Memorial 'The Eye That Cries'

August: the month of memory in Peru.  It is a month to ask for forgiveness for our indifference and acts of violence.  A month in which our martyrs from the religious life invite us in a special way to live in accordance to the gospel and in solidarity with our neighbors, to live in a way that we give everything we have. 

Therefore, together with the youth of the parish Reina de los Cielos in Los Olivos (Lima) we participated in a ritual of memory for the martyrs of Religious Life such as Irene Mc Cormack RSJ, Juana Sawyer SSC, Agustina Rivas BP, Miguel Tomazek OFM, Zbigniew Strazalkowski OFM and the diocesan priests  Alessandro Dordi and Victor Acuña; who gave their lives for the gospel and were assassinated during the internal armed conflict in Peru between 1980-2000.   

With this action, the youth were able to learn about the history and memory in order to better understand their grandparents, parents, and society that are still challenged by the processes of justice, forgiveness, and reconciliation. 

By traveling the path of the memorial “The Eye that Cries” the youth reflected on the role of the churches and above all gained an understanding that violence is never the way.  At the end of the visit the youth prayed a prayer for peace, uniting all of the countries and people of good will to build paths of peace and reconciliation.  

It is worth mentioning that the Memorial “The Eye that Cries” is a space designated to honor and preserve the memory of the victims of armed internal conflict.  It is a space for memory made up of a stone sculpture that represents the Mother Earth (Pachamama), from which water drips out like tears symbolizing the pain of Mother Earth for what her children are capable of doing to one another.  It is surrounded by a labyrinth made of eleven circles of stones inscribed with the name, age, and year of death or disappearance for each victim. 

This event was made possible thanks to the support of the Congregational JPIC Office of our Congregation of Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word. 

You can see photos of the trip here: http://bit.do/cngqw 

At least 185 Environmental Activists Killed in 2015

Environmentalism has never been more dangerous. According to findings published Monday by the NGO Global Witness, 2015 marked the bloodiest year on record for environmental activists and land defenders. At least 185 environmentalists in 16 different countries are known to have been murdered, according to the group—a rate of more than three a week.

The figure represents a 60 percent increase over 2014's death toll. And those are just the murders we know about. Global Witness says that number may actually be a significant underestimate. The true number could be "far higher," since many such killings happen deep within rainforests or in remote villages and are difficult to document.

Latin America and Southeast Asia suffered the brunt of the slayings, with Brazil (50), the Philippines (33), and Colombia (26) sustaining the greatest losses.

Nearly 40 percent of those killed came from indigenous communities, according to the report. Groups that attempt to resist development and land expropriation in resource-rich areas are particularly vulnerable. In the Mindanao region of the Philippines, a largely indigenous region flush with coal, nickel, and gold, 25 activists were murdered in 2015. The violence carries global implications—according to the IBON Foundation, foreign industries control 97 percent of all mineral production in the Philippines.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, few of these murders are ever prosecuted in court, or even investigated. According to the report, "Many authorities either turn a blind eye or actively impede investigations into these killings due to the collusion between corporate and state interests—the principal suspects in these murders." Based on available data, Global Witness determined that killings were almost equally likely to occur at the hands of paramilitary, army, police, and private security. Felipe Milanez, former deputy editor of National Geographic Brazil, told the Guardian that "killing has become politically acceptable to achieve economic goals" and that he had "never seen, working for the past 10 years in the Amazon, a situation so bad."

Slumping global commodities indices may give one partial explanation. The report cites economist Ademar Ramos of the State University of Campinas in Brazil, who argues that plummeting commodity prices and access to cheap oil have actually led to companies expanding their extractive practices and taking on greater risks in order to recoup lost profits. Coupled with an eroding regulatory climate in places such as Peru and Brazil, business interests have run roughshod over preexisting land tenure practices and in some case have targeted dissenters.

Mining, agribusiness, logging, and water rights were the four industrial sectors mostly explicitly implicated in this wave of violence. Mining—for tin, coal, copper, silver, and gold—was linked to 42 murders. Agribusiness was linked to 20 known murders. Expanded logging activity was linked to 15 killings. And hydroelectric dam initiatives in Central America were linked to another 15—not including the high-profile assassination of indigenous Honduran activist Berta Cáceres, a Goldman Environmental Prize winner and dam opponent who was shot in her home in March 2016.

