Sister paves 'avenue of hope' in Nicaragua

Benedictine spends two weeks each summer in Central America

Published: November 14, 2009

By Dwain Hebda
Special to Arkansas Catholic

Sister Laura Cathcart, OSB, poses with Martha Baldizon, a member of her Nicaraguan host family, in June. The Benedictine sister has visited Central America for the past four summers.

Sister Laura Cathcart, OSB, poses with Martha Baldizon, a member of her Nicaraguan host family, in June. The Benedictine sister has visited Central America for the past four summers.

"What good does it do?"

The question, posed by a Central American businessman on a flight into Managua, descended on Sister Laura Cathcart, OSB, like the tropical rains awaiting her arrival at her Nicaraguan mission.

The question comes from strangers like the man on the airplane, and her many friends at Our Lady of the Holy Souls School in Little Rock, where she has been assigned since 1999. She is used to the question by now, having been asked countless times since 2006 when she first traveled to Nicaragua, a trip she has made each summer since.

"I think it provides people there with a sense of hope," Sister Laura said. "They know there is someone in the world thinking of them and praying for them. It gives them a sense of joy to know they are not alone.

"Is it something like emptying the ocean with a spoon? Yeah, it is, but even in that action, I can be the avenue for a sense of hope."

Sister Laura's entrance into missionary life came suddenly. Attending a function at her motherhouse in Jonesboro, she met Dr. Debra Cole, president of the Good Shepherd Society. Upon learning of Cole's longtime mission work in and around Leon, Nicaragua -- a city of 175,000 near the country's Pacific coast -- she made the offhand remark of wanting to make such a trip one day. Before she knew it, her superior, Sister Mary Anne Nuce, OSB, was instructing Sister Laura to pack her bags for Central America and a vocational wake-up call.

"The poverty there is very, very real, and it can be overwhelming," she said. "This is a place where cows and horse-drawn buggies are sharing city streets with Toyota pickups. The people's biggest daily concern is where their next meal is coming from. Yet in spite of this, they are the most welcoming people in the world."

The first mission lasted three weeks, and subsequent trips have been two weeks long in late June or early July. The mission's fundamental agenda has always been the same -- Cole distributes medicine and provides medical care to the people while Sister Laura sees to the distribution of donated food, clothing, money and spiritual support in Leon and the surrounding villages.

In addition, the two meet with Bishop Cesar Bosco Vivas Robelo as well as local priests and nuns who run parishes, schools and orphanages by whatever means they can. These meetings help underscore the most pressing infrastructural, operational or liturgical needs, which become Sister Laura's "to-do list" for that year's mission.

"The first thing I ask when I go somewhere is 'What do you most need?' and we go after what we can," she said.

Sister Laura has discovered that even small gestures can go a relatively long way in Nicaragua, ranked among the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. In an economy where farm laborers routinely earn less than $1 a day, the accumulated offering from her fourth-grade class alone makes a difference, and she annually puts her class and others at Holy Souls School to use collecting items for distribution on the trip. These have included flip flops, umbrellas, toothbrushes and toothpaste, school supplies and other items to connect children across countries.

She also relies on donations and a grant from Holy Souls' Social Concerns Committee, which buys hundreds of pounds of food. A portion of the funds go directly to local priests and nuns for a variety of uses, such as fixing a vehicle or making church repairs.

On her visits, Sister Laura often finds herself in the role of spiritual counselor and nowhere does her reach stretch farther than through the 4,000 to 6,000 rosaries she hands out on each trip. She gets them from groups found on the Internet who make rosaries for missionaries. Last year the members of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Jonesboro made and donated 200 rosaries for her trip.

The donated goods and funds have been augmented by human resources as well. In 2007 and 2008, Sister Laura was accompanied on her trip by Holy Souls parishioners. Plans have not been finalized for the 2010 mission trip, but Sister Laura said interested people can contact her for more information. She does not actively recruit people to come along for one simple reason.

"It is very important to me that anyone who goes, does not go with their own agenda. They must be willing to go with the attitude 'How can I be of service?'", she said. "It is hot and not comfortable. People must know and expect that there is no air conditioning and that both the water and electricity will not work on a regular basis.

"If, however, they feel the Holy Spirit directing them to go, then they are most welcome to come with me."

Holy Souls parishioners Bruce Saad and Mary Devine were among those who made the 2008 mission. Both said the challenge of being there such a short time in the face of such need was overwhelming.

Devine, a medical professional, visited a delivery ward in Leon as part of her mission. Shocked by the primitive conditions -- the most modern medical equipment dated from the 1970s -- Devine said the trip not only has inspired her to make another mission in the future, but has also changed the way she does her job at home in Arkansas.

"I work with the local Hispanic population in my job, and I often feel like a missionary in my own country," she said. "I see women who have been in this country for just a few weeks, and I see the fear in their eyes. Going on the trip reinforced the ability every one of us has to see the face of Jesus in each person."

Saad and Devine also said seeing things firsthand made them better prepared for their next mission trip. Saad said advance preparation and long-distance legwork could result in substantial projects being completed.

"A lot of what I saw were maintenance and infrastructural projects that one person couldn't solve in a week. However, there's great potential for what can be accomplished down there with the right organization," he said. "I think it would be particularly effective if parishes here would adopt a sister parish there. American money goes a long way in Nicaragua and there's a lot you could do that would make a real difference."

Sister Laura agreed, pointing out two construction projects of multipurpose buildings in her "wish book" as prime examples. Though estimated costs are a fraction of what they would be in the states, the two $60,000 structures are almost unimaginable there, particularly given the government's track record of corruption and lack of financial support to such endeavors.

"Right now, my end is to come in and say to the priests and the bishop, 'What do you need me to do?' and then go from there," she said. "As a missionary in this part of the world, you eventually have to become involved in the political side of things.

"What is really needed is a group with the time and money for a long-term system of support and coordination that, regardless of politics, can provide for these needs on a consistent basis."

Until that day, Sister Laura's work is before her with no lack of hurdles. Unfazed though she may be by the occasional mule rides into Nicaraguan mountains known to hide drug growers' operations, she is occasionally given pause by the enormity of her calling. Somehow her questions are always answered.

"Even when we can't see how something is going to get done, God is always there to show us a way."