Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) – Bishop Mario Flanders, SDB, has been a missionary in Guatemala since 1970. The Apostolic Vicariate of El Petén, which was entrusted to him on February 10, 2009, is located north of the capital of Guatemala, in a fairly vast region. Erected in 1984, it covers an area of almost 36,000 sq km and has 701,000 inhabitants, including 522,000 Catholics. Fides asked him a few questions while he was here in Rome for the seminar organized by the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, given for bishops ordained in the last two years (see Fides 09/06/2010).
Bishop Fiandri describes the present situation of the Church in El Peten: "The situation is very critical, as in most of the country, due to the rains of recent days. We have the support of Caritas of Guatemala, which has a network that really works well. We direct all foreign aid to Caritas, which organizes the distribution in a coordinated way. However, one of the great problems of our country is corruption: many public works, while necessary - such as highways, buildings of public services, hospitals - are started well, but as the building proceeds the funds run out and thus, they are finished off with poor material. Not long ago, the Guatemalan Bishops' Conference reported this fact, just before the tragedy of the Inter-American highway landslide that caused many deaths among rescuers who were trying to help the poor bus passengers."
"Even with so many problems we are still going forward, with the help of religious congregations and missionaries,” said Fiandri. “We still have some problems with priestly formation. It has occurred that there were candidates for the priesthood that really were not suitable, thus we will have to be more demanding with the aspirants. The Church is always a point of reference for many people, which is why we should prepare ourselves well.” (CE) (Agenzia Fides 09/15/2010)