Global Witness presented a number of recommendations, encouraging UN Human Rights Council intervention, increased government enforcement, and greater scrutiny in international trade agreements. The group called for urgent intervention, warning that population and economic growth coupled with rising global temperatures would serve to exacerbate this troubling trend in the years to come.

source: Mother Jones

Danger Did Not Drive Us Out of Peru

By Sr. Martha Ann Kirk, CCVI

"These are our martyrs," said our Incarnate Word Sisters in Chimbote, Peru, as they showed us an image of three priests whose beatification ceremony they attended on December 5. These priests — Fr. Micael Tomaszek and Fr. Zbigniew Stralowski, Franciscans from Poland, and Padre Alessandro Dordi, from Italy —were murdered by the terrorist group, Sendero Luminoso, "the Shining Path," in 1991.  

I was on my fifth trip to Peru as a teacher from the University of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas, connecting students and faculty with realities in Chimbote where our sisters started working after Pope John XXIII begged North American religious to go to South America to help meet the needs.

In the 1950s, Chimbote had been a popular resort and prosperous fishing port. Things changed as thousands of indigenous people immigrated there seeking a better life. Some got jobs in fishmeal factories, but eventually these led to overfishing. Air, water and soil were polluted by factories. Now Chimbote is one of the poorest and most contaminated cities in the country, with about 400,000 inhabitants, many of whom do not have access to water, sewage or electricity. According to Worldwatch Institute, life expectancy in Chimbote is about 10 years lower than the Peruvian national average.

Abimael Guzman, the leader of Sendero Luminoso and a former university philosophy professor in Ayacucho, said they wanted to help the poor. He taught that violence and terror were the only ways to destroy the governmental system in Peru and bring in a new communist model. They began bombings and assassinations in 1980. Church workers, who tried to protect the people or advocate nonviolent approaches to change, were considered enemies.

The martyred priests were working among the poor and trying to teach peace. Our Sr. Grace O'Mara, who actively spoke for justice and peace, received a death threat from the terrorists. Sr. Rita Prendergast reflected, "The violent methods of the terrorists overshadowed their claims that they wanted to help the poor." Sr. Sarah Lennon noted, "Often, those working for peace and justice [were] caught in the crossfire between terrorists and government forces."

I remember the late 1980s and the reports of thousands being killed in Peru. Some of us were saying to our sisters in Peru, "Come home. Come back to the U.S. and Mexico. You can minister here. We do not need you dead in Peru. The Incarnate Word Sisters can minister other places."

On August 9, 1991, the two Franciscans were killed in a village not far from Chimbote. Sr. Rosaleen Harold had collaborated on diocesan projects with Fr. Dordi. He was killed 16 days later and the terrorists left a sign on his body, "This is how those who speak of peace die."

Two months later, our sisters gathered for a special assembly in Peru to discern what to do as more people were being killed. They remembered how the first six Incarnate Word Sisters began ministry in 1964 in health care, education, and accompanying the most vulnerable. They opened the Santa Clara Center where they offered basic medical services and received hundreds of sick people per week during the many cholera, typhoid and yellow fever epidemics. In 1982 the sisters extended their mission to Cambio Puente, a nearby rural zone where they helped protect the rights of farmers and developed catechists, literacy programs, health promoters, centers to feed the needy and other services.

Three years later, the sisters began a mission among the Aymara-speaking indigenous people in the Puno area in the Andes. The sisters accompanied those with physical incapacities and did prison ministry, and they also promoted religious education. In 1988 the sisters began ministering in parts of Lima as houses were opened to welcome and teach Peruvians wishing to be sisters, as well as lay persons seeking to be associate members of the congregation.

In the 1980s as the congregation became more firmly rooted in Peru, the terrorist group Sendero Luminoso was spreading. Finally Guzmán was captured and imprisoned in 1992. About 70,000 people were killed during 20 years of conflict in Peru. In 2003, the Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission reported that although the government reacted with excessive violence and there were other terrorist groups, about 37,800 people were killed by Sendero Luminoso led by Guzmán.

Sr. Juanita Albracht said that when Guzmán was in prison, Fr. Jack Davis, a good friend of our sisters in Chimbote, went to talk to him. Father asked why the priests were killed. Guzmán replied, "Because of their faith; they were teaching peace." Sr. Grace O'Meara explained that Senderistas believed that violence was essential in the revolutionary process and that religion was "the opium of the people."

Despite the dangers, our congregation chose not to abandon its mission in Peru. Sisters there argued that if they left the people's side, they might never have a chance to go back.

