Bishop Golka in Guatemala: Lessons from a trip to another world

By Paul Dusseault

PHOTO: Bishop James Golka “high-fives” a Box of Joy recipient during a trip to Guatamala with Cross Catholic Outreach Jan. 13-17.  He is one of three U.S. bishops currently serving on the organization’s board of directors. More photos from the trip and the full story can be found on Pages 10-11. (Photo courtesy of Cross Catholic Outreach) 

COLORADO SPRINGS. The flight from Miami to Guatemala City is shorter than the flight from Denver to Miami. And yet, the social and economic gulf between the U.S. and Central America’s most populous county is immense. Village homes are constructed from scrap lumber and salvaged sheet metal, floors are packed dirt, and rice and beans are cooked over open flame stoves with inadequate kitchen venting.  Political instability, natural disasters, food insecurity, and malnutrition all contribute to a persistently high poverty rate. 

Colorado Springs Bishop James Golka, along with Bishop Earl Fernandes, Diocese of Columbus, and Archbishop Mitchell Rozanski, Archdiocese of St. Louis, participated in a Cross Catholic Outreach trip to Guatemala January 13-17. Each of the bishops serves on the Vatican-endorsed nonprofit’s board of directors. The bishops joined Cross Catholic Outreach executives Jim Cavnar, CEO, and Michele Sagarino, president, to see fi rsthand the services provided by Cross Catholic Outreach to impoverished Catholic families living in Guatemala.

The mission of Cross Catholic Outreach is to mobilize the global Catholic Church to transform the poor and their communities materially and spiritually for the glory of Jesus Christ. The organization envisions a world where all Catholics unite to overcome material and spiritual poverty, guided by core value such as obedience to God, human dignity, love of others, and joyful service. The group currently has projects in 33 countries and, since its founding in 2001, has provided more than $4 billion to help the poor around the world.

The January group distributed gifts to young people and packets of nutrient-rich food to families during visits to Catholic schools, orphanages, hospitals, and medical facilities. Bishop Golka also visited with families who have benefited from Cross Catholic Outreach programs focused on housing, education, disaster relief, and water purification. “I knew these were good projects,” said Golka.  “I just learned on this trip how good they actually were.”

Bishop Golka appreciates the Cross Catholic Outreach approach. “They really deal with the whole person,” he said.  “If a family receives a new home, for instance, they also are enrolled in a comprehensive system of learning how to care for the property, how to eat healthier, and how to benefit from support for growing in their spirituality.  That holistic approach produces great results over the long term.”

“We call it integral human development,” explained Cross Catholic Outreach president Michele Sagarino. “That’s really our North Star. We believe strongly in providing help with social and spiritual needs, as well as material needs. And that seems to be working for us and the people in our project communities.”

She cites an example of a family that receives a new home – a simple structure, but a big step up from the rickety shacks common in the villages. “A family gets a house with a door, a kitchen, and running water. Now the children don’t have to spend hours every day hauling water from a fresh water source miles away, so those children may have time to go to school, learn professional skills, and return to the village to support the parents.   Now the mother can leave the house, lock the door, and run to the market without fear of losing her possessions, so the family eats better.  Now the father can sleep knowing the family is safe and he gets the rest he needs to do his best work.  The quality of life ratchets up for the whole family and, eventually, the whole village.”

Bishop Golka recalled being repeatedly impressed by the strong faith of the village families. “The mother in one home we visited explained that everything of any value had to be stored off the floor because every time it rained, which was often, the shack flooded,” he said.  “And yet every home we visited had a shrine – candles, an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, photos of relatives, a crucifi x, a Bible – where the family gathered for daily evening prayers.”

“These families are so committed to the faith and to each other,” said Sagarino.  “We like to put it this way: They already have home; some just need a house.”

In addition to nutrient-rich packets the charity calls Vitafood, the group distributed items from the Box of Joy campaign, a program that brings gifts packed by American church groups to children in need.  “Often these children have never received a gift. Ever. Well, maybe a tamale at Christmas time,” said Sagarino. “To see their faces when they open these boxes and find new clothing, a wooden game, a tiny car, a barrette for their hair…it’s just precious.”

Cross Catholic Outreach is thinly staffed by design, working through local priests and churches. “The people love their local priest in the village of Cuilapa,” said Bishop Golka. “And the Cross Catholic Outreach model works well in the Santa Rosa diocese of Bishop Jose Cayatano Parra Novo. His diocese regularly hosts retreats, rallies, and assemblies attended by thousands of people who come to sing and praise God and hear a Gospel teaching.”

“I’ll always remember the mothers,” he said.  “You can just see in the face of every mother in the village all her struggles, her faith, her love, her earnest desire that her children will have a better life.  It’s a look I recognize having grown up in a large family myself.  And this is something intuitively understood by people leading Cross Catholic Outreach such as Michele. She really lives the mission.”

The admiration is mutual.  “It’s a major commitment for someone with the responsibilities of a bishop to spend five days with us,” said Sagarino.  “But Bishop Golka was not distracted.  He was so present, so kind, so available to the people and families we met. At one small orphanage, the nuns made breakfast for our little group. Bishop Golka went into the kitchen to pull the nuns into the dining room so they could all be thanked and recognized for their service.”

Bishop Golka sees his Guatemala trip as part of his role as prelate of the Colorado Springs diocese for several reasons.  “First, we have a good number of parishioners in our diocese from Guatemala,” he said. “That constituency is encouraged to know I have traveled to their mother country and learned more about it.  Second, my membership on the board of Cross Catholic Outreach carries some responsibility to observe the activities of the organization. But third, and perhaps most important, we are called to have a preference for the poor of the world, especially fellow Catholics. The Church is always a little bigger than we think it is.”

One highlight of the trip for Bishop Golka was the opportunity to preach at a Mass that drew attendees from dozens of area villages. “We had 12,000 people there,” he recalled. “I was a little nervous as my Spanish is conversational at best, but they understood.  I told them ‘We come to you with material goods – with some supplies and food and funding – but we are being enriched by the gift you bring to us.  By your culture of faith.  And that’s something that is at risk in the United States. That’s something we seem to be losing.  But by being here, we’re able to carry some of that spiritual strength and energy back with us, back to our own congregations, back to our own country.  And for that we are thankful.’”