Colegio Centro America

Apdo 2419

Managua, Nicaragua

tel: 011-505-278-6965

e-mail: guvols@nicarao.org.ni

Christmas, 1997

Dear Friends,

I hope 1997 has been a good year for you. Perhaps you did not solve all your problems, and the world is still full of injustices, but I hope you have experienced that deep peace and joy which come with following our conscience and struggling to change our lives and the social structures which cause suffering to so many. And if we are accompanied by friends and relatives in those struggles, we have a source of strength and peace which is unbeatable!

I'm happy to say that I have enjoyed 1997! Now completing my 12th year in Nicaragua, I feel closer each year to the people of the Christian base communities with whom I work. These are relatively small groups in the barrios of Managua--small enough so that people can really know one another and be united in prayer, reflection, and social action. Many of the communities have a child nutrition program which seeks to meet some of the needs of malnourished kids, pregnant women, and nursing mothers.

Reaching out from the Christian base communities, a number of people work with me in a ministry to the hospitalized and the handicapped. We celebrate Mass regularly in two hospitals and also visit the psychiatric hospital; medical resources are very limited and are increasingly out of the reach of the poor majority of Nicaraguans, and salaries of most hospital workers are a measly US$50. per month!

Our proclamation of and feeble attempts to embody the Good News to the sick and the poor bring some light, joy, and hope into a dismal situation. With a little support and encouragement, people with some physical and/or mental limitations can take big strides toward greater freedom. Leoncio Varela, who was totally paralyzed in a swimming accident some years ago, has regained considerable use of his legs and arms, written a book about his struggle, and is now doing some informal counseling in the orthopedic hospital.

Carlos and Aurora, two blind youngsters whom I met here at the small center for the blind (which the Chamorro administration shut down along with other slashes in the social-service budget), studied for two years at state schools for the blind in the U.S. and are now doing very well at a fine school for the blind in Ontario. Each lives with a wonderful family. I visited Carlos and Aurora twice this year, and we are very pleased with their spirit and progress.

Another part of my work here which I have enjoyed very much is being a coordinator of the Xavier University (Cincinnati) Semester in Nicaragua program, now going into its fourth year. Each year about 12 students spend 3 months here, living with families in a working-class neighborhood of Managua, working in a community social project, taking a full semester of courses from Xavier, adapting to the difficulties of living in Nicaragua, falling in love with the people and the culture, and getting a very different outlook on the world and on their future.

It is a program of raising consciousness and deepening the students' compassion and commitment. One former participant worked with Amnesty International after graduation and now is working in El Salvador with Christians for Peace in a youth project for former gang members.

Another sombrero I wear is that of a human-rights investigator and activist, working especially on the case of my friend Father Jim "Guadalupe" Carney, who "was disappeared" (as they say) in 1983 when he entered Honduras as a chaplain to a revolutionary group. His remains have not been found yet, and we still don't know just what happened to him. We do know that his group was captured by the Honduran army, which was working with U.S. military forces in joint operations, and most were eliminated.

A former sergeant in the Honduran army's death squad told the New York Times that he had interrogated Jim Carney and that he knew he was tortured and killed. Documents released this year by the CIA and the U.S. Army concerning Jim and other disappeared persons, in response to a request by the Honduran government, are over 50% blacked out. Thus they are useless in the investigation and raise the question whether the ink is covering up evidence of criminal activity by U.S. and/or Honduran personnel.

To seek answers to that and other questions, and to try to get closer to the truth about what happened to Jim Carney and where his remains are, five of his friends and relatives went to Honduras in October. Jim's brother, his cousin, Bishop Tom Gumbleton of Detroit, and myself had a discussion with the U.S. ambassador, and then 3 of us announced that we would stay in the embassy awaiting "a serious response from the U.S. government to our demands."

We left at the end of the first day and returned the next day to continue our vigil; one left at 7 p.m. and two of us were carried out (gently and efficiently!) by the U.S. Marines. We had begun a fast on the first day, along with a young human-rights worker. For 39 days we held a vigil/demonstration in front of the embassy, gave talks in various churches and schools, held press conferences (very well attended), and presented our case to the UN and OAS offices in Tegucigalpa.

Then we went to San Salvador, where we and the relatives of the disappeared of that country held a vigil before the U.S. embassy, presenting the same demands: that top Clinton administration officials as well as the Senate and House Intelligence Committees get involved personally in the case of Fr. Carney and review the heavily expurgated documents, revealing any incriminating evidence they may find. We also want the U.S. government to offer technical assistance to Honduras to find the remains of Fr. Carney. We ended the liquids-only fast in El Salvador on its 45th day.

While we are still awaiting a serious response from Administration officials, the response in Honduras and the U.S. has been encouraging. Congressmen Moakley and McGovern and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, as well as hundreds of other citizens, wrote very strong letters to Clinton, and Nobel Peace laureates Rigoberta Menchu and Adolfo Perez Esquivel expressed their support for our campaign. Coverage in the U.S. media was fair to middling.

The letter-writing and investigating will continue, and in March we will see what has resulted and what still needs to be done to win this one. If you did not receive our press releases during our time in Honduras and El Salvador and would like a summary of the case and the campaign, please let me know.

Other highlights of the year were two weddings in the family: congratulations and much happiness to my nephew Ken and Deanna, and to my nephew Tom and Katie!

May 1998 be filled with peace and joy, and also interesting

challenges, for all of us.

Peace,

Joe Mulligan, S.J.

A PRAYER AT CHRISTMAS TIME:

"We have been praying for you unceasingly and asking that you may attain full knowledge of his will through perfect wisdom and spiritual insight. Then you will lead a life worthy of the Lord and pleasing to him in every way. You will multiply good works of every sort and grow in the knowledge of God. By the might of his glory you will be endowed with the strength needed to stand fast, even to endure joyfully whatever may come, giving thanks to God for having made you worthy to share the lot of the saints in light"--St. Paul, Letter to the Colossians 1:9-12.

"Let Christ's peace reign in your hearts, since as members of the one body you have been called to that peace. Let the word of Christ, rich as it is, dwell in you"--Colossians 3:15-16.