If we would have let the danger drive the sisters out of Peru, what difference would it have made?

In the Andean area, there wouldn't be lay pastoral leaders for the 150 small communities in their parish that has only one priest, leaders who were taught and encouraged by our first Peruvian Sr. Hirayda Blácido.

Hospicio Santiago Apostol, the first hospice in Latin America, which was started by our sisters in 2002, wouldn't be bringing a holistic approach of spiritual and physical care, as well as assistance to the patients' families. Sr. Mirella Neira is now the administrator of the hospice program with both home-based care and a residential center.  

If the sisters had left, about 31,000 people would not have been served last year alone by the Incarnate Word Health System in Peru. Sr. Lourdes Gómez, a psychologist who works in mission effectiveness, guides over 70 lay collaborators in the clinic and hospice in the spirit and values of our congregation. She is also the coordinator of our sisters in Peru. Sr. Sofia Mamani, who sings beautifully in her first language of Quechua, is studying physical therapy.

In the Lima area, Sr. Mary Luz Cayo wouldn't be an early childhood teacher in San Viator School in Comas. We wouldn't have Carol Velarde Flores, our pre-novice, attending the inter-congregational formation program where women and men of over 20 congregations study. Sr. Katty Huánuco wouldn't be bringing her extensive skills in communications and her passion for justice as the director of our International Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation office. And we wouldn't have the opportunity to be proud of Sr. Pilar Neira, who is the executive secretary of CONFER, the national Peruvian organization of religious men and women.

If our congregation would have let danger drive us out of Peru, there would not be Peruvian Incarnate Word sisters, lay sssociate members, and lay missionaries from the U.S., Ireland, or Mexico volunteering for a year or two there, and over 70 lay collaborators working with them in the Centro de Servicios de Salud Integral Santa Clara and in the Hospicio Santiago Apóstol.

In the church yard of Cambio Puente people waiting for eye examinations; a woman, right, reads the eye chart on the tree that Dr. Jamie Matos is pointing to. (Martha A. Kirk)

If the sisters would have left, our 21-member university international service learning group, sponsored by the UIW Ettling Center for Civic Leadership and Women's Global Connection, wouldn't have had the recent opportunity to visit Peru. We shared workshops with early childhood educators and women trying to develop small businesses. We received information for pharmacy and nutrition collaborations in the future. We helped provide eye care to over 400 adults and children, many of whom had never had glasses before.

We were helping them to see, but more than that, they were helping us to see more of the beauty of the face of God that danger cannot dim.

Original article taken from Global Sisters Report:  http://globalsistersreport.org/column/ministry/danger-did-not-drive-us-out-peru-37021 

Sr. Margaret Shares Her Reflections from a Delegation to El Salvador

By Sr. Margaret Snyder

From Nov. 28 to Dec. 5, 2015, I was blessed to join a delegation of 117 who traveled to El Salvador for the 35th anniversary of the murder of four U.S. missionaries who were assassinated by the Salvadoran military for their advocacy on behalf of refugees and the poor.  The delegation was sponsored by LCWR and SHARE, an organization that supports human rights, sustainable community development and civic participation in El Salvador.  On our journey we visited several groups of women and youth who have been empowered through SHARE’s programs of leadership development and education.

On Dec. 2 we were at the parish church built on the site of the death of the four church women.  One of the petitions during the Mass captured the sense of accompaniment and hope for the future that marked every step of our journey:  “O God, we lift our voices and we pray for the Salvadoran people, above all for the poor.  May God accompany them in their struggle to form a society based on justice for every person.  We pray for the people of this parish, a place sanctified with the blood of the martyrs, that God continue walking among them sowing seeds of faith and hope.”  As we listened to family members and Salvadorans tell of the lives of the four, I couldn’t help but think of our call to make God’s love visible, which is exactly what these four women did!

The women were considered an obstacle to the “scorched earth” campaign, supported by the US by sending arms and ammunition to eradicate “communists”.  They were protecting the villagers by scurrying them away to safer areas; they were bringing in food, medicine and clothing; and they were systematically tracking the abductions and disappearances for the Catholic Church’s Legal Defense Office.

