ILAG Pastoral Letter

Pastoral Letter May 19, 2005

The Bible is a book of all times and has teachings for all ages, contexts and nationalities. Even though the needs and problems can be distinct, we always find an answer in the Bible that gives the answer to solve the problems. And even while in some or many aspects we are different, there exists a common characteristic in all Christians. This characteristic is that we carry in our hearts the living presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life.

This Jesus Christ who the Pharisees tried to test, when one of them, an interpreter of the law, asked him, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

And Jesus told him, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

This is the first and the greatest commandment.

And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments.” St. Matthew 22:34-40

To love our neighbors is to walk in solidarity with them in order to know their suffering, their pain, and their hopes. It is to dream together and to orient them so that they discover their virtue, their gifts and talents, that they are intelligent and that they can realize their dreams if they make an effort and walk together.

To speak of pain and suffering: in some places these can be caused by broken homes, by family violence, or by discrimination. In other cases, they can be the result of illness and in others by the scarcity of work, the lack of economic resources, the lack of land to work and the lack of opportunities to obtain it.

We, the members of the pastoral team, are conscious that our Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala (Augustinian Lutheran Church of Guatemala) is a poor church that lacks many resources. We only have one wealth, this wealth is faith. We have a heart full of love and a lot of will to serve God. Even though our strength at times falters for shortage of food, sickness, or exhaustion, we are a church with hopes of realizing a better life.

We know that we are not alone; we have a God that has always walked with us and has sent His messengers to strengthen our faith. We have felt His presence through the brothers and sisters of the churches of the ELCA who share with us our times of sadness converting them into joys with a message of life and with a projection towards a better future.

We are worried about the present. There are two phenomenons that threaten the life of our brothers and sisters, two big concerns.

The first concern: is hunger, the lack of food.

We are aware that in Guatemala last year we were victims of an irregular winter, a natural phenomenon that has left deplorable consequences in production.

In the beginning there was little rain, the seeds dried out. When the rain began again, the people of our communities returned to plant but there was an abundance of rain and a strong winter that drowned the majority of the crops. The result was a very poor harvest indicating a shortage: there is neither sufficient corn, nor beans. There is no food.

It is necessary, therefore, for people to buy food in the market and in order to do that one needs money. If there is no work it is impossible to obtain those resources. There is only hunger. It is necessary for them to find other resources such as the roots of some plants, herbs and some other means that they discover.

This situation has us very worried and we cannot turn a deaf ear on the clamor of the people.

When the apostle St. Paul wrote to the brothers and sisters in Rome, he counseled them:

“Share with God’s people who are in need: receive those who visit you.” Romans 12:13

In the same way, when he wrote to the Philippians he said to them, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” Philippians 2:4

If we have in us this feeling of the tenderness of the love of God, it is natural that we would have this concern for our brothers and sisters, to speak and yell for them, which they cannot do. Even though they yell asking for help, no one listens to their groans and whimpers, no one hears for the deafening noise of the world convulsing because of globalization and its intention is that the doctrine of the church should adjust to the times.

The truth is, a large percentage of the church has lost contact with real life and is preoccupied with other activities.

But there is a percentage of the church that is preoccupied with this crisis of terrorism that is killing a large part of the people in the communities of the third world, called underdeveloped; this terrorism is misery or extreme poverty.

For us it is disgraceful and sad that in no sport could Guatemala have qualified to participate in a world championship, but in malnutrition, yes, we occupy the first place, we are champions.

Guatemala continues to be the country with the highest indexes for malnutrition in Central America, according to recent studies of the United Nations Organization for Agriculture and Food.

49% of children suffer chronic malnutrition in Guatemala, which demonstrates that it occupies the worst place of instable food supply in the region.

The second concern is:

In this moment, as a church we are suffering another significant concern and it is the demand for the signing of the Tratado de Libre Comericio (TLC, Central American Free Trade Agreement, CAFTA) in the United States. If the signing is realized it would worsen the crisis of hunger, unemployment and death.

