Liturgy to the sound of drums: the Zairé rite and AmazoniaPedro BrassescoThe Latin American continent has its own history marked by synodality".Mission territories have always had a very special attraction for Christians, because of the mystique of making the name of Christ and the beauty of the good news, of the Gospel, resound in every corner of the earth.
– Supernatural territorial prelature of Moyobamba is an ecclesiastical province of the Church in Peru. The Prelature is entrusted by the Holy See to the Archdiocese of Toledo in Spain and has its seat in the town of Moyobamba, in the department of San Martin.
Loayza shares with Omnes his pastoral work in this territory of the Peruvian Amazon where priests and lay people keep alive the faith of villages and communities.
What are the main challenges facing this geographical area?
-Moyobamba is the largest territorial prelature in Peru, covering 51,253 km². Each parish has villages or rural communities. The one I serve - one of the smallest - has 32 communities and 3 tribes.
We have 25 parishes, served by 51 priests, most of them missionaries: 10 from Spain, 1 from India, 5 from Poland, 1 from Italy, 3 Peruvians from other jurisdictions, 11 religious and 20 priests incardinated in the Prelature of Moyobamba.
The villages are scattered throughout the jungle and communication routes are precarious, especially during the rainy season (November-April) when the trails are impassable due to mud.
How is the interaction with the faithful in mission territory?
-Some priests travel for hours by boat on the rivers to attend to their communities. We priests try to reach the communities once a month, but the more remote villages receive one to three visits a year. The faithful want to receive the sacraments, especially Confession and the Eucharist.
When the priest arrives, the faithful wait for him in the village chapel. The day begins with confessions, then follows the celebration of the Holy Mass in which some receive Baptism. After the celebration of the Eucharist, a catechesis is given to the faithful who wait for it and receive it with attention. Then the priest takes his leave, as he is expected in another rural community or in the parish seat.
In most of the villages we have lay animators who receive monthly spiritual and catechetical formation. The animators celebrate the Sunday Liturgy of the Word in the absence of the presbyter, pray the Rosary, visit the sick, prepare the faithful to receive the sacraments and take material care of the chapel; without their collaboration the evangelization of these places would be more difficult, but the animators are few and there are many hamlets that do not have an animator.
It is evident that we need more priests and more lay animators in the communities to reach more and better the faithful.
How does the indigenous clergy function?
-With the arrival of the Spanish missionaries from Toledo in 2004, the construction of St. Joseph's Seminary in Moyobamba began. Currently, we have 20 major seminarians and 19 minor seminarians preparing for the priesthood.
There are 10 priests who have been formed in our seminary. They are young priests, well formed, pious and with a missionary spirit, who serve in the parishes of our Prelature, but they are still insufficient.
Our Bishop Rafael Escudero takes great care of his priests. We live and work in teams of two priests per parish, and every month we travel to the city of Tarapoto to attend the monthly retreat, followed by a theological updating class, the pastoral meeting and a luncheon where we celebrate the birthdays and anniversaries of priestly ordination for the month.
At the end of the meeting, each priest returns to his parish to continue his mission; some of them travel up to 8 hours by van to attend the training sessions. For my part, every two months, a numerary priest of the Opus Dei He travels 13 hours by bus from the nearest center to Moyobamba to offer the spiritual care that the Work promises to each of its members. St. Josemaría's phrase "out of a hundred souls we are interested in a hundred" is a reality that I experience with each visit of this brother.
How are you celebrating 75 years of life?
-In 2023 we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the foundation of the Prelature of Moyobamba. Our bishop has wanted many of the faithful to gain the plenary indulgence during this Jubilee year. For this purpose we have organized Jubilee meetings for priests, religious, lay animators, altar servers, young people, spouses, religion teachers and the sick. Each meeting begins with a Christian formation class, followed by a procession with the image of Our Lady and the recitation of the Rosary through the streets of Moyobamba to the cathedral, where confessions are heard and Holy Mass is celebrated. The meetings end with a festive get-together with our Bishop.
The central days of the Jubilee will be November 24 and 25, 2023. We have scheduled formation meetings to make known the history of evangelization in the Peruvian jungle, especially in the Prelature of Moyobamba. The days will close with the celebration of the Eucharist, which will be attended by the Bishops of Peru, the priests and faithful of our Prelature. We hope that all this will be for the glory of God and will help us to continue evangelizing this part of the Church.
Any event from working in these lands that has influenced you the most in your life?
-As soon as I arrived at the Prelature, I called the animators for the monthly meeting at the parish headquarters. Every first Friday of the month the animators make a pilgrimage to the parish to fulfill a promise they have made to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: to go to confession, receive communion and receive a Christian formation class.
Mario, one of the animators, told me that his father was sick and wanted to go to confession and receive the Anointing and Viaticum, but that he had not been able to do so due to the restrictions of the pandemic time.
Mario had traveled four hours by motorcycle to get to the formation meeting. His father had also been an animator and for years on the first Friday of every month he also walked to the parish to go to confession and receive the Eucharist.
After the meeting I accompanied Mario to his farm. We arrived at 5 pm, his father went to confession and, surrounded by his wife, children and friends of the farmhouse, he received the Anointing of the Sick and Viaticum. That was his last communion. After the priest took his leave, the sick man told his children that he wanted to rest for a moment, and a few minutes later he passed away peacefully. It was the first Friday of the month, but this time it was the Lord Jesus who visited him in his home.
