Partnerships

There are currently eight parishes in the Diocese of Fort Worth that have partnerships with five parishes and one trade school in the Diocese of Juticalpa, Honduras.

San Francisco de Asís, Catacamas
- Holy Family Parish, Fort Worth
- St. Mary Parish, Windthorst

San Jerónimo, Gualaco
- St. Vincent de Paul Parish, Arlington
- Sacred Heart Parish, Seymour

Nuestro Señor de la Agonía, Manto
- St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Keller

Catedral Inmaculada Concepción, Juticalpa
- Holy Redeemer Parish, Aledo

Dulce Nombre de Jesús, Culmí
- St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Grapevine

Fray Casimiro Cypher Center, Campamento
- Good Shepherd Catholic Community, Colleyville

About the Diocese

The Diocese of Juticalpa comprises the department, or state, of Olancho, Honduras. It is about 8,000 square miles of primarily mountains, with only 72 miles of paved roads. (In comparison, the Fort Worth Diocese encompasses 23,950 square miles).

Catholicism was introduced to Honduras by missionaries as early as 1572, according to Bishop Mauro Muldoon, Juticalpa’s spiritual leader and a Franciscan himself. The first parish in Olancho was formally established in 1790. However, the country went through a period of anti-clericalism in the last century and priests were forced out of the area in 1935. Franciscan missionaries returned, via plane, to the remote state in 1944, and the Vatican declared Juticalpa to be a prelature, a prerequisite for being named a diocese.

The local church grew, influenced by the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, during the 1960s and early 1970s. Lay leaders, or Delegates of the Word, were trained to provide pastoral leadership. The church found itself drawn into the struggle of the campesinos, who were being denied their legal rights to own land. In 1975, two priests and 14 Delegates of the Word were murdered in an attempt to quell the rising campesino movement. All priests, including the bishop, and religious were expelled from Olancho. For eight years the diocese languished without any clerical or religious presence. “The pastor was killed and the sheep were dispersed,” Bishop Muldoon explained. “Everything was undone.”

After Pope John Paul II visited Honduras in the early 1980s, he asked the government to allow him to send a new bishop to the empty see. He found a volunteer in Bishop Muldoon, who recruited three Franciscan priests and one Jesuit priest to follow him into Olancho. A Catholic radio station can be heard by about 80 percent of the population. It carries not only religious programming, but also news and programs on health, education and local culture. “It reaches thousands of people who are unable to attend Mass” because of their remote locations in the mountains, Bishop Muldoon said. Most of the land is owned by wealthy ranchers, timber companies or coffee plantations. Very few people have access to basic human needs, such as portable water, education and primary medical care.