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My visit to Panama began last Tuesday morning with an interview of our confrere Fr. Juventino Castillero, CM. Fr. Juventino had recently arrived in Balboa where he will be the formation director of the seminarians studying theology.
From there, we were off to Colón, with a detour to see the dam, Represa Madden, a reservoir which feeds water into Gatun Lake, which in turn provides water for the canal locks. The visitation in Colón began with a meeting with the confreres. They are a unique house in several ways: They work on both sides of the Panama Canal; they work in both an “inner city” environment (Colón) and the campo (Escobal); and they have the two youngest ordained confreres in the Region.
I was privileged to help the confreres with Masses on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. One of the Masses was in English for the small English-speaking community of St. Joseph’s Parish. It was edifying to see that their faith is still strong. The Mass in Escobal on New Year’s Day was a joyful experience. The heavy rains and strong winds during the night had felled some trees, but Fr. Olmedo Guerra, CM, carefully drove around the obstacles to get us to church on time. When I first visited Escobal, the church itself was in great need of renovation. Now, through the hard work of Fr. Juventino and the parishioners, that work has been completed. The church is beautiful and a testament to the faith, love, and hard work of the parish community.
Balboa was a good place to be that weekend as seminarians and confreres gathered there to travel to Concepción for the opening of the Internal Seminary. I was glad to see that Fr. Luis Romero, CM, our vocation director, flew in from New York to participate in the event.
On Saturday afternoon, Fr. Joe Fitzgerald, CM, took me to Monerri, to visit the Daughters of Charity and celebrate Mass with them. As you know, during the previous night, American forces had entered Venezuela and captured President Maduro and his wife to bring them to the United States. I mention this because in 1989, American forces invaded Panama to remove then-President Manuel Noriega. The barrio of Monerri, where the Daughters’ house is located, is one of the poorest areas of Panama City, which also happened to be where the Panamanian defense forces were concentrated at that time. Two of the Daughters were there that night and recalled their vivid memories of hearing gunshots and bomb explosions all around them. Sr. Katerina assisted mothers with children as they fled from their homes, looking for a safer area. Let’s pray that the situation in Venezuela will be resolved peacefully and justly.
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