The Dialog

Special to The Dialog

Bishop Carlos Trinidad of San Marcos visits diocese as Solidarity Partnership nears 15th year

EASTON, Md. — Bishop Carlos Trinidad didn’t hesitate when asked the major issues that confront the Diocese of San Marcos, Guatemala: treatment of women, lack of opportunity for young people, and malnutrition.

Then he smiled ruefully as he acknowledged an overwhelming issue that he seemingly overlooked, one that fuels the three concerns he listed. “The poverty, it is always there.” Read more »

Dialog Editor

Perspectives change, friendships are born in program that unites Guatemalans with Catholics in diocese

For 15 years now, parishioners from the Diocese of Wilmington have visited Guatemalan Catholics in the Diocese of San Marcos to make friends across borders and to learn the needs of the impoverished faithful in the Latin American nation. Read more »

For The Dialog

Ss. Peter and Paul parishioners share their love with the people of Los Santos Reyes Parish in Guatemala

EASTON, Md. – When Fathers James Nash and Glenn Evers decided to send a parish delegation to the Diocese of San Marcos, Guatemala, last summer, they knew whoever went would be deeply affected by both the dire poverty and extreme faith of the people they encountered.

What they were not prepared for was how many parishioners, teachers, and school families of Ss. Peter and Paul church and school would want to be part of the delegation, or for the extent that the parish has embraced one parish and one school in Guatemala. Read more »

Dialog Editor

During a short talk at a meeting of cardinals who were about to enter a conclave to elect a new pope, Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio said he hoped the church would be less inward-looking, less self-referential.

The Buenos Aires cardinal called for a pope who would be centered in Jesus Christ and help the church go out to the “existential peripheries,” the outskirts of society to find the “joy of evangelizing.” Read more »

Father John Hynes will lead the latest delegation from the Diocese of Wilmington to the Diocese of San Marcos, Guatemala, on July 21. He will be joined by six people for the nine-day visit, which includes a meeting with Msgr. Carlos Enrique Trinidad Gomez, the new bishop of San Marcos.

In addition to Father Hynes, who is the pastor of St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Wilmington, delegates include Father Glenn Evers of Ss. Peter and Paul Parish in Easton, Md.; Christine Bauer of Christ the Teacher School, Glasgow; Nestor and Avelina Hernandez; Norma Lamb of Church of the Good Shepherd, Perryville, Md.; and Mary Jo Frohlich, a solidarity team leader.

Other activities scheduled include visits to parishes in El Rodeo, San Pablo and El Quetzal, the medical clinic in Catarina, Cristo Salvador School and a migrant hospitality center.

Frohlich said she hopes the delegation will help better connect the dioceses spiritually and emotionally. “It’s all about relationship. When we are in relationship, we are drawn to aid each other. This is mutually done by prayer and participation in each other’s mission.”

Twenty years ago, Maura Cardona joined a program to train health promoters who would provide basic medical care and hygiene education for Guatemalan communities throughout the San Marcos area.

Today, she is as a model for what is possible in San Marcos, a country that hugs Guatemala’s border with Mexico from the coastal plains along the Pacific Ocean to the volcanic mountain highlands.  Read more »

Staff reporter

 WILMINGTON — A Solidarity Partnership has linked Catholics in the dioceses of San Marcos, Guatemala, and Wilmington since 2003. That connection was renewed when a Guatemalan priest and sister nine days here at the end of April and said the Catholic communities are more alike than people might think.

“The two dioceses share pastoral and social ministries. We have different realities, but we share our ministries,” said Sister Bernarda Rojas, director of diocesan social ministry in San Marcos.

Read more »