The Monument to Truth and Memory in San Salvador lists the names of more than 30,000 victims of El Salvador’s civil war, including Archbishop Romero and the four church women. The dedication reads:  “This memorial is a gathering place, so that we never forget them, to honor their memory, to return to them dignity, to not permit the horror to be repeated and to lay the basis for a culture of peace and authentic reconciliation.  A space for hope, to continue dreaming and building a more just, humane and equitable society”.  Several Salvadoran mothers joined us and told about their family members who are among the disappeared.  As I walked along the wall, I noticed surnames that were the same as the Salvadorans I have met in ministry in El Paso and at El Puente.  It was heart wrenching!  I now understand better why the folks I have become acquainted with had to leave El Salvador and why they could never really talk about the atrocities their families experienced.  It also made me think about the women and children being held in our detention centers in Texas.  They, too, have their stories and their reasons for leaving home!

After 35 years, justice continues to be sought for the murders of the four churchwomen and thousands of Salvadorans.  At a press conference, our delegation called for an investigation of General Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova who led the Salvadoran National Guard (which committed horrific assassinations) but has never been held criminally accountable for his crimes against humanity.  The Prosecutor’s Office for the Defense of Human Rights joined us in calling for the Attorney General of El Salvador to fulfill his obligation to open an investigation and in doing so eliminate any impunity in regards to the case.  Relevant authorities need to be given access to the corresponding files to uncover the truth in these grave violations of human rights as a vital step toward ending the culture of violence and impunity that plagues El Salvador to this day.

We visited CIETTA/CONFRAS, the organic farming research center and nursery cooperative and national center for agrarian reform.  After enjoying a meal that was prepared with organic, sustainable ingredients, the learned of how the cooperative is trying to prevent Monsanto from flooding El Salvador’s market with its chemical-dependent seeds which have to be purchased every year.  Farmers in El Salvador are pushing for the passage of food sovereignty regulations that would protect local producers from being overrun by imported goods and make transparent the origins of products on the market.  They have grave concerns about the fact that 18.9% of children in El Salvador under the age of 5 are malnourished.

Our last day in El Salvador was spent in San Jose Las Flores and San Jose de San Antonio. The residents of these two villages were forced to flee to refugee camps in Honduras during the war years.  After the 1992 Peace Accords, they were able to return home and had to start all over.  They had learned to work together as refugees and now have great pride in the rebuilding they have accomplished as a community.  Each family has been granted a piece of land and the government supplies seed and fertilizers.  As one delegate said, “the smell of hope filters through the dusty streets.”

When we returned to our hotel, I found family members of Salvadorans in Missouri waiting for me. Instead of attending the delegation’s dinner and despedida, I went with this family to enjoy wonderful pupusas with them and to visit in their home.  We took many photos to send back to Antonio and Francisco who for over 15 years have been separated from their families in their effort to fulfill the responsibility of supporting their wives and children.

There is so much more to remember, to think about and to reflect upon!  This trip was the fulfillment of a dream of mine to go to El Salvador.  I’ve had this dream since the assassinations of Archbishop Romero and Maura, Ita, Dorothy and Carla.  I will forever be grateful for this opportunity!

Beatification of Martyrs in Peru

Last weekend we joined the universal church in celebrating the beatification of the Martyrs of Peru, Franciscan friars: Fr. Michal Tomaszek and Fr. Zbigniew Strzalkowski, and Fr. Alessandro Dordi. 

The two Franciscan missionaries worked in the Andes, in Peru, with great enthusiasm, strong in faith and full of love. They devoted themselves to the difficult task of taking care of the parish of Pariacoto, besides working in several villages. Wherever the two men worked they left the memory of their "Franciscan brand": humility, poverty, kindness, ability to compromise for the good, the tenacity of community life.

On August 9, 1991 a commando of twenty guerrillas, who were part of the revolutionary organization “Sendero Luminoso,” entered the village, raided the monastery and kidnapped Fr. Michal and Fr. Zbigniew. Soon after, after a brief trial, the two missionaries were killed in the countryside nearby, the place that they themselves called "San Damiano," where they often went to pray.

The Polish priests were friends with Father Dordi who had been a missionary in the Chimbote Diocese since 1980. Previously, Father Dordi had ministered to Italian immigrants in Switzerland and served as a worker-priest in Swiss watch factories. Thus, Father Dordi knew the concerns of the working class.

In Peru, Father Dordi served in the Santa parish. Like Fathers Strzałkowski and Tomaszek, he was committed to his parishioners; he was particularly devoted to Santa’s farmers, helping to implement rural development programs. As soon as Father Dordi learned about his Polish-Franciscan friends’ fate, he kept telling his closest collaborators that he knew he would be next. However, he declined his bishop’s offers to return to Italy.

