Special Report: Honduras Needs our Help

Honduras is in dire circumstances at this time and it is about to get worse. Urgent appeal for prayer and support.

CHESAPEAKE (Missioners of Christ) - Writing an article like this is not my thing. I am part of a Catholic missionary organization that works with the poor in Honduras. In this capacity, though we continually strive to promote the Church's Teachings in all sectors of society, anything that could fall under the category of "political activism" (as important as we believe this is) has not been within the general scope to which we feel God has called our particular community/apostolate.

Even with this article, my intent is not to promote a political agenda, but to share a truth which seems to be having a difficult time emerging in the international media. Honduras is in dire circumstances at this time and it is about to get worse if the United Nations, the Organization of American States, and unfortunately, our current U.S. administration have their way. The long-term ramifications of this crisis are near immeasurable, and a great injustice, along with its potentially bloody fallout, appears imminent.

There are many critical details in the sequence of events in Honduras that are important to know, and for that I would direct you to the web-log of our lead missionary in Honduras, Carol Restaine (http://missionersofchrist.blogspot.com/). Carol has lived in Honduras for eight years now, and has a good sense of the plight of the Honduran people. But for the sake of this article, a brief summary is as follows:

President Manuel Zelaya, nearing the end of his four-year term, sought to hold a public referendum which would, among other things, seek to change the Honduran Constitution to eliminate term-limits for the Presidency. As only the Congress has authority to call such a referendum, Zelaya was informed both by the Honduran Congress as well as the Supreme Court that this act would be illegal. Nonetheless, Zelaya ordered the head of the military, Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez to enact the public vote. Gen. Velásquez refused, restating that it was deemed illegal, so Zelaya summarily fired him. The Honduran Supreme Court determined that Zelaya's firing of Velásquez was illegal and ordered him reinstated, which Zelaya refused. Then Zelaya proceeded to the military base with his supporters to confiscate the voting boxes and materials.

The Congress and Supreme Court entered an emergency session on June 27 to determine their response to Zelaya's illegal acts, as well as his clear intent to go through with the vote. They determined that, for the protection of both democracy and the Constitution, it was necessary to arrest Zelaya. Acting on orders from the Supreme Court and in conjunction with the Attorney General, Zelaya was arrested by a military contingent, and then allegedly given the choice to stay in Honduras and be prosecuted, or accept exile to Costa Rica. It is reported that he chose exile, though Zelaya denies these claims. Zelaya was voted out of office the same day, and the next in line of succession (via the Constitution), Roberto Michelleti, was sworn in as interim President.

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This was not a military coup as the general media seems insistent on reporting. While acknowledging the sequence and even manner in which the events were carried out have provided "wiggle-room" for ideologues to incite the international community, this is clearly a diversion from this critical truth; the new interim government is both Constitutional and has overwhelming popular support of the Honduran people. Our people on the ground, who are anything but political, affirm this fact.

It is quite incredible that foreign nations and institutions have now deemed they have the right to interpret the Constitution of a sovereign country on their behalf. This is the role of any nation's Supreme Court, and in Honduras, this branch of government has already spoken on the matter. So the question remains; why is the international community insisting on impressing its will upon sovereign Honduras against the will of its Congress, Supreme Court, the vast majority of the people, and even Zelaya's own political party?

If our US Government, the UN, and the OAS continue on their current course--which is forcing a sovereign country to reinstate a socialist-dictator-to-be against the will of all its branches of government and its people--there will not only be bloodshed in the immediate, but it will essentially seal the fate of Central and South America in their digression towards socialist dictatorships. These leaders (Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega, Fidel Castro, etc.) have consistently been hostile to the Catholic Church, and their political ideology contradicts the nature of the human person, a truth continually reaffirmed by John Paul II. Though these aforementioned allies of Zelaya purport to champion the cause of the poor, when the thin veneer of their propaganda is pulled aside, it is evident that they are actually manipulating the poor to advance their own agendas.

I would ask all the Faithful to pray, fast, and offer up other sacrifices, seeking God's will in this crisis, and not our own. Honduras is the location of the very first Catholic Mass on the American mainland, and as such, I feel it holds a very special place in our hemisphere for our Catholic Faith, and truly, for all of God's people.

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Tom Esposito is a member of the Missioners of Christ

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The Missioners is a Catholic Christian lay apostolate which has established itself in submission to the Catholic Diocese of Richmond. The Missioners have also received canonical status is the Diocese of Comayagua, Honduras, as a Private Christian Association of the Faithful.