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Chile’s new president faces chilly opposition

24 Jan 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Saint Paul’s message to the church at Corinth is to unite just as the many parts of a body come together to form one. Conservative billionaire and now President-Elect of Chile Sebastian Pinera faces the challenge of uniting a country that is divided ideologically. His election Sunday ends two decades of Center-Left rule and returns to power the political parties that supported Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-1990 dictatorship. Many Chileans, however, interpret Pinera’s victory as a signal the country has moved beyond Pinochet’s brutal legacy and also is ready to see off those who have ruled ever since. “I think the country deserves a change. The same people have governed for a long time,” said 18-year-old nursing student Joanna Garcia, waving a flag outside Pinera’s campaign headquarters Sunday. Pinera has vowed to overhaul Chile’s business climate to boost efficiency and promises to create a million jobs and encourage economic growth. Critics say Pinera’s plan depends too heavily on the private sector. He might also struggle to push reforms through a divided Chilean congress. “We will form a government of national unity which will build bridges of understanding and knock down walls of division,” Pinera said after his victory, offering an olive branch to what could be tough opposition from a fractured Left. His vast wealth could also complicate matters for Chilean diplomats. For example, Pinera’s investments include a large share of LAN, Chile’s main airline, which has sizable operations in Peru, Ecuador, and Argentina that are subject to those governments’ regulations. While Pinera has promised to sell off his LAN shares before taking office in March, he wants to keep control of Chile’s leading television channel and most popular soccer team, both of which have dealings with other countries. And while Pinera put more than $500 million in Chilean investments into trusts last year, he reportedly has many other holdings outside Chile. Current president Michelle Bachelet, who was constitutionally barred from running for reelection, leaves office in March. She has garnered high approval ratings for steering the country through the global economic downturn and promoting progressive social reforms. Source: Articles by Alonso Soto and Simon Gardner for Reuters, Michael Warren for Associated Press, CNN, and Investor’s Business Daily

chile sebastian pinera augusto pinochet lan michelle bachelet
Chile’s recovery on shaky ground

07 Mar 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

Saint Paul sounds the alert in this Sunday's reading from 1 Corinthians that "whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall." Some 2 million Chileans had a firsthand, harrowing experience illustrating that point on Saturday when one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded struck off the coast of central Chile. Some 800 people were confirmed dead and that number is expected to rise. At midweek rescue crews with dogs were searching the rubble of ravaged cities and villages for survivors. With tensions still running high in areas devastated by the quake and the ensuing tsunami, President Michelle Bachelet urged Chileans to support the relief and reconstruction efforts. She also sought to ease concerns of potential food and fuel shortages in the disaster area. "There is no shortage, there is enough food and therefore we must remain calm," she said. "There is also enough fuel, there is no risk of shortages." An 18-hour nightly curfew was in place in Concepción, Chile's second-biggest city, where many residents are now homeless and 14,000 troops patrolled the streets to stop looting, keep order, and oversee aid distribution. Chilean emergency officials and the military blamed each other for not clearly warning coastal villages of tsunamis, angering survivors who lost relatives and friends in the massive waves that followed the quake. "We had no idea, we only found out what was going on because some people saw the ocean swelling and we took off for the hills," said Isaac Lagos, a father of three in Coliumo, a small fishing village just north of Concepción. Forty retirees fleeing a seaside campground in a bus after the quake were among those swept away by the surge. Bachelet, whose approval rating hit a lofty 83 percent in February, has faced mounting criticism for failing to grasp the scale of the tragedy in the initial hours following the quake. She admitted that rescue efforts have been slow, in part because of mangled roads, downed bridges, and power outages. But observers said officials also misjudged the extent of the damage and initially declined offers of international aid. Source: Articles by Mario Naranjo and Terry Wade for Reuters, BBC News, the Associated Press, and CBS News

earthquake tsunami chile michelle bachelet concepción coliumo
Chilean miners wait to be raised from the underworld

29 Aug 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

“God gives a home to the forsaken; he leads forth prisoners to prosperity,” the psalmist says this Sunday. Thirty-three Chilean miners trapped deep underground August 5 are holding onto hope for their eventual deliverance. Drilling an escape tunnel wide enough to release them may take as long as 3 or 4 months. For the miners’ loved ones, many of whom are camping in a makeshift tent city outside the mine, the news on Sunday that all 33 miners had somehow survived a mine cave-in on August 5 was nothing short of a miracle. The psalmist describes the rejoicing of the just this Sunday, and once the miners were reconnected to the outside world they used a modified telephone to sing Chile’s national anthem to the hundreds of teary-eyed relatives celebrating above. In Santiago, the capital, motorists honked their car horns and people cheered wildly on subway platforms. Before they were found, the miners had been surviving on two spoonfuls of tuna, a cup of milk, one cracker, and a bit of a peach topping eaten every two days, family members said. Psychologists are now preparing family members to speak to the miners for the first time, cautioning them not to become too emotional or mention the estimated timetable for the rescue, which government officials still hold out hopes can be reduced to as little as a month. In another week the men will have been trapped underground longer than any other miners in history. Last year three miners survived 25 days trapped in a flooded mine in southern China. Few other rescues have taken more than two weeks. Doctors warned the real challenge would be for the miners to maintain a healthy state of mind during the long period it could take to build an underground escape tunnel. Games and pasttimes were being organized to keep the men occupied and upbeat. Antenor Barrios cooked on a small grill for the three families he shares a tent with. His son Carlos, 27, is among the miners. “This was more than a miracle,” said Barrios, 48, of the news that the miners had been found alive. “It’s like being reborn again.” A note brought up from one of the miners said: “I want to tell everyone that I’m good and we’ll surely come out OK. Patience and faith. God is great and the help of my God is going to make it possible to leave this mine alive.” Source: Articles by Gideon Long for the Miami Herald, Federico Quilodran for the Associated Press, Andrew Hough for Telegraph.co.uk, and Alexi Barrionuevo for the New York Times

chile miners
Dramatic miner rescue operation grips worldwide audience

17 Oct 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Lord will guard our “coming and our going,” promises the psalmist this Sunday. After narrowly escaping death and spending more than two months trapped in a collapsed Chilean mine, 33 miners emerged one by one in a rescue capsule Wednesday in dramatic scenes watched around the world. Florencio Avalos, 31, was the first miner to make the journey from the underground chamber in the collapsed mine towards the surface. He stepped out of the missile-like rescue capsule with a broad smile on his face and embraced his family in an emotional scene. The second-in-command of the group of 33, he was chosen to make the journey before the others because he was in the best physical condition. The last of the Chilean miners, the foreman who held them together when they were feared lost, was raised from the depths of the earth Wednesday night--a joyous ending to a 70-day ordeal that riveted the world. No one has ever been trapped so long and survived. Luis Urzua ascended smoothly through 2,000 feet of rock, completing a 22 1/2-hour rescue operation that unfolded with remarkable speed and flawless execution. The miners were trapped by tons of fallen rock in early August. They survived by rationing limited food supplies and living on two spoonfuls of tuna and a sip of milk per man every 48 hours. No one knew if they were alive or dead until an exploratory borehole reached them and a dramatic note made its way to the surface: “We are well in the refuge--the 33.” “We have lived a magical night, a night we will remember throughout our lives, a night in which life defeated death,” declared Chilean President Sebastian Piñera early in the rescue operation. Piñera was joined at the site by Bolivian President Evo Morales, who arrived to greet the only foreigner trapped in the collapsed mine, Bolivian Carlos Mamani. As he surfaced, Mamani pointed to a Chilean flag on his T-shirt and shouted, “Gracias, Chile!” "We have prayed to San Lorenzo, the patron saint of miners, and to many other saints so that my brothers Florencio and Renan would come out of the mine all right. It is as if they had been born again," said Priscila Avalos. One of her brothers was the first miner rescued, and the other emerged later in the evening. Group spokesman Mario Sepulveda erupted from the rescue capsule as if he had scored a winning goal in the World Cup, hugging everyone, handing out rock souvenirs brought up from the mine, and leading the onlookers in a victory chant of “Long live Chile!” In one of many memorable quotes from the emerging miners, Sepulveda said, “I’ve been near God but I’ve also been near the devil. They fought but God won.” Source: Article by Chris Kraul for the Los Angeles Times, Peter Hutchison, Bonnie Malkin and Andy Bloxham for Telegraph.co.uk, Michael Warren for Associated Press, a blog post by Trevor Persaud for Christianity Today, and an article by BBC

chile miners rescue florencio avalos mario sepulveda
Chilean prison turns into graveyard after fire

12 Dec 2010 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The Lord secures justice for the oppressed, the psalmist assures us, while the reading from Isaiah promises that God “comes to save you.” By the time firefighters entered a woefully overcrowded Chilean prison Wednesday morning, it was too late to save the lives of more than 80 prisoners who died in a raging fire. The deaths occurred after flames broke out during a fight in the packed prison in the Chilean capital of Santiago, in what officials described as the worst disaster in the history of the country’s troubled prison system. The cause is still being investigated, but an inmate who called national television from a cell phone said it began when a stove burner fell during a fight between inmates and that prison authorities waited an hour before contacting firefighters. “The riot police came in first and began to beat us,” he said, “and later the firefighters came in.” Officials disputed that account. Prison authorities said they had promptly called the fire department and firefighters reported they had not been obstructed by the police, though getting through prison security took time. Chilean president Sebastián Piñera said he hoped the blaze would call attention to the problems plaguing Chile’s prisons, and vowed to accelerate prison reform efforts. Source: Articles by Pascale Bonnefoy and Elissa Gootman for the New York Times, Eva Vergara for the Associated Press, and Guardian.co.uk

prisoners chile sebastian pinera fires prisons
New telescope’s view goes above and beyond

31 Mar 2013 - Preaching the News for Sunday

The second reading option from the Letter to the Colossians encourages us to “seek what is above.” Thanks to a powerful new telescope placed in the thin, dry air of Chile’s Atacama Desert, we on earth are able to seek to crack the mysteries of all that is above and around us with a clarity and precision never before possible.The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA—a set of 57 radio dishes perched on the Chajnantor Plateau, some 16,600 ft. above sea level—is a technological tour de force set to produce images ten times sharper than the Hubble telescope; study galaxies from the dawn of time; tease out the secrets of solar systems as they form; and more. “Within a decade,” said Leslie Sage, Senior Editor for Physical Sciences at the journal Nature, “ALMA will have revolutionized astronomy more than the Hubble ever has.”Already the new telescope has discovered surprising numbers of so-called “starburst galaxies” where new suns are being born at a prodigious rate. “These first results are spectacular,” said Pierre Cox, ALMA’s incoming director.ALMA’s partner institutions—the U.S. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and the European Southern Observatory—decided to get as close to space as possible. Chile’s Chajnantor plateau is ideal: About half of Earth’s atmosphere lies below it, and the skies above are extraordinarily dry, with little water vapor to distort ALMA’s view.Homily hint: The more we learn about the universe, the more it challenges our ideas of what is up and down, big and small, near and far. But to think that scientific discoveries challenge a strong belief in the God of creation is to misunderstand both knowledge of God and scientific knowledge of creation, both of which are fully compatible in Catholic theology. We have much yet to learn about creation and perhaps even more to learn about God. Source: An article by Michael D. Lemonick for TIME

chile atacama large millimetersubmillimeter array alma chajnantor plateau pierre cox leslie sage radio telescopes radio astronomy observatories
Homily stories

23 Oct 2016 - Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Among the themes explored in the movie The 33, based on the ordeal of the 33 Chilean miners trapped 2,300 feet below ground for 69 days after a mine collapse, are forgiveness and humility. In the first hours after the collapse, the minors choose a one-man, one-vote democracy to elect their leaders, pool resources, and ration food very sparingly in order to survive for as many days as possible. When the government-sponsored rescue workers finally drill a narrow hole that reaches the miners, the people on the surface begin to learn the story of the miners’ ordeal and survival. The chosen spokesperson for the miners, Mario Sepúlveda, with his charismatic personality, becomes an immediate media darling. Suddenly everyone wants to know more about “Super Mario.” When the miners learn that Mario is being lionized and the other miners’ personal foibles and problems are being exploited, they become angry and resentful. Mario reacts with shock and outrage. He moves away from the group and waits alone to be rescued. But after several days in isolation, Mario realizes that family is everything, and his family now includes the other 32 miners, who will be forever his brothers. As he later tells reporters: “I was with God, and with the devil—and God took me.” Torn between exaltation and humility? Take it from the exalted 33 who spent hundreds of hours in a hole in the ground thinking about it: Humility is the choice of true heroes.

Authors Patrice J. Tuohy

chile miners Humility Forgiveness

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