Reflection - Letter from Lima

Melbourne born and raised, Columban Fr Bernard Lane has worked for many decades in Lima, Peru. We publish below excerpts from his 2016 Easter letter written at the beginning of April which was sent to family and friends.

Parish community, north of LimaEaster greetings from Lima to each and every one of you and your families and communities.

Summer has been intense with the warmer than usual weather and the highest ever recorded U.V radiation factor here in Lima. Our weather here in Peru has been noticeably affected by the "El Niño" current coming south along the Peruvian Coast.

The past months have been intense with activities and commitments. January was the Summer Course that our Columban Mission Centre (CMC) offers. We reached 180 people in attendance on some of the nights, with a good atmosphere and pro-active spirit. Then it was northwards for the Summer Mission to parish communities in the Dioceses of Chimbote, north of Lima. We were a group of CMC laity, Columban seminarians and myself.

One of the groups returned to the parish community of Samanco, a coastal town 20 minutes drive south of Chimbote. Fr Kevin McDonagh, an Irish Columban, has been ministering in Samanco for the past two years. It is a smallish town with a couple of smaller hamlets. The majority of people are involved in fishing or agriculture. It was thrust into the national limelight last October when the towns mayor and his legal advisor, (a young lawyer from Chimbote), were murdered and their car incinerated. The first stage of investigation of the murders in Samanco has not yet begun because of death threats to some of the attorneys and magistrates assigned to the case. A couple of young "sicarios" (hired hit-men) have been captured and a number of former town councilors have been detained, accused of being part of the murder plan.

Sadly what this particular incident highlights is the ever-widening spiral of violence and lawlessness that occurs in Peru. This has been particularly present in the state of Ancash where the Diocese of Chimbote is located. During the past couple of years there have been more than 200 murders involving organized crime and all that goes with it -corruption, extortion, drug trafficking and an ineffective legal system. As a consequence, the National Government declared a state of emergency on December 24 last year. This has meant that the number of police in Samanco has doubled and that they have increased powers. It was notable during our weeks in Samanco and Chimbote when the police were undertaking roadside document checks. There were occasions when we felt annoyance and frustration at the almost daily police checks along the road out of Samanco and along the Panamerican Highway.

A further comment regarding life in Samanco has to do with the fact that the lives of many families have been affected over the summer with the effects of the "El Niño" current.

Fishing has been seriously affected with the increase in the ocean temperature. The varieties of fish that normally live in the colder waters of the Humboldt Current, which flows up from Antarctica along the South American west coast, have moved away. This has been devastating for those families who live from small-scale fishing. One positive effect of the warmer water temperature has been to make the time in the ocean swimming more enjoyable than is usually the case with the cold Humboldt Current!

This reality that I have just described needs to be placed in the context of the National Elections which take place on April 10. The election is for president and representatives to the Congress.

Please pray for the people of Peru, that the people will vote with a conscience and that the elected authorities will be people who serve with justice and respect for truth. There are currently more than a 100 social conflicts related to the environment, mostly involving mining (both legal and illegal), logging especially in the Amazon Basin and access to water.

Another significant event occurred at the beginning of December 2015, with the beatification of three priests who were assassinated by the Shining Path Guerrillas in 1991. I travelled to Chimbote with a group of our CMC people for the beatification.

The three who were beatified were two Polish Conventual Franciscans and an Italian Diocesan Priest. There was some debate regarding the focus on the three clergy only, when there were also other Religious among the almost 70,000 victims. Among them was Australian Josephite Sister Irene McCormack. The Ceremony was moving and inspiring. "Witnesses of Hope" was the central theme of the beatifications.

It is significant that this May will be the 25th anniversary of the murder of Sr Irene and Huasahuasi town leaders by the Shining Path on May 21, 1991. "Twenty five years”! Where have the years gone? The reality of violence that so gripped the people of Peru in those years continues to be a central theme of the news and our reflection.

I confess that at times it is a struggle to maintain hope given the on-going violence occurring here in Peru and throughout our world. But we try to keep our eyes and heart on the signs of life and the good people who keep on committing themselves to service and solidarity, living out Gospel values or motivated by a sense of humanity.

Part of my Easter reflection both at a personal level and with people in the communities, was to consider our responses to the concrete situations of injustice and violence. How to try and live a life based on basic human principles founded on faith and the Gospel!. And in what ways can we be witnesses to the Risen Lord and the victory of life over death in the Peru of today?

In the peace and joy of Easter,
Bernie Lane SSC

Columban Fr Bernard Lane is a missionary in Lima, Peru.

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