By A.M. Kelley
Superior Catholic Herald
Sabbatical: Priest studies Spanish, culture
SUPERIOR -- Fr. John Anderson is on sabbatical in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. He's had good days and bad days.
The first 60 days in Puerto Rico were good but life in the Dominican Republic has not been kind. The parish security guards armed with shotguns disturb him.
"To be honest, the first day I wanted to leave," he wrote to the Catholic Herald in an e-mail.
He's been studying Spanish but is far from fluent. However, for the Wisconsin priest one important thing has not been lost in translation. "I've been able to watch the Packers," he said.
Evidently, "go, Pack, go" is the same everywhere.
He spoke to the Catholic Herald on the telephone from Puerto Rico on Jan. 15 when it was nearly 90-degrees in the city of Guayama on the Caribbean. As a guest of a priest he met while in the seminary, he was staying at San Antonio de Padua, a Redemptorist-staffed parish. This is Anderson's 11th visit to Puerto Rico but his first long-term sabbatical there. After two months in Puerto Rico he left for the Dominican Republic on Jan. 17 for one more month before returning home.
His language lessons are progressing. He preached two Spanish homilies with the assistance of his tutor. Did he do a good job?
"They applauded," he said. "But they're so friendly here (in Puerto Rico) you never know."
Puerto Rico is 85 percent Catholic but less than 10 percent attend church, he was told.
"They just finished celebrating Christmas (on Jan. 14)," he said. "They like to celebrate. The Epiphany is a national holiday. It's bigger than Christmas."
He's found Puerto Ricans to be "very family-oriented" and sociable--this latter trait he attributes to the weather. Each town has a plaza in its center where it's common to see old men sitting and playing dominos. "And while walking down the street, people just stop and visit," he said.
Of all the lessons he's learned there so far, this is the most important: Don't hurry. "The person is more important than the time or the task," he said. "If other things have to wait, they wait."
Puerto Rico is about three times the size of Rhode Island and has a population of 3.9 million (Wisconsin has 5.5 million). It's a commonwealth of the United States and shares elements of our culture: the U.S. Postal Service, Department of Motor Vehicles; and has been touched with Sam Walton's legacy: Wal-Mart stores.
The commonwealth is self-governing and does not vote in U.S. presidential elections and has no representation in the U.S. Congress. As for crime, Puerto Rico's murder rate is consistently "at or near the top of the U.S. charts," according to The Miami Herald. Anderson said he's aware of all the "gun crimes" and the "underlying drug culture and poverty."
The Redemptorists in Guayama operate a K-9 school with 600 or 700 students. Anderson doesn't know what students pay for tuition. "You don't ask," he said. It's not polite.
All students wear uniforms whether they attend public or private schools. There are many private schools, Anderson said, and they are usually bilingual.
Puerto Ricans are very involved in politics, he said. Every few years there are fiery debates about whether or not to become independent, remain a commonwealth or become the 51st state in the union.
Anderson is there to learn Spanish and the culture and to rest. The language study is not easy.
"I'm not a good student anymore," he said. "Too busy doing other things."
He got busy in the Dominican Republic adjusting to extreme poverty on the island which it shares with Haiti.
"Many things are different here," he wrote. "The class system--those with very little--is overwhelming."
When he returns home he expects to use his Spanish in his ministry at the Lincoln Hills School, a juvenile jail in Irma. Also there are "pockets of Hispanic communities near Barron, New Richmond, Cumberland, Merrill and Rhinelander," he said. "The church has a real need for Spanish. (The need) is growing in northern Wisconsin."
Anderson is the pastor of St. Mary, Tomahawk, St. Augustine, Harrison, and St. John the Baptist, Bloomville, and expects to be back home on Feb. 15.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2008