By Dick Bushnell
By the time you read this, families in the Loma Linda neighborhood
of Bonito Oriental, Honduras, will probably be worshipping in a new Catholic church, thanks
to a seed planted several thousands of miles to the north--in
Sacramento, Calif.--a couple of years ago. The person who planted the seed was Father
Jack Donald, S.J., a Jesuit who has been working in Honduras since
1977. The “seedbed” in this case was St. Ignatius Loyola Parish, where Fr.
Donald was visiting in summer 2004 when he planted an idea: perhaps St. Ignatius
and Parroquia Oscar Romero in Bonito Oriental could become “sister” parishes, in
much the same way that American and foreign cities do.
The next spring, Father Gerald H.
Robinson, S.J., pastor of St. Ignatius visited Honduras and the seed began to
sprout. Soon, Fr. Donald returned to St. Ignatius and a collection was taken,
netting $16,000 to kick off the sister parish relationship.
Back in Bonito Oriental, the residents of
Loma Linda had outgrown their little chapel, a mud-and-stick structure that
could hold only 20 people. So when Fr. Robinson suggested that they might build
a new church, the residents responded enthusiastically. Now, writes Fr. Donald,
the “poor mayor of the city doesn’t know where to hide when he sees the women of
Loma Linda coming to ask for more materials for construction.”
As it turned out, the St. Ignatius Parish
gift covered the cost of most materials and the salary of a master builder and
his assistant. Some 30 Loma Linda families donated their labor, doing everything
from pushing wheelbarrows to carrying water buckets.
Fr. Donald reports that the residents are
now the “proud builders of their own church where they celebrate the Word every
Sunday and occasionally the Eucharist when the pastor finds his way to Loma
Linda.”
Meanwhile in Sacramento, Jeanne
Anderson-West, director of social ministries at St. Ignatius, and parishioners
like Ricardo Pineda, an advisory board member, continue to nurture the sister
parish relationship.