Fr. Guadalupe Carney S.J.: the Romero of Honduras

Catholic New Times, May 9, 2004 by Larry Carney, Ted Schmidt

Identification with the people

He taught his people the ways of liberation theology: Christ came to set people free, and to establish a kingdom of justice and peace. He became a Significant part of the people's struggle to make this a reality. There were times when the Honduran government would pass laws giving large tracts of land to poor campesinos, so that they would have a better chance to survive; then companies and wealthy landowners would influence new governments to take away the rights of the people to have their own lands. Many times threats were made that this "communist priest" would be killed if he didn't quit meddling in political affairs.

In his book Carney tells how the C.I.A. at times would bring in American unions to divide and weaken these union movements of the people. Their unions always made concessions that fitted a capitalist agenda better. The C.I.A. also trained Honduran police and soldiers to infiltrate meetings, to intimidate and at times to assassinate leaders among the workers. In his parish work Fr. Carney went from village to village doing his religious duties, but also speaking out against the injustices done to the poor; and he helped organize the Honduran unions. More threats were made on his life.

In 1979, Fr. Carney was arrested, had his Honduran citizenship illegally revoked and was expelled from the country. He wrote about his life and his ideals while living in Nicaragua; in that country he was amazed to have no conflicts with the government because they were already so strongly trying to help the poor of their country. Eventually he went back into Honduras to be a chaplain for revolutionary forces. In 1983 at 58 years of age, "Padre Guadalupe," now a legend among the Honduran poor, became a chaplain to an armed revolutionary column which was later captured by the army, who stated that "Ft. Carney had disappeared." Later, officials presented his stole and chalice to his relatives, suggesting that Jim had "probably starved to death in the mountains." This suggestion seemed ludicrous, given that Carney had brilliant survival skills and knew how to live off the land.

Smells like a cover up

In the U.S. his brother, sister and a Jesuit friend have been seeking information on his death from the government for over 20 years. The Honduran government has come up with about six different stories while in the U.S. Carney's supporters have now obtained about 100 pages of declassified documents on their friend and relative; unfortunately, almost half of the information has been blacked out as not available to the public. The C.I.A. seems to have been implicated somehow.

In a striking addendum to the above, the CBC in its Man Alive series did a show on Carney's life and the persistence of the Connollys (Jim's brother-in-law and sister) to find answers and some closure. They had become absolutely disgusted with the patent cover up by the U.S. Embassy in Honduras at the time. In a remarkable geopolitical irony, the American proconsul believed to be leading that attack on liberation theology and justice movements in Latin America at that time was the ambassador to Honduras (1981-85), John Negroponte, the present U.S. ambassador to the UN and recently named as the new proconsul in Iraq. The Man Alive show depicts Negroponte as telling the Connollys that the embassy was doing all it could in the matter.