Honduras

A SIGNIFICANT VIATORIAN PRESENCE, SINCE 1998 AT THE SERVICE OF THE LOCAL CHURCH. IN UNION WITH THE GOD OF LIFE.

On Jan. 10, 1998, the first three Viatorians sent by the Province of Spain arrived in Jutiapa, department of Atlántida, Honduras, Central America. Their mission: to insert themselves in the local Church of San Pedro Sula, welcomed by their Bishop Mgr. Ángel Garachana and to implant the Viatorian charism as a precious gift for the world and the Church. The pioneers were: Fr. José Ramón Zudaire, Brother Arturo Lobo and Brother Víctor Cámara. The initial pastoral platform is the parish of Nuestra Señora del Tránsito that encompasses the entire Municipality of Jutiapa with its more than 85 villages and hamlets. On Feb. 11, 2012, we ceased to be part of the Diocese of San Pedro Sula when the new Diocese of La Ceiba was created, which encompasses the departments of Atlántida and Islas de la Bahía.

We are a Viatorian Community composed of 17 committed lay Viatorians and 6 religious. On Oct. 25, 2008, after an extensive process of solid preparation and discernment, in the presence of the Provincial, Fr. Pedro Lahora, we celebrated the first commitments in the Viatorian Community of the 17 Associated Viatorians. Three years later, on Oct. 22, 2011, these 17 associate Viatorians renewed their commitments, 8 definitively and 9 for three more years. We thank God for his perseverance and his sense of belonging and identity with the Viatorian charism.

The community is made up of Gloria Esperanza Aguilar, Gladis Esther Alemán, Aura Guadalupe Ardón, Vedalidia Contreras, María del Carmen Cruz, Dolores Euceda, María de la Cruz García, Óscar Armando Machado, Luz Luz Mejía, María Juana Meléndez, Yoved Natarén, Irma del Carmen Pacheco, José Leonel Pacheco, Berta Lidia Pérez, Norma Leticia Reyes, José Isidro Rodríguez, Mélida Yolanda Sosa and the six religious: Víctor Cámara, Ignacio Gallinas, Manolo Lacruz, Heliodoro Blanco, Lesmes García and Cosme Salazar.

Lesmes and Cosme arrived in Honduras in September 2009 sent by the Province of Spain and in January 2010 they were incardinated in La Ceiba, next to La Natividad Parish. In January 2012 they join Jutiapa. On December 9, 2012, they began their pre-association 8 more. 

We are Viatorians, men and women, single, married and celibate, who walk towards God through our commitments in relation to the Viatorian charism. We are a community that lives scattered in the Municipality of Jutiapa, in villages and colonies, distances being a condition that we must know how to manage so that it is not an obstacle to the experience of community life.

We are a community with a Honduran face, committed and rooted in the reality of Honduras, in the reality closest to our municipality of Jutiapa with its villages and hamlets, with a high rate of poverty and violence. We are aware of the delicate social and political situation that our country is currently experiencing. We know that a change of attitude is needed in all social actors in order to build a new country with new values ​​and ways of acting based on justice, equity, respect for the dignity of all and the search for the common good. It is a priority to join efforts, respect everyone, seek to heal wounds and move towards a sincere reconciliation, take into account the needs of the poorest, accompany the authorities to improve everything by taking the people as protagonists of their own development.

As a Viatorian Community of Honduras, we want to be faithful to the elements of our charism: the Viatorian spiritual life, the mission, community life, formation. We feel we are “joint heirs and co-responsible for the development of the Viatorian charism.”

  • As a young Viatorian community we know that we have great challenges ahead: Click here 1
  • Integration among all to know each other better and communicate better.
  • Conformation and consolidation of the Viatorian Community giving us the organization and adequate structure adapted to the environment in which we live.
  • Personal and community formation of all its members to continue growing.
  • The irradiation of the Viatorian charism consolidating vocation ministry as one of the first responsibilities of the entire community.
  • The accentuation of the educational aspect in everything we do.

 

  • As a Honduran Viatorian community we want to highlight the elements that define us:
  •  We are an open and welcoming community.
  • We are an immersed community, sensitive and committed to the reality of poverty in the country.
  • We are a community that emphasizes fraternal love for others and solidarity throughout life.
  • We are a community that takes care of their spiritual life as the center of our lives, deepening the characteristics of Viatorian spirituality.