Subsequently, the Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso) considered Father Dordi a threat, too. On Aug. 25, 1991, when he was returning from a chapel in the diocese to baptize children and celebrate Mass, the communists set up an ambush. After Father Dordi left his car, they shot him.

The words of Jesus Christ are therefore fulfilled in the martyrdom of these three men: "unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit" (Jn 12, 24).

Mártires de la Solidaridad

Este 02 de diciembre del 2015, se cumplen 35 años desde que las Religiosas: Dorothy Kazel, OSU, Ita Ford, MM, Maura Clarke, MM, y Jean Donovan  fueron brutalmente violadas y asesinadas en El Salvador.  Fueron asesinadas porque se habían comprometido a estar en solidaridad con sus hermanos y hermanas, en esencia, por ser cristianas. 

Las muertes de estas cuatro religiosas fue una acción de  la violencia y las atrocidades que vivía El Salvador. Desde la década de 1980 a 1992, la brutal guerra civil en El Salvador cobró la vida de más de 70.000 personas inocentes. Muchos murieron a manos de soldados salvadoreños, muchos de los cuales recibieron formación en la Escuela del Ejército de Estados Unidos de las Américas. Los EE.UU. estaba involucrado integralmente en la guerra civil de El Salvador, apoyando al gobierno con aproximadamente $ 1 millón de la ayuda militar por día durante todo el conflicto.

Si bien el mundo perdió a cuatro santas el 2 de diciembre de 1980, estas mujeres santas permanecen con nosotras y nosotros hoy; porque continúan enseñandonos  a ser personas de paz, personas de esperanza, gente constructora de justicia, personas puestas a tierra en Cristo.

Cabe mencionar, que el medio The Global Sisters Report compartió hace algunos días, que una delegación de 117 mujeres religiosas estadounidenses están en El Salvador esta semana con motivo del 35 aniversario de la muerte de las Hermanas.

"Las delegadas en el viaje también se reunirán con líderes de los movimientos de base, los defensores y las madres de los desaparecidos. También aprenderán acerca de las causas profundas de la violencia que ha estimulado una ola sin precedentes de inmigrantes de la región, tratando de ver asilo en derechos humanos en los Estados Unidos."

Historia
Corría el año 1980, cuando comenzaba en El Salvador la guerra entre rebeldes de izquierda que buscaban una reforma social y las milicias represivas del gobierno conservador. Cerca de un millón de personas resultaron desplazadas por el conflicto y más de 75,000 perdieron la vida. Entre los muertos se encuentran miembros de la iglesia, a quienes se les consideraba subversivos por ayudar a los pobres. La Hermana de Maryknoll Madeleine Dorsey, quien sirvió en El Salvador en ese momento, reflexiona sobre la muerte de cuatro de sus compañeras: la Hermana Ursulina Dorothy Kazel, la misionera laica Jean Donovan y las Hermanas de Maryknoll Ita Ford y Maura Clarke.

El recuerdo de los eventos de 1980 siempre será doloroso y hermoso al mismo tiempo, ya que la fe de la gente querida que perdimos aún nos habla hoy en día. Que yo haya sobrevivido sigue siendo un misterio para mí. Trabajaba con los pobres y tuve las mismas probabilidades de encontrar la muerte que mis compañeras. Ninguna otra Hermana de Maryknoll conocía la complejidad de El Salvador, ni entendía la guerra no declarada del gobierno contra sus propios pobres como yo.

Yo había sido testigo de demasiada violencia ese año y me encontraba sola, sirviendo a una comunidad de 8.000 personas en la Diócesis de Santa Ana. Los recién formados escuadrones de la muerte llegaban por las noches, se llevaban a los jóvenes y, en ocasiones, a sus padres también.

Leer todo: http://www.revistamaryknoll.org/index.php/revistas/202-recordando-a-las-martires 

Their Gaze Remained in the Eyes of the People

By Carol Velarde, Pre Novice CCVI

On the occasion of the beatification of the martyrs Miguel, Zbigniew and Sandro, in the near future, 22 persons, including consecrated men and women and members of the laity, responded to the invitation of the Conventual Franciscans to live a mission experience in Pariacoto, Huaraz, from August 5 to August 15.

From August 5 to August 7, we prepared for the experience in a retreat-workshop in Chimbote, which helped us to prepare our hearts and to be ready for the mission.

The topics responded to the needs in the areas of information, sensitivity and formation.

a) Information: This placed us in the context of the mission lived by the martyrs, through the verbal testimony of Father Jareck, the booklet they gave us, the video they presented and also through the conclusions reached during the retreat they had previously in Chosica.

b) Sensitivity: before starting the mission, it was important for us to remember that having Hope is having the conviction that the things we do have a reason. This is more important than evaluating results. In this regard, we had the support of the reflection guided by Father Vicente regarding the Decalogue of Missionary Dialogue by Saint Francis; all of this was very helpful to us at the spiritual level.

c) Formation: The Workshop “Emotional Company for Persons affected by Violence”, presented by Lenin, a psychologist, helped us to learn many things. Especially, it helped us to know the characteristics of each stage in the process of closing wounds caused by violence, being aware of the way we are affected by this situation and how wounds are opened, if we are going to be able to contain this and to close it. Another valuable support was the Accompaniment Guide, the patterns to be followed before, during and after the conversations with the families, including a practice with the participants in the mission.

Later, we participated in the activities for the anniversary of the martyrdom (August 9), which ended with the blessing and “sending forth” of the missioners, who spent five days visiting, accompanying and sharing the life of the people who live in Pampas Grande, Cochabamba, Pariacoto and Yautan. 

My Missionary Experience 
At an individual level 

My missionary experience increased in intensity as time went by, both physically and emotionally.

On Monday, we were in Callima; it was a day of openness and a welcoming attitude. I became familiar with the mission place and felt surprised with what the Lord was showing us along the way. The visit to the homes was very rapid; many people did not know about the martyrs because they were young families or because they came from other places.

On Tuesday, we were in Chauca; it was a day of waiting, but also a day of hope, because there were few families in this place, and we thought that we were not going to meet in the afternoon, but we met with several mothers and with many children with whom we could share.

On Wednesday morning, I was with two missioners (a lady called Karen and Sister Milagros, member of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart) in two radio transmissions. It was an opportunity to communicate with each other indirectly, but we reached many families. In the afternoon, we went to Paqueyoc. I was more in silence. I devoted my time to contemplating the faces, the expressions. I listened to some testimonies related more closely to the day of the martyrdom, but contemplated from a third perspective.

On Thursday, we stayed in Pariacoto to organize the encounter with the children which would be in the afternoon, and the encounter with adults (the mothers club, the adorers, the brotherhood, etc.), in the evening. The only thing we did that day were visits to the homes to invite the people. We stopped to listen to some of their sorrows and consoled them as much as we could. In the afternoon, the children were very happy. The group I accompanied was a little difficult (children 3 to 5 years old), because I am not used to working with such small children and I am not familiar with the activities or songs that can be taught at that age. In the evening I shared the sorrow for the dead of the martyrs, felt by the people who were invited to this event. I saw the video about the martyrs again, but this time it affected me deeply because I had been in contact with the living history of Pariacoto.

On Friday, we visited “El Milagro”. This was a day of great tiredness and conflicts for me, because I heard the experiences of great sorrow, of feeling helpless, of resentment, that were shared with us.

At a group level 

I liked the diversity of our group, because we shared the mission with religious men and women, with the laity, with young people and adults, who lived in the places we visited or who were there for the first time. This diversity enriched the experience. After each visit, almost at the end of the day, we stopped to contemplate it, in order to see what would be the best thing to do the next day. We made projects based on the knowledge we already had of the place and listening with care to the Holy Spirit who guided us. We were also able to listen to each other, to accompany each other and to restrain ourselves.

I think that everything we lived during these days has been helpful to live the beatification, because nobody loves what they don’t know, and nobody is grateful if they don’t know what others are giving them as a gift. The Beatification of the Martyrs is a gift from the Church; it is a gift from God. Those who knew Miguel and Zbiniew say that they were Saints. They knew it from the moment they arrived at Pariacoto (simple hearts know how to appreciate the passing of God among their people). Their attitudes, their feelings and their dreams to achieve the best for themselves, their daily living and the closeness with everyone, was a strong enough motive to give their lives. Without this experience, I would not have known the martyrs. And it was not just a mere knowledge, because I think that being in the same places they were and following their footsteps, sharing life with the inhabitants of the area, having a slight understanding of the love they felt for this portion of the people of God, will help me to live the beatification with joy, to go from death to resurrection, because the martyrs are Witnesses of Hope.

I will never forget the joy of having prepared myself for this mission, having prepared my heart for the encounter with the families, knowing something more about myself and knowing the mission of the martyrs. It also strengthened in me the wish to spend my life building the Kingdom of God here and now.