The parish in which I serve is called San Francisco de Asís, headquartered in Reitoca, F.M., Honduras. The “F.M.” stands for Francisco Morazán, the name of the Department in which Reitoca is located. A “Department” is like an American or Mexican state or a Canadian province. This parish is the largest parish in the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa in terms of land area. In fact, the parish covers 248 square miles, or more than 642 square kilometers. It is a rural, mountain parish in southern Honduras, a country of Central America.
Unlike American parishes that have one church where everyone comes to for Mass, in Honduras, that is not the case. Parishes here are more like dioceses in that they can have huge numbers of parishioners and many churches. The parish of San Francisco de Asís has 5 municipalities scattered in various mountain ranges: Alubarén, Curarén, La Libertad, Reitoca, and San Miguelito. Each of these municipalities has many communities, and many of the communities have churches of our parish. So, in addition to the main church in each municipality (which are also called pueblos), there are churches in the communities. And, each of the churches has a different name. Our parish is composed of 87 churches and 3 communities which do not yet have a church. The number of parishioners is approximately 50,000 people.
Because each of the churches has a different name, and therefore having a different patronal festival, we are forever celebrating something!
To serve this far-flung community, we have three priests and many other ministers. Of the three priests, two are priests of the Archdiocese of Tegucigalpa (Fathers Carlos and Sebastián), and me, a missionary priest of the Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina.
Each of the communities with a church of the parish also has one or more Delegados or Delegadas de la Palabra (Delegates of the Word). These leaders are the official Catholic presence in the communities. These men and women have special training and are sort of “priest-extenders” who conduct Liturgies of the Word each Thursday evening and Sundays if there is no priest to celebrate Mass. The little communities also have catechists for faith formation, music ministers, and a host of others who make the communities vibrant. Delegados also conduct novenas following a death in the community, visit the sick, baptize infants in danger of death, celebrate Quinceañeras, care for their church buildings, and do a myriad of other things.
If the community does not have a catechist, Delegados jump in to serve as the catechist to prepare folks for sacraments such as Baptism, First Reconciliation, First Communion, or Matrimony. Delegados also are responsible for keeping the records for their church communities.
Although there are paved streets in the five pueblos, in between the various communities of the parish, there are no paved roads. So, we travel in pickup trucks on wild mountain roads, which is why we need a complete set of tires every six months for each of the three pickup trucks used by the priests.
Many of the churches are a two-hour drive – one-way – from Reitoca, and many of the communities are inaccessible to us during the rainy season (October). So, it is not unusual for a community to see a priest only once or twice a year.
Because the parish is so huge in land area, it has many different climates. Though ice and snow are unheard of in Honduras, there are some parts of our parish that are cooler than others. Reitoca, itself, is basically always hot. Some parts of the parish are pine forests, and some places are more desert-like areas. In some parts of the parish, it is cool enough for coffee to grow, and there is one place that even grows rice.
The main crops grown in the parish are beans and corn, though the area also produces bananas, coconuts, mangoes, and other tropical fruit. In addition, chicken, beef, and pork, products such as eggs and milk are common in this mountain parish.
Needless to say, this is an incredibly vibrant and exciting place, and in the blog, you’ll get to experience some of its wonder!
Input your search keywords and press Enter.