God. His ministry, support and witness have been gifts from God to the rest of us. May God continue to protect him.


There is no going back! Each bishop needed two pages for all the signatures and seals. Incredible!

I could not keep from singing, 'Hail thee festival day, blest day that art hallowed forever...'

What northerners have to do...

... to hang out in a hammock...

when there is no tree close enough to another to put up a hammock.

So, as an early birthday present for my prime year, Compa got me a hammock stand. It arrived in a box so demolished that we had to take everything out to make sure it all had arrived intact. A bit banged up but it will do.

I bought the hammock in the photo in 1994 at the mercado central close to the Catedral Metropolitano in San Salvador and have never used it until today when I tried it out. It will do just fine.


While in El Salvador, I got a chance to rest some in a hammock at the bishop's house. There, the hammock is in an enclosed patio with all manner of happy plants, ferns with fronds so long that they touch the ground even though they hang four and a half feet up, and fruit trees. Somehow, setting up the hammock on the patio at the rectory where there is relatively little privacy is not quite the same.

Come summer, I will move the stand out into the yard under the shade of the large maple tree (until I get hit by bird or squirrel guano).

Still, I can see that hammock coming into use on a Sunday afternoon when I have polished off the New York Times.

An Aloha moment

Yesterday after all the conversation about cilantro — whether you love it or hate it and how that might well be pre-determined — I had an Aloha moment, a craving for cilantro.

For those of you who have not been to San Salvador, you would not know that near the pro-cathedral is a funky sports-restaurant called Aloha. It is within walking distance and when I lived at the cathedral during sabbatical I occasionally would take lunch there. My usual lunch was pollo a la plancha, grilled chicken, which came with pico de gallo and fries. So last night I made a good bowl of homemade salsa with lots of cilantro and roasted some potatoes to go with the chicken.

Definitely an Aloha moment!

Tonight before vestry a simple bowl of salsa will have to suffice.

[photo surprisingly does not have cilantro but that is because that particular bowl of salsa had ingredients that came only from my garden and the cilantro was past.]

Just a small note from the Most Rev'd Martin Barahona

Solo una pequeña nota

Reciban mi amor y agradecimiento por sus oraciones y expresión de solidaridad con motivo del terrible atentado criminal, el cual sufrí el 17 de marzo del corriente año, y en el cual mi motorista Francis Martínez resultó gravemente herido, pero gracias a Dios ya está fuera de peligro y en recuperación y del que yo salí ileso. Gracias por su solidaridad y a su constante oraciones que han sido nuestro mejor escudo protector.

Doy gracias a Dios por la expresión de amistad que he recibido de iglesias amigas y de toda la Comunión Anglicana, lo cual me da confianza para continuar en el servicio a Dios en este mi amado país El Salvador

Aprovecho la oportunidad para desearles felices pascuas de resurrección.

Rvdmo. Martin Barahona
Obispo de la Iglesia Episcopal de El Salvador
Y Primado de la Iglesia Anglicana de la Región Central de America (IARCA)


Just a small note

Receive my love and thanks for your prayers and expressions of solidarity after the terrible criminal assassination attempt which I suffered on 17 March of this year and in which my driver, Francis Martinez, was gravely injured. However, thanks be to God, he already is out of danger and is recovering and I was not injured. Thank you for your solidarity and your constant prayers which have been our best protective shield.

I give thanks to God for the expressions of friendship I have received from our friends in the church and in all of the Anglican Communion. These give me the confidence to continue in the service of God in my beloved country of El Salvador.

I also take this opportunity to wish you a happy and blessed Easter.

The Most Rev'd Martin Barahona
Bishop of the Episcopal Church of El Salvador
and Primate of the Anglican Church of the Region of Central America

[photo taken during his recent trip to San Francisco; he is wearing a stole the children from the parish I serve made him in October 2009]

+++

Francis will have the stitches removed from his stomach tomorrow; last week the doctors put a plate and six screws in his elbow; these will be permanent. The pain in his elbow is still quite noticeable at night; during the day it is not overwhelming.

The IAES still greatly appreciates all of your prayers.

Ya es santo

Over in Facebook land, I am a fan of the Juventud Anglicana de El Salvador. They posted some photos today of a Holy Week retreat held out at El Maizal, about 80 kms to the west of San Salvador. This site once was a farm and then became an agricultural school until the conflict wherein it was abandoned. The IAES became owner of it in the 1980s but only in the late 1990s began to reconsider what to do with the property.

When I went to El Salvador in 2002 for the first Cristosal board meeting, the bishop spoke of his plans for the property, plans which at the time meant buying five more acres of land. When a group of Episcopal communicators and I visited El Maizal in 2004, the local leader showed us the bishop's plans for the property. We called it, 'Martín's field of dreams.'

By 2007, the school, thirty homes and spiffing up of the main building had already happened. Agricultural projects were well under way. My last time there, in 2008, a small swimming pool had been installed (somewhere I read it was the gift of the Bishop of Los Angeles) and the main building fully rehabbed. Since then, the church has been renovated and they are working on forming a congregation. There is bakery out there that is fully functional.

