This is a question that many people ask when learning about the parish and the community of San Lucas Tolimán. They ask this in two senses: how does the Catholic Church support the efforts of total human development in San Lucas, and what kind of power does the Catholic Church have in Guatemala?

     Each of these needs to be answered in two different ways, and each of these ways contradicts the other. Though contradictory, both answers are true, depending on how the questions are asked.

     "What is the Catholic Church in general or the Diocese of New Ulm in particular doing to support San Lucas? What amount of money does the parish receive from the wider church body?"

     One answer is that the Church is doing nothing. The parish is not supported financially from within the church’s hierarchical structure. The diocesan office in New Ulm, Minnesota does not write out checks to the mission to cover its $500,000 annual budget.

     The other answer is that the Church is doing everything. Looking at the Church as a body of believers in Jesus Christ, the truth is that most of the parish’s funding comes from the Church. There are many people donating a few dollars when they can, giving out of their goodness as a material expression of their prayer for the people of San Lucas.

     This Church is the people, not the organization that unites them in worship and in spiritual and moral focus.

     "What is the power status of the Church in Guatemala? What kind of political and social influence does it have?"

     This question arises after looking at the nation’s power structure. Father Greg uses the image of a volcano in describing this structure: a small top supported by a wide base and potentially explosive.

     At the top are the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, making loans and then dictating how that money is to be spent and repaid. Alongside these are the multi-national organizations and corporations that overwhelm the people and their culture through aggressive marketing and employment. The work of these organizations uses the physical skills and financial vulnerabilities of the people while ignoring their cultural context and any long-term impact they will have upon that culture.

     Next is CACIF, an acronym that translates into The Committee on Agriculture, Commerce, Industry, and Finance. The people who make up this committee are members of eighteen to twenty-two extended families (the number depends on which political study one uses). These people own most of the land and thus hold most of the nation’s power.

     Next is the national security system, including the military and the national police. National security has traditionally been linked with CACIF as their protection force and guarantee of power. There are recent allegations of the military illegally acquiring money and thus a certain independence from CACIF, which could be dangerous.

     The president fills the next space on the power chart. Father Greg says that the president holds twenty percent of the power; he also says that this number has been laughed at by people with connections to the government. They say he has less.

     The congress and the middle class hold the next degree of power. They are elected representatives of the people. They can vote and make decisions, but there is always the imposition of power from above them and the chance of rebellion from below. They walk a fine line, but these generally are good people with a real desire to see Guatemala develop into its full potential.

     Supporting this entire power structure are eighty-four percent of the nation’s population, the people living in the process of poverty. They do their work (when they can find or create it), take their pay (which may or may not be enough), pay their taxes (which they hope will be used to enhance their living conditions), and raise their children (who they hope will live to see a better future). With the weight of the mega-powerful resting on their backs, it is easy to see how relatively little it would take for this volcano of oppressive power to explode in revolution.

     Looking at this power structure, the answer to the status of the Church is that the Church has no power at all. Neither bishops nor priests nor nuns can tell the government of Guatemala or the international financial institutions how to act. They have no authority in that realm unless they individually enter into the political arena; in that case, it is the individual, not the hierarchical Church, that assumes a position in the ranks of power.

     Shifting perspectives and looking at the Church as the Body of Christ, the People of God, it appears that the Church is a powerful force in the nation of Guatemala. Most of the 84% living in the process of poverty and oppression, along with many from the 14% in the middle and upper classes, are Christian. Thus, most of the nation is Church in its fullest sense. This Church proclaims and celebrates faith, hope, love, salvation, peace, and truth. This Church, this one Body of Christ, is alive and strong in the vast population of the country.

     As oppression is delivered from the politically and socially powerful, as pressure is applied from above, the Church responds through the strength of faith and hope. The people look to Jesus for deliverance; they participate with him in bringing the Good News of freedom in his love to their families, neighborhoods, and communities.

     Living and growing stronger in the lives of at least the 84% of the people who live in the process of poverty, the Church has most of the power in the country. If not for the Church’s insistence on peace, even in the face of the most painful violence, the volcano of top-down power would explode. As the force that continually steers the nation toward seeking ways to resolve its difficulties through diplomacy and earnest searching for truth, it is undeniably the most powerful influence on society and politics.

     It is a power that reminds people of peace and non-violence, a power that keeps revolutions at bay. It is a power that heals the wounds of a repressed people, a power that sets captives spiritually free.

     As each individual grows in full understanding and full living of what it means to be a Christian, the Church’s strength grows. It is not an organized strength; it is not directed by powerful leaders. It is a humble, spiritual strength, a force that resonates throughout the fincas, the communities, the farms, the families, and, yes, through the organized, institutional churches as well. It is the Church that directs the churches, not the hierarchical church structures that direct the Church.

     This intangible yet real Church is united in faith with the Church around the world that supports the people of San Lucas and Guatemala through prayer, material aid, affirmation, and social action. It is this Church that most fully resembles on earth what the Kingdom of Heaven looks and feels like. No earthly power is greater than the Kingdom of Heaven, and no structural body of church offices and officials is more capable of expressing support and bringing peace and love into reality than is the Body of Christ, the People of God, who is Love.

     What about the Church? This is the same as asking, What about God? As long as God’s love is alive in the hearts, minds, words, dreams, and actions of his people, then his Body, the Church, is indeed active and strong in San Lucas Tolimán.