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This is Juan Vásquez, one of the Delegados de la Palabra (Delegates of the Word) of the Curarén community of Manzanilla.
Delegados are specially-trained men and women who are the official Catholic presence in the community. Because only five of the more than 85 churches of our parish have Masses every Sunday, most of the churches have Liturgies of the Word every Thursday and Sunday run by the Delegados.
In addition to these liturgies, Delegados are responsible for the care of their churches. They visit the sick, conduct funerals, baptize infants in need, lead novenas following deaths in their community, celebrate Quinceañeras, and ensure people are prepared for sacraments such as Baptism, Confirmation, First Communion, Holy Matrimony, and Reconciliation. They also are responsible for all the paperwork that running a Catholic church entails, and they sometimes do the work of Catechists when a Catechist is not available in the community. They also welcome the priest for Masses and prepare the music. And, there are a host of other duties they have.
Without Delegados, we would not have much of a Catholic Church in Honduras. In the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa, for example, the latest statistic shows we have 1 priest for every 14,500 Catholics. In the United States, the priest/Catholics is ten times better. In the Diocese of Raleigh, for example, there is 1 priest for every 1,400 people. It is little wonder, then, that we cherish people like Juan and other Delegados so greatly!