 

  • As a Community dedicated to the mission, we develop our work and services in various areas:
  • We work with evangelization from the parish platform Ntra. Sra. Del Tránsito that serves the entire municipality of Jutiapa with its more than 85 villages and hamlets, in an extension of almost 600 square kilometers. Since 2010 he began collaborating at La Ceiba at the Catholic University. We have assumed diocesan responsibilities to promote social pastoral, educational pastoral and the pastoral Vicariate. (Button, Parish Pastoral Plan).
  • We accentuate the work of the Social Pastoral to respond to the social realities that surround us recognizing the great support that we have always received through SERSO in so many areas: health, basic basket, education, gender equity, housing, environment, water and sanitation, organization of producers and living forces, support for production, rural savings banks, cooperatives, defense of life, awareness and training, commercialization … etc. Click here 2
  • As a community, several of its members work in the formal and non-formal educational area, in several villages of Jutiapa, Balfate and the city of La Ceiba.
  • We know that we are called to radiate with greater intensity the Viatorian charism by informing about Fr. Luis Querbes, his work, the Viatorian charism and the Viatorian Community in Honduras.

Mission style: Our mission, as a community and of each one of the Viatorians, is framed in the Viatorian charism that privileges Evangelization (the announcement of Jesus Christ and his Gospel), encouraging fraternal living communities, educating in the faith, fostering maturation processes in faith, committed to the poor of our environment, with a transforming vision of reality according to the values ​​of the Gospel, inserted in the walk of the Local Church of La Ceiba, concerned with education and catechesis, liturgy and formation of the laity, supporting young people, children and families. 

MISSION IN THE SOCIAL SCOPE. Click here 3
As a Viatorian Community, we have developed a lot of work in previous years, promoting a Social Ministry that has wanted to be integral and organic. From this effort have emerged organizations and initiatives that we describe briefly:

A.- SERSO HONDURAS:

A.1.- AGRICULTURAL PROGRAM: Development of productive initiatives (basic grains, banana, tilapia, fine cocoa, coffee, dairy cattle, grazing and timber systems, timber plots, nurseries …) In November 2010 the cooperative was founded of Producers “COPROASERSO SAN VIATOR LIMITADA” which currently has 415 members, which will be the channel for the sustainability of all this work in the future.

A.2.- WATER AND SANITATION PROGRAM: Since 2008 we have intervened in the construction of 14 water systems and the improvement of 6 that have benefited 45 villages, with more than 4,000 families and 20,000 direct beneficiaries. This program develops an intense and extensive process of training in organization, administration, gender equity, hygiene and sanitation, environment, maintenance … etc. It has been possible to legalize 15 protected areas for water production covering some 4,000 hectares.

A.3.- HOUSING PROGRAM :. With funds obtained through SERSO, many families have been supported. We have reached 500 houses improved or built with more than 2,500 beneficiaries.

A.4.- GENDER UNIT: We have been working with groups of organized women for a long time seeking to improve living conditions for women who are often marginalized and mistreated. For there to be true social change we know that we have to work also and above all with men.

A.5.- MASTER AT HOME PROGRAM: A program that tries to support young people in our communities in education so that they can develop secondary education (Common cycle of 7th to 9th grade and Bachelor of Science and Arts). The program supports about 100 young people each year.

A.6.- OTHER SERVICES: Use of the facilities of the Social Promotion Center SERSO HONDURAS, Immaculate Library Campos Beltrán, Viator Radio.

B.- ODCA PROJECT:

Alternative Community Development Organization. It is a project of great trajectory that has been a school of organization, democratic participation, education and struggle in Jutiapa through the rural community stores as small cooperatives that has reached more than 600 members. The project continues promoting community stores, commercialization of peasant products, support to groups of producers, mechanization of land … Since 2009, the “Cooperativa de Ahorro y Credito Mixta ODCA LIMITADA” was created. It is an organization that grows, and will grow more, fostering a culture of saving and honesty.

C.- SILOÉ PROJECT.

It is the center of Integral Natural Medicine where many services related to health are provided: consultation of patients, training of health guardians for the communities, attention to malnourished children, preparation of natural medicines, training and talks in the communities, prevention of HIV -AIDS … etc

Everything described above forms a complex reality that is grouped under the umbrella of the Social Ministry of the Parish of Jutiapa and that faces the challenge of maintenance and sustainability with prepared people, coordinating teams and necessary resources.