We see CAFTA as a nuclear warhead, a shadow of more death due to malnutrition, starvation and anemia. There will also be more violence, assaults, kidnappings, more poverty, more insecurity. May God not permit this for it will cause a social explosion because of the necessity to survive.

CAFTA is a recipe for the poisoning of the poor. It is a sentence of death with torture. It is a violation of the basic rights of men, of women, and of child because the powerful will be more powerful. They will continue controlling the political economy of the country, and will increase their monopoly while the poor become poorer.

CAFTA will feed the injustice where very few have a lot, many have little and the majority does not have anything.

In the moment that CAFTA begins to function, the price of the basic grains will fall. As a consequence, the value of manual labor in the country will be lower, and exploitation will grow and that is where human rights will be violated signifying that the majority do not have the right to live.

Before they spoke of unjust wages, later they spoke of starvation wages, with CAFTA in action they will speak of extermination wages because in the moment that it is accepted and signed there will be stipulations of consuming exportation products. We cannot compete.

If we are speaking about textile industries and about tailoring, we have to accept the market XIV APPAREL SOURCING SHOW officially open to the public May 3, 2005 where fifteen thousand people from all over the world gathered offering goods and services in relation to the textile and tailoring industry. In this sourcing show in which investment offers are given in the moment in which the Chinese textile industry will offer lower prices in order to compete which will affect the local production because with the liberation of prices we will not be able to compete.

All this clearly shows that we are a country in disadvantage. It is good to remember that the majority of the men and women are farmers. Supposedly we are an agricultural country and the little industry that there is can not be competitive with the prices in the exchange market. Coffee, cardamom, banana and other exportation products are dominated by a small monopoly sector that establishes the prices of products and at times sets the prices and pays them with the anticipation of the harvest.

CAFTA is a threat of violence, repression, and death provoked by the declarations of the President of the United States, George W. Bush who declared on May 12 in the meeting with the Presidents of Central America and the Dominican Republic, he is worried because of the proliferation of pressure groups in Central America, which includes for him any group against CAFTA. He believes that these groups are predominantly aligned with the left. His beliefs could risk the stability of democracy and that would allow the successful entrance into force of the Tradado de Libre Comercio (TLC) CAFTA.

With this declaration he is giving a green light to the return of the 1980’s, years of repression, when there was no freedom of thought or expression and those who thought differently than the dictators of the government were subversive and when union leaders, cooperative leaders, priests, catechist and religious people were assassinated.

This feeds the injustice and signifies that already we cannot defend human rights, that we already cannot express and discuss the collective interest and if we are opposed to the signing of CAFTA we are terrorists. Many of us will die unjustly accused of being leftist.

Union and popular management of Guatemala for a moment left behind their differences and organized a well attended march to commemorate the first of May, Labor Day, in order to protest against (TLC) CAFTA. The protest, unlike previous years, had a lot of participation. Approximately, 7000 people congregated in the Central Plaza.

Our church is very worried that this theme, CAFTA, will cause more harm than we are already experiencing. Because we are a church of people who live in extreme poverty, the people in the communities could not participate in this march because they could not come to the city to unite in the protests for the lack of economic resources needed to travel to the City.

Our church is not in favor of any political party, we are neither on the right nor on the left; but we believe that as Christians we should work for democratization in order to achieve democracy. Therefore we proclaim the promotion of truth and justice, which leaves the sun for everyone, which puts into practice equal distribution of the wealth of the country. Therefore as participants with responsibilities, we will participate also in the benefits that do not violate the freedom of thought and expression and are the result of the needs of the people. CAFTA only benefits the sector of power in order to keep control of the world.

We ask, please, that in your requests and in your prayers one of the petitions is: that our God looks with eyes of mercy upon us and that our situation does not get worse.

“Share with God’s people who are in need: receive those who visit you.” Romans 12:13

May God bless you that you might be used for His glory.

Padre Horacio Castillo
Presidente
Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala