Visit To Honduras and Guatemala, PART ONE

I was invited by Catholic Relief Services to join in a quickly arranged journey to Central America to learn more about the migration of so many children from Honduras and Guatemala to the United Stares. Since I am a member of the Board, and since McAllen, Texas, is the focal point of passage into the United States, I thought it important to see and hear for myself about the complex circumstances that have contributed to the humanitarian upheaval we have been witnessing.

I left on Sunday morning for San Pedro Sula, the industrial center of Honduras. We had Mass at the Cathedral on Sunday evening. I concelebrated at the kind invitation of Bishop Angel Garachana. 

We spent Monday talking to CRS personnel in San Pedro, and visiting sites of repatriation. We saw where children are returned to Honduras from Mexico. Several buses a week arrive from Mexico to bring children to facilities in San Pedro. We saw and spoke to the Scalibrini Sisters who work at the airport with adults who are brought by plane from the United States for re-entry into Honduras. 

On Monday afternoon we took a flight to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and had a meeting with the First Lady of Honduras. She explained the fruits of her study of the complex causes influencing the departure of so many families and unaccompanied young people. 

As this journey progresses, I will try to post what we are seeing, and with time, after I return, try to put together some thoughts about the full hemispheric context of what we see on the Texas/Mexican border. All of us have to make the effort to see and understand, so that we can better meet our obligations before The Lord Jesus to act effectively in the defense of human dignity. 

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