I got an answer to the holy water
question that I wanted to share with everyone here. The answer was provided to
me by a man who is living down here in Santa Rosa as a lay missionary named
John “Juancito” Donaghy and he does a lot of work with the Catholic church
here. He has much more experience in the Latin American church. He writes:
Holy water is big here in Honduras -
but people bring bottles (include plastic Pesi bottles) to have the priest
bless the water. Then they bring it home and use ti for all sorts of
"blessed" purposes. I don't recall seeing any holy water fonts here
in Honduras. First of all, I imagine if they were there someone would come
along and grab the holy water to take home. Secondly, they might be pretty
dirty after a few people used them. Finally, it's just not the custom here. As
for the few people who receive communion, there are several possible reasons.
One is that they might not be married in the church. They also might not be
baptized - or made their first communion (as you note.) But I think the main reason
is a deep reverence. Also some people think that you have to go to confession
just before going to communion. But I think a higher percentage receive here
than I saw in El Salvador years ago.
Feel free
to follow along with his blog as well at http://hermanojuancito.blogspot.com/
he has some great stuff to say as well.
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