Father James Guadalupe Carney, S.J.

By Sister Irene Hartman, OP

Born in Chicago on Oct. 24, 1924, James Carney was destined to become a close follower of the poor Man from Galilee, and one who was willing to give up his life for that man. James was a typical lad of his day, born into a very Catholic family; he attended daily Mass in good times and in bad, even as he struggled to find some meaning in a God who would allow poverty and oppression to be the lot of so many. A fun loving and active lad, he excelled in sports, especially football until he had a serious leg injury. He loved to be out of doors and in later years became an excellent bridge builder and road repairman in war-torn Europe.

James was not afraid to question the status quo, to challenge the Church, his Jesuit superiors and the traditions he was expected to follow (It was a wonder the Society didn’t boot him out), the government, the big unions, the military, the rich in society, even God. For a good part of his days in formation, he struggled with the concept of the existence of a God who didn’t seem to care for the plight of the poor. Yet his belief in the works of the Holy Spirit remained ever firm.

After a stint in World War II and a few love affairs, he came back to St. Louis to earn a degree in engineering and begin a career. Grace struck and he decided to ask to be admitted into the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits. Formation for a critical thinker was painful. He couldn’t understand the minutiae that were required of him. His main goal was to become a Jesuit missionary, and he could see no use for the Greek and Hebrew required of students. He was determined that he would not become a great professor in some high-class university. The silence of Jesuit formation, the strict schedule, the lack of friendships ... all these bothered James. Why couldn’t he just leave the States and go to South America now and minister to the poor, to those with no voice?

The revolutionary Padre Guadalupe was ordained in 1961, and missioned to Honduras. At first his word was just traditional: Mass on Sunday, preaching, preparing children for first Communion. In later years, he looked back on this type of ministry as “drawing people to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, instead of teaching them to imitate Jesus of Nazareth, the liberator of the oppressed.”

In Honduras, Father Carney met with the extreme poverty of the people. He believed he should leave the comfortable security of the priestly world to identify with the poor. He believed he was called to empower the poor, and he was concerned about the unequal distribution of the land, and the hungry, and the illiterate, and those living in shacks. Carney agonized as he watched children die of malnutrition and disease. He agonized as the landowners asked the bishops to bless the status quo and denounce communism. When bishops spoke about social justice, the rich said the bishops were heretics and communists. Carney became a scapegoat, but his efforts never flagged.

The man from Chicago who wanted to identify with the Man from Galilee never abandoned his pastoral work, even when his life was threatened. He wore the clothes of the peasants, khaki pants and a cotton blouse. He traveled the countryside, sleeping in hammocks or on the earthen floor in the houses of the poor. Aware that his country did not approve of his lifestyle and his message, he renounced his United States citizenship and became a Honduran citizen. He knew that he not only had to share the life of the poor; he must love them enough to eliminate poverty, and assist in land reform even if this cost him his life.

In 1980, the Honduran government stripped him of his Honduran citizenship and Carney fled to Nicaragua where he worked for three years. In July 1983, he slipped back into his beloved Honduras where he was soon captured, interrogated, and tortured. One report was that on Sept. 16, 1983, he was taken up in an army helicopter, hurled out alive to die on the mountainside. Another story is that he still languishes in a dark prison somewhere; another is that he starved to death in prison. His family has continued to search for his body since he disappeared in 1983.

Father Carney had written in his later days, “Since my novitiate, I have asked Christ for the grace to be able to imitate Him, even to martyrdom, to the giving of my life, to being killed for the cause of Christ. And I strongly believe that Christ might give me this tremendous grace to become a martyr for justice.” Not everyone will agree with his methods of helping the poor; no one questions his extreme love and dedication for the oppressed and landless Hondurans.

Father Carney entrusted the manuscript of his autobiography to his family shortly before his death. His story now appears in a book entitled, “To Be a Revolutionary, Padre J. Guadalupe Carney: The Explosive Autobiography of an American Priest, Missing in Honduras,” published by Harper and Rowe in 1985.