Pastoral Letter, Padre Horacio Castillo

September, 2005

“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun” Psalm 37:5-6.

We are seeing many problems in these times that are affecting the nations and people in particular. Death is terrifying where hundreds of thousands are vanishing from life as the result of the wars, organized violence and natural phenomena.

The tragedy suffered in New Orleans as the result of the chaos that Hurricane Katrina provoked has worried us and has caused us profound pain. Also that there are some people making the disaster worse by sacking businesses and private homes taking things or valuable belonging. They are, with these activities, making the situation worse by awakening a wave of violence that obstructs the work of evacuation or rescue that the Public Service Institutions are trying to do.

We are in solidarity with the people of North American in these moments of pain, of the loss of material possessions and of human life. We pray the God can resolve the problematic actions making these people of bad principles conscious of their actions so that they renounce these illicit acts. They can then contribute with good will to the return to order and the hope of recuperating the lost that is recoverable, the material loss, because the life of the victims of the disaster cannot be recuperated.

We should pray a lot and every day come closer to God because there is an attitude among some of people in New Orleans as if it were not in the United States: robberies, shots in the center of the chaos, and pain. These are things which we do not normally see happen in the United States.

We pray for all of our brothers and sisters affected by Hurricane Katrina and ask that God bless them, helps them and strengthens them in order to have strength and to begin again with new hope for a new future.

We as the church here in Guatemala also live in painful moments and moments of worry, every time there is new harm to our image, to the property and to our person.

Since all of you are not aware of the history in the community of La Isla, zone 13 in Guatemala City in which we have been working since 1991, I will summarize some of the history. In 1991 a group of people from La Isla were sent by Esther Castillo to meet with me because they were having land rights issues in their community. After several meetings, we agreed that I provide pastoral accompaniment and help them work together to continue living in this location. The legal preceding went as far as the Supreme Court of Justice of Guatemala in 1992 where we were granted property rights but land titles were not given. In 2000 a group from the community started trying to sell people’s land illegally with the help of congressmen of the political party, FRG. The FRG was in control of the government of Guatemala from 2000 to 2004, during those years the harassment against me, the community and the ILAG was elevated. The conflict has included threats to my personal safety and the safety of others members of the Pastoral Team. I had not been able to enter La Isla for several years until July 21, 2005 but the Lutheran school in La Isla has been running and other members of the pastoral team have been able to enter the community. When the improvements on the Lutheran School in La Isla began the problems once again escalated because this group now has even more interest in the Lutheran School building.

Thursday, July 21 I arrived in La Isla, zone 13, accompanied by Lawyer Rodolfo Azmitia Jimenez, in order to meet with the community since the majority of the community is once again united because of the problem of the land. The group of people that have always caused problems and harassment are now working with a lawyer with much economic power and they are trying to dislocate the members of our church and other habitants of the community. They want to appropriate the church building and school. Our arrival was a celebration because it had been planned days before.

But the group of people against the church had made a charge against me to the Ministerio Publico in order to prevent my arrival in La Isla, looking for my capture and in this way divert or impede the meeting the evening of Thursday, July 21; but it did not work for them in the moment that they wanted.

Nonetheless, the following day Friday, July 22, at 8:00am the authorities of the Ministerio Publico and a strong contingent of the Police arrived with a search warrant in order to search the Augustinian Lutheran Center, looking through everything in the building.

The accusation that they made against me according to the search warrant, said that I was a terrorist, that I was the leader of organized groups who robbed banks, loan offices and assaulted semis which transport goods in the highway and that I was a guerilla. For this reason I was taken by the authorities to the police headquarters in Guatemala City and later was to be transferred to jail.

Since I did not imagine this accusation against me and since it is known by all that I have had health problems, on being taken, I appeared to be very sick and I was transferred to the St. Paul Hospital, in zone 1 in Guatemala City, where I was treated for one week and watched by the Police until Friday, July 29 when I was released under bail.

Now I need to go to sign at the parole office every twenty days so that they know that I am in Guatemala, because I am not allowed to leave the country due to the legal process that is currently underway.

The economic expenses have been greater than my capability to pay but in exchange for my freedom and health, I believe that it is necessary to have them. The lawyer continues to work in order to finalize the case because I remain under investigation.

I have communicated a lot with God through the reading of the Bible and prayer, seeking that He in His great power and mercy has compassion on us that we are suffering innocently and I have prayed with these word: “In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil; with you the wicked cannot dwell” (Psalm 5:3,4).

“Hear, O LORD, my righteous plea; listen to my cry. Give ear to my prayer—it does not rise from deceitful lips. May my vindication come from you; may your eyes see what is right. I call on you, O God, for you will answer me; give ear to me and hear my prayer. Show the wonder of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes. Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings” (Psalm 17:1,2,6-8).

As well there are words with a strong message that strengthens my spirit, when I read: “A righteous man may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken” (Psalm 34:19.20).

The suffering wears us out. We are humans and feel pain as we also have joy. Our worry is: What other falsehood will they invent in order to cause harm? This path has been rough, it will continue to be; but thanks to God, we are not alone, we have you all as true brothers and sisters that walk with us in our sadness, sickness, and problems and also in our joy.

I want to thank you for your concern, your solidarity and your prayers in these difficult moments that we are living and we are hoping in God for His blessing, His protection because in Him we trust, “Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall away” (Psalm 55:22).

In the center of all these tests and problems we have seen the hand of God, because there are other groups of people, mostly in the rural areas of Guatemala, that are soliciting pastoral accompaniment from the ILAG, and this is our incentive to continue with love and perseverance. If there is one group with much power that looks for the destruction of the Augustinian Lutheran Church of Guatemala, God will strengthen the church, after all if the church is of God no one can destroy it because our foundation is Christ.

The challenge is: “Do not be defeated by evil but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21) and “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this” (Psalm 37:5).

We plan on continuing to fight for our rights in this community as a church and as a school as long as that is possible. We are facing a situation or person very powerful that can manipulate the laws for their own benefit as we can see now in my case. As I mentioned earlier we can recuperate material possessions but we cannot recuperate the life of one of the members of the Pastoral Team or one of the members of the community. Therefore we will continue as long as it is possible with respect to economic resources and safety.

We want you to know that we continue in our walk with our hope placed in God and we always remember all of you in our prayers and also when we share our experiences of faith with our Guatemalan brothers and sisters.

I hope that God greatly blesses you all.

Padre Horacio Castillo
President
Iglesia Luterana Agustina de Guatemala

Translated by Amanda Olson and Horacio Darynel Castillo