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opinionAlso in this section:
Endara Hill, Father Gallego in his church and his community E. Jackson, Richardson's the best in a strong Democratic field Bernal, A disgraceful spectacle Sirias, A debt to a great teacher N. Jackson, Take back the night Silkwood, OAS Secretary General Insulza
Héctor Gallego: church and community by Héctor Endara Hill On June 9, 1971 the militarists, in complicity with the landowning oligarchy, disappeared Jesús Héctor Gallego, parish priest of Santa Fe de Veraguas. Thirty-six years have passed and the memory of Héctor's live and work lives on in Santa Fe and in many other parts of the country. Héctor Gallego is the testimony of a Christian priest committed to the Gospel and its message of life. In Gallego we also find a visible sign of the contradictions within the church and Panamanian society. A society and a church, both saint and sinner, of death and of life, both Christian and anti-Christian. Nobody can deny the good and the life for which the acts of Héctor Gallego and his model of church-community in Santa Fe de Veraguas stood. Many people benefited from the Cooperativa La Esperanza de los Campesinos RL and the Fundacion Hector Gallego which are, with all their limitations, the good news, the Gospel that Héctor revived among the campesinos. However, Santa Fe and Panama continue to be societies divided by class and race, in which money is the supreme value. Private ownership of the means of production and a false sense of individualism, which so attacked Héctor Gallego, are the generalized norms. In the country and the city, the human being continues to be the instrument and object of exploitation. The daughters of the campesinos, from early in their lives, are domestic employees in the provincial seats; their sons, pawns of the party bosses. For the campesinos and the indigenous people, to go to a university is like a fish that escapes from the net --- without an opportunity to continue their studies and with a weak basic knowledge they are captive instruments exploitation. The sons and daughters of the campesinos and the indigenous communities continue to be cheap and labor, the slaves who generate the oligarchy's wealth. In the countryside the landowners continue to monopolize the land and expel the indigenous and campesino populations. Recently the harrassment and vexation of these communities has increased on account of the incentives for companies to build hydroelectric dams in places where for many generations indigenous and campesino communities have lived. The Church that we know through Héctor Gallego is, without a doubt, the community. In her, Héctor found and accompanied the presence of the God of life, of the God of Jesus revived in the impoverished and marginalized campesinos. The Church of Héctor Gallego isn't the same church as that of the priests and bishops who are propped up by the political and economic powers that be, those pharisees, those false prophets who represent the church of impunity. As is also happening in various parts of the world, in Panama Opus Dei has taken over the institution and, hand-in-hand with the political and economic powers, is doing away with all Christian commitment and the options for the poor that Jesus himself taught. A church of impunity in the service of the powerful that that which spreads and inculcates a "neutral" Christianity. They're trying to guarantee a "Christianity light" to bring in the alms of the business owners, the bankers and the government. This explains the esoteric homilies and communiques of the Panamanian Episcopal Conference and also explains what has happened with the Caritas Panama Social Mission staff and the work that it was doing. José Martí said that "to see a crime in silence is to commit it." What dit the religious hierarchy and bureaucracy of the most catholic Church in Panama have to say about the deaths of hundreds of Panamanians at the hands of Panama's governmental and health authorities, who distributed poisoned cough syrup through the Social Security Fund? What do these pastor-bishops say about unemployment, hunger, the daily murders that the flocks to which they are supposed to minister suffer? Where is the denunciation, the proclamation and the Christian commitment of the church hierarchy to the poor, who are the nation's majority suffering at the side of the road? For Monsignior Romero "the poor are the creators of our history." For the "Christian" marketers of Opus Dei, the rich are their vocation, money and power, their inspiration. To try to justify their ambition and their idolatry of wealth, Opus Dei spreads the false ideology that invokes the neutrality of the church in the face of crime and injustices. Jesus, the Teacher, was not neutral --- his commitment was to the impoverished. He confronted the powers of his time. His radicalism and dedication to the community exasperated the political and religious powers, who contrived his murder by crucifixion. Today Jesus, revived and present among the people, suffers the same Calvary of passion - death - resurrection. The same political powers who continue to take the side of solitary and individualist useless death will be defeated by the people's community of life. Today, after 36 years, Héctor Gallego continues to spread the message of the church-community, even as the bureaucrats of Opus Dei revel in their church of impunity.
Also in this section:
Endara Hill, Father Gallego in his church and his community E. Jackson, Richardson's the best in a strong Democratic field Bernal, A disgraceful spectacle Sirias, A debt to a great teacher N. Jackson, Take back the night Silkwood, OAS Secretary General Insulza Unclassified Ads | Calendar | Outdoors | Dining | Science | Sports | Español | Front Page Archives | Wappin' Radio Show | Just Music
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