In February of this year, during the tenth year anniversary celebration of the founding of Cristosal, the bishop dedicated an obelisk with a celtic cross up top and a plaque at the bottom with the names of the Cristosal board, recognising the work that international citizens have accomplished in partnership with the IAES. Though I am not on the Cristosal board and have not been since 2005, my name is there, too, something for which I am most honoured.



I love the fact that the youth of the diocese chose to have a night-time outdoor Eucharist at the foot of the obelisk (that will also serve as a columbarium). I think the youth are the first to bless the obelisk in this manner.

As an advertisement, make sure that your parish includes in its bulletins on Sunday 25 April, the Episcopal News Service leaflet on Cristosal. Go over to ENS to get it and then get it to the church office.

Prayers for IARCA

The Synod of the Iglesia Anglicana de la Región de Central América is meeting this week in Panamá. Our Padre Mickey will be on the scene with camera and taking notes for us. He is also preparing the opening liturgy which will take place tomorrow night.

This meeting is an important one because at it they will elect the third archbishop of the province. Their canons allow for two consecutive four-year terms. Bishop Martín Barahona of El Salvador, elected in April 2002 after the death of Cornelius Wilson of Costa Rica, has now completed those two terms and it is time for someone else to take the place. Tea leaf reading indicates it will be the bishop of Guatemala, Armando Guerra, who will be elected, but who knows what the Holy Spirit will be? There is hardly a large field — since the Bishop of El Salvador is ineligible, save changing the canons, that leaves Guatemala, Nicaragua (Sturdy Downs), Panamá (Julio Murray) and Costa Rica (Hector Monterossa). I would be amazed if the bishop of Nicaragua were elected... he has struggled with health issues of late. So that leaves Guate whose bishop has the longest experience, then Panamá and Costa Rica in terms of consecration.

So hold this young province, just barely 12 years old, as it moves through its synod, that God's grace and wisdom shall prevail and politics might sit in the backseat.

I would expect there be a celebration of Bishop Barahona's ministry as archbishop. I hope so! All I can say is that things will be quite different henceforth.

Update on El Salavdor

Talked with the bishop last night... his driver is out of the hospital facing a two-month recovery. They operated on his arm this week.

No news as far as investigation... there probably won't be until after Holy Week and Easter.

This whole mess has put a real crunch in finances: they have to buy a new car, e.g.

Any of you feel like sending money to Cristosal, the link of the sidebar is still active.

Gracias and continue to hold all of them in your prayers.

More later.

Proclamation from 24 March

Acta de Proclamación

Nosotros y nosotras, pastores y pastoras del mundo entero, pueblo ROMERISTA de Salvadoreños y Salvadoreñas, hombres y mujers ROMERISTAS de DIVERSOS CONTINENTES DE LA TIERRA, que hemos sidos Congregados en esta plaza CÍVICA, FRENTE A LA CATEDRAL DE MONSENOR ROMERO, EN SUELO SALVADORENO REGADO POR LAGRIMAS Y SANGRE DE MARTIRES. Convocados y convocadas por el Dios de la vida, nuestro Padre y Madre, por Jesús de Nazareth amigo y hermano, el Espíritu Santo que habla por los profetas y por Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero fiel seguidor de Jesús.

Manifestamos al pueble Salvadoreño, a todos los pueblos del mundo y a la iglesia Universal, que RECONOCEMOS en Monseñor Romero:

• Su fidelidad a Dios
• Su opción preferencial, radical y transparente por los pobres
• Su espiritualidad de liberación
• Su testimonio auténtico de pastor y profeta
• Su lucha incansable por la justicia
• Su entrega generosa hasta dar la vida como Jesús por la liberación de su pueblo
• Y la vigencia de su palabra y de su ejemplo.

Por tanto PROCLAMAMOS a:

MONSENOR OSCAR ARNULFO ROMERO,
PASTOR, PROFETA Y MARTIR DE LOS POBRES

Queremos continuar en esta gran caminata por el Reino, de la mano de Monseñor Romero, codo a codo con los más empobrecidos, que son las víctimas inocentes del sistema perverso que proscribe y mata. Sabemos que ellos y ellas son el rostro vivo del Señor que sigue gritando por Justicia.

Mural at Comolapa

Meanwhile, el Presidente de la República Salvadoreña, Mauricio Funes, whom I met in 2004, dedicated a mural at the airport. It is off the beaten track if you fly Delta or American; the people arriving on Taca will walk right by it. Otherwise, you have to backtrack to see it.


Left panel


Middle panel (the violet line to the right is evidence that my five year-old Canon is dying after 3000+ photos, well done faithful servant)


middle and right panel


These shiny gold plaques are impossible to photograph. This one consists of the dedicatory words of el Presidente.

'
This plaque is at the far right, expressing the apology on a state-level for the murder of Oscar Arnulfo Romero.

So, you can catch this coming or going from the airport.