Diocesan partners tell of ties in Guatemala

By Catherine Ferguson SNJM

Who could know that what began in 1959 in the rural highlands of Guatemala would result in a long-lasting relationship celebrated annually almost 3,000 miles away in Spokane?

That annual celebration organized by the Guatemala Commission of the Spokane Catholic Diocese happened on April 27 at the Barrister Winery to thank all the people who provide material and spiritual resources to help with the ongoing work in the Diocese of Sololá.

Mollie Dalpae, president of the commission, and Pam Thompson-Finn, volunteer communications director, described the celebration.

It thanked those in the diocese who have been supportive of projects in Sololá. It included a silent and oral auction to showcase work from the projects and encourage donations.

The Guatemala Commission consists of about 25 people mostly from supporting parishes in the Spokane Diocese. It meets four times a year, manages donated funds and communicates information from the people of Guatemala to the people of the diocese.

About once a year, members of the commission visit Guatemala and learn first-hand about the region and the needs of the projects they assist.

The projects supported by the commission focus on health, education and pastoral work. They include four medical clinics managed by Dr. Jose Miguel Vasquez, the Nawal Estéreo radio station, the minor seminary Señor San José and pastoral work in Santa Catarina, Antigua Ixtahuacán.

For each annual celebration, the commission brings someone from a program in Guatemala to give supporters an understanding of the projects and increase motivation to support them.

This year guests were Lourdes Tzoc Ramírez, director of the radio station Nawal Estéreo, and her translator, Polly Lauer, an assistant professor at the University of Montana who partnered with Nawal Estéreo for nine years to document their history.

"This year we were so excited to have Lourdes with us," Mollie shared. "She has been involved with the station since 2007 and the director of the Maya radio station for more than 10 years. She is a real celebrity in Sololá. The radio's story inspired us."

The radio station was established in 1962, after the appointment of Father John Rompa, a priest of the Spokane diocese as a missionary to Sololá.

In 1959, Pope John XXIII, the same pope who convened the second Vatican Council, made a plea for priests and religious in the United States and Europe to go to Latin America to serve the people there who did not have many priests or religious in their regions. He asked bishops to send missionaries to regions where there were Catholics but few resources to serve them.

Bernard Topel, who was the Bishop of Spokane at the time, heard this call, connected with Bishop Angélico Melotto Mazzardo of Sololá in Guatemala and responded by sending priests there. The first two missionaries to Sololá were Fr. Cornelius Verdoorn and Fr. Francis O'Neil, who were later joined by Fr. Rompa and a couple of other priests.

Once there, Fr. Rompa began to minister to the people and with them started many projects that the current members of the Guatemala Commission of the Catholic Diocese of Spokane have committed to support.

Polly recently received a doctoral degree from Yale based on her research of Indigenous radio stations, especially the one in Sololá that was born in the early years of the Guatemala Mission.

She described some of the history of that mission.

"Once there, Fr. Rompa struggled to connect with Nahualá's parishioners because of language and cultural barriers. He spoke limited Spanish and no K'iche' or Kaqchikel, the Maya languages of the region. Moreover, many people lived in isolated hamlets that were a few days walk from the church. He began to imagine forming a radio school, a rural distance education project like those in Colombia."

The Colombian schools began in the late 1940s and were cultural radio stations that grew into a massive educational movement reaching 8 million farmers at their height. The system relied on "radiophonic schools"—small groups of peasants meeting to listen to broadcast lessons, guided by a local volunteer tutor.

In Guatemala, they became the source of all kinds of basic education for a people who had little access to services that most people in the United States take for granted: fundamental education covering health, literacy, basic math, spiritual values and sometimes they also provided updated information about situations of concern—dangerous weather conditions, political unrest or special celebrations throughout the region.

For the region, the radio was valuable not as a source of entertainment but as a lifeline to provide important information where other options were not present.

When Fr. Rompa returned to the U.S., he left Janet Druffel, School Sisters of Notre Dame,  as the next director of the station. Now, Lourdes, an Indigenous woman, has been the director for more than 10 years.

Polly detailed the contributions of Lourdes as the first Indigenous woman to head the radio station.

"As director since 2015, Lourdes is a public leader who has grown the station's technical capacity and programming," said Polly. "She has expanded opportunities for women and youth to participate on the air. She is committed to training youth from the ages of eight to 18 to be the future of Maya media in Guatemala.

"Lourdes continues to keep the station at the vanguard of Indigenous media and appreciates the commission's ongoing support of the station's work," Polly added.

Lourdes' current programming in an area where 80 percent of the population survives below the poverty level of $13 a day continues to educate about Indigenous rights, women's participation, environmental justice, and local and national politics. It also includes traditional marimba music, live transmissions of community events, live transmissions of traditional major Catholic feasts.

"She is an important person in the region. When she speaks, people listen," said Polly.

Mollie traces the positive effect of another of the current projects that was born from that initial mission, and which the diocese's Catholic parishes help support.

"Over time, so much has evolved and developed," she said. "When we first began, we were helping provide elementary education for children. These children succeeded and wanted to go to high school, so we worked to help provide scholarships for them.

"Now some of these young people have finished high school and want to go to college. St. Joseph's parish in Colbert is one that is especially helping with education programs along with the three Catholic parishes in Walla Walla among others," Mollie said.

Recently returning from her first visit to Sololá as a member of the commission, Pam of Northwest Passage Consulting has been impressed by the people she has known there.

"Over the years, this mission has evolved and, although 80 percent of the people there are very poor, surviving on less than $13 a day, the Indigenous people themselves have taken over more and more ownership of the projects that were important to them. The people there are always so kind and generous to us when we visit."

For information, email mdalpae@aol.com, pam@nwpasco.com or visit dioceseofspokane.org/guatemala-commission.