Charity, Justice, and being convicted by love in El Salvador

This past June, I went with my home parish, St. Catherine of Siena, to El Salvador for 10 days to visit our sister community in a village called El Sitio. I hate to call it a mission trip, because we weren't really going to evangelize (most of the people were already Catholic), and it wasn't even necessarily a service trip...it was more of an immersion, a visiting of friends, who would soon become like family. I could write about how great it was to bring medicine to the village, to help them install water filters, to guide them in their village meetings, and to play with the kids- it was. But I think that the point of this trip was not really to "be one with the poor" or to give pieces of our wealth to people living below poverty level, however gratifying/selfless that may feel. I think that the point, though I may be corrected, is to understand how their life is like, to learn from them as fellow human beings and share our stories.

There was an article that we were told to read before we left called "The cost of short-term mission trips", and it talked a lot about how at times it is futile for North Americans to go on mission trips for such a short amount of time because they immerse themselves in a situation ridden with poverty, bring some of their first-world goods, play with the kids, and then comfortably go back to their relatively pampered lives. This often leaves the people who went on the trips feeling proud of themselves for "surviving the dump" and for "giving back" and the people on the receiving end depending on these kind of handouts and free gifts from the people who come.

When I was in El Sitio, I feel like I learned from them more than they could ever learn/receive from me. I learned how the power of forgiveness can overcome even the most brutal of wars. I learned how even when you don't have that much, you can still be so generous. I learned that education is perhaps the most important thing that a person can have, and it is a glimmer of hope in the midst of young teen pregnancy, the oppression of women, poverty, war, and governmental oppression. I learned that I feel more alive, more like myself, when I don't constantly have technology to distract me from my real problems, though technology certainly serves a great purpose. Sometimes I can have so much yet feel so alone, as I suspect many Americans feel at one point or another.

But on to the theme of this blogpost, which is my discovery of the fine line between charity and justice during my time in El Salvador. On one of the first nights there, I remember having a night-chat with my group leader Bryan about how guilty I felt about how dirty I thought the outhouses were, that even the "master bedroom" that they gave me left me feeling kind of repulsed and like I was "camping". What made me feel so bad is that I knew that I would only have to "put up" with living in the location for a week, when for the people of the village, this was life. What did I do to deserve a flush toilet, the luxury of stepping out of a pristine shower and feeling so clean, and enough money to always keep me fed, happy and with options in my life? I am so spoiled, and yet so underserving. Furthermore, what good can it do when we North Americans come down to El Salvador with money and gifts, when even if they work all day in the fields they still won't make enough to survive on their own and feed their families? Are we perpetuating the "handout" culture that short-term missionaries have created? Where is the justice and can things change?

I asked myself all of these questions and had a kind of word-vomit conversation with Bryan that night, and it left me constantly wondering what I, as a Catholic first-world citizen can do to help people in developing and third-world countries self-sustain, and have a good quality of life. I don't want to give a man a fish (I've only actually fished like 3 times in my life, haha), I want them to be able to fish themselves, get paid a just price for their fish, and not have to rely on the U.S. for handouts. Surely the Jesuits who stood up against injustice in El Salvador, and Oscar Romero, would agree that as Catholics we have a duty to stand up for justice and have a preferential option for the poor. What is theology if it doesn't spur people to practically apply the gospel in their everyday lives? And so, as I enter my PhD program, I want to focus on how my theological studies can contribute to liberation, to thriving and to a more just world.

Gender Neutrality

Just wanted to quickly post this NPR article about gender- it asks great questions about what gender means in our society today!! http://www.npr.org/2011/06/24/137342682/the-end-of-gender?ft=1&f=1001