San Carlos and the Only Irishman in Panamá (and it's not me!!!)

San Carlos Church

Last night I was asked to accompany Fr. Aquiles from the seminary when he went to a place called fiesta with a novena to St. Charles Borromeo.  The fiesta is a very big deal in all of these small communities, much like the Pattern Day would have been in small towns and villages all over Ireland in times gone by.

Nelson

We were accompanied by two of the seminarians - one of them (José) does his pastoral work there, helping with the youth group and catechism classes, and the other one (Nelson) actually comes from San Carlos.
San Carlos (St. Charles) - or at least one of the communities of the parish very close to the town itself.

Jose

We were supposed to leave at 4pm but this turned out to be "hora panameña" (panamanian time) - we eventually got going at almost 5.30pm.  I was expecting to go to one of the barrios in the city itself  but no, we were going about an hour and a half in to the interior - San Carlo isn't a barrio, it's a Pueblo (town) and it is approximately half the distance from Panamá to Chitré, the town that I visited last weekend.  That wasn't the only surprise; we were about half way through the journey when I was informed that I would be preaching at the fiesta - the people knew all about me coming and were expecting me!!!

 All of a sudden, in the middle of the chat in the car and the blaring music from the radio I had to get my thoughts together for a homily.  As it turned out it didn't arise - Aquiles had got the time wrong - we arrived at 6.40 for a Mass that had been due to start at 6pm.  The parish priest gave up waiting for us at 6.30 and had started the Mass before we arrived - he thought we weren't coming.  That didn't stop Aquiles - he passed me the vestments and we went out to join the parish priest who was, to say the least, surprised to see us turn up like that.  After the gospel Aquiles, who as it turns out had been the one originally asked to preach, gave the sermon - so I was off the hook.

You can see the church from the photos which were taken after the mass but they don't show that the church was full for the service.  This is interesting because at least half the people had travelled from the recintos and recogimientos in the surrounding area (small villages) and, due to the lack of availablility of transport, would have difficulty returning home, many of them having to walk long distances.  As we pulled out on to the main road we saw one of the altar servers (young lad about 11 years old) trying to hitch a lift in the dark - we picked him up and we had travelled at least 15 minutes in the car before we arrived at his destination.  It is quite amazing to see the lengths people here go to to take part in their parish.  The parish church is in San Carlos itself but the parish has about 28 communities of varying sizes that it takes care of as well.

I almost forgot to mention that despite arriving late we were fed after Mass - a lovely dish with rice and seafood of all sorts - really delicious.

San Carlos looks like a very pretty town - we were there at night when very little could be seen.  The church is about 2 minutes walk from the beach and I was invited to go there any time I want - I just need to let the PP know and he will go away.  I can have his house so long as I make sure the church services are supplied - which is fair enough.  While it's certainly attractive, I'm not sure I'm going to make it - at least not this time, as commitments are beginning to pile up and I am being asked to do a number of different things before I return to Ireland at the end of November.

Bishop McGrath

Today I was brought to visit an Irish priest named Seán Rooney (known here as Juan) who was brought to Panamá by the very famous (at least here) Bishop Marcos G. McGrath who is a legend in Panamá.  This Panamanian by birth, with such an Irish name, was the man who really organised the Archdiocese of Panamá and was the one who introduced, and followed through with, the teachings of Vatican II in the diocese.  He is the credited with being the reason why the diocese has so many well-trained permanent deacons and a huge number of lay ministers of one kind or another.




Fr. Rooney, and a great many others were brought to Panamá by McGrath from all over the world to

Fr. Seán (Juan) Rooney

help to staff the diocese that was so short of priests at the time.  Rooney, who comes from Belfast, originally came to the diocese here for 1 year - that was 41 years ago!!!  I know from what I have heard from priests, seminarians, and lay people, since I arrived, that he is highly respected here.  He is now 62 years old and I am told that his health has not been good for the last few years but his parishioners take very good care of him and he certainly seems to love being here.  On a consoling note (for me anyway) - he told me that he has been here for 41 years but hasn't got used to the heat yet.

He also told me that he is the only Irish missionary working in the Republic of Panamá and that he has been the only one here for all of those years apart from a Divine Word priest who came for two years some time ago.  Little did I know that by coming here I would double the Irish representation (in terms of clergy anyway).  I hope to see him again before I leave.
N

Choir in San Carlos

Altar Servers (We brought the middle one home)