Fr. German Rosa, SJ, director of ERIC-Radio Progreso. Photo: Tess Sison/CJI
El Progreso, Honduras — When meeting Fr. German Rosa, SJ, one is immediately struck by his graciousness and humility. He is a great listener. When he speaks, he does so clearly and firmly.
In 2022, Fr. Rosa assumed leadership of ERIC-Radio Progreso, a Jesuit-led organization established in 1980 to empower rural poor communities through reflection, research, and communication. ERIC-Radio Progreso had already earned a reputation for being a thorn in the side of the rich and powerful by exposing corruption, electoral fraud, environmental threats, narco-trafficking, and militarization.
Fr. German took over from the leadership of his charismatic predecessor, Fr. Ismael Moreno, widely known as “Padre Melo,” who became one of the leading voices for the marginalized.
Born in Goascorán, Honduras, Fr. German was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1996. He graduated from the José Simeón Cañas Central American University in San Salvador (UCA, El Salvador) in 1988 with a degree in philosophy, in 1994 with a degree in sociology, and in 1997 with a master’s degree in theology. In 1998, he travelled to France, where he earned a master’s degree in theology from the Centre Sèvres in Paris in 1998 and a doctorate in theology in 2000.
He taught at the UCA in El Salvador and later, became the director of Diakonia Magazine, a publication of the Ignatian Center in Managua, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. He was appointed pastor of the Church of the Holy Family in San Salvador and subsequently was appointed as secretary to Jesuit Super General Fr. Arturo Sosa for the Latin America North Assistancy, in Rome.
During their visit to Honduras from July 29 to August 2, Canadian Jesuits International Programs Coordinator Juan Emilio Hernández and Communications Coordinator Tess Sison sat down with Fr. German. The following are excerpts from an interview that was translated from Spanish to English and edited for brevity.
Can you tell us what it’s been like since you joined ERIC-Radio Progreso three years ago?
When I finished my work in Rome as Secretary for Latin America, in the General Curia, I asked the Father Provincial [ Fr. José Domingo Cuesta, SJ] where there was the greatest need for me to serve the province (Central America). He said, “Nicaragua and Honduras.”
I joined the Jesuits in 1984. I’d been away from Honduras for 38 years. I’d only come to visit my parents for a few days, but I’d never worked here. So, I said, “well, wherever you want me to do in Honduras is fine with me,” because it’s my last destination or my last mission, probably.
I saw it as a rebirth, as being willing to be led by God, and letting yourself be led by the people you work with. I had never worked in a social center. It has been a very interesting, very intense learning and training. The great advantage is that this is a team of very dedicated people.
We have