Pope, natives and sects. (News in Brief).

Guatemala City -- On July 30, John Paul II canonized Brother Pedro de San Jose de Betancour. Some 700,000 people, many of them Indians, crowded into the capital city's racetrack for the canonization Mass. During the homily, the Pontiff urged that Brother Pedro's legacy be implemented. "This heritage should inspire in Christians and in all citizens a desire to transform the human community into a great family, in which social, political and economic relations may be worthy of man," he said.

Brother Pedro (1626-1667), of the Third Order of St. Francis, was known for dressing the wounds of indigents whom he found on the streets, and carrying them to the sanatorium on his shoulders. His work of care for the sick, Indians, and the marginalized has been continued by the orders of the Bethiemite Brothers and the Bethiemite Sisters. John Paul II explained that Brother Pedro reminds today's Christians "that training in holiness calls for a Christian life distinguished above all in the art of prayer." The Pope appealed to Christian communities "to be authentic schools of prayer where all activity is centred on prayer."

Religious sects

Brother Pedro's canonization could give a boost to the Church in Guatemala, a country overrun with non-Catholic sects. According to some experts assorted religious sects have succeeded in attracting 30% of the population. Jose Elfas, secretary of the International Movement of the Church of God and Pentecost, an evangelical denomination, estimates that there are 10,000 fundamentalist groups in Guatemala.

In the province of Solola, there are more than 500 evangelical places of worship compared with 194 Catholic facilities, although most of the former are empty. In recent years, Vatican officials have stated that Guatemala has become a sort of experiment of U.S. fundamentalist groups to penetrate Latin America, In statements published by the Notimex agency on Jan. 3, 1999, Mexican Archbishop Javier Lozano Barragan, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, revealed that the origin of this invasion is found in a report written by Nelson A. Rockefeller to President Richard Nixon in August 1969.

The Rockefeller document maintained that after the Second Vatican Council "the Catholic Church is no longer a trustworthy ally for the United States and the guarantee of social stability in the [South American] continent." He insisted, therefore, on "the need to replace Catholics with other Christians in Latin America. "Rockefeller also asked that Christian fundamentalist groups (Protestants) be supported, as well as "churches of the Moon and Hare Krishna type."

One of the most influential members of the fundamentalist groups is former Guatemalan dictator Efrain RIOS Montt, the current president of the Guatemalan Congress. He was for years a virulent preacher on a television program. On the eve of John Paul II's first visit to Guatemala in 1983, RIOS Montt executed six prisoners despite the Pope's request for clemency.

Bishop Fernando Gamalero of Escuintla said recently, "Before, 99 percent were Catholics, but many had no commitment, they were only nominal Catholics. Today we have 70 percent."

The decrease in the number of Catholics is due, in part, to the aggressive recruitment techniques of the sects, the bishop explained. "They engage in a sort of terrorism against the Catholic Church." He also blames the financial clout of U.S. religious groups. "When a Catholic asks for a job, but the administrator of a farm or assembly plant is an evangelical, he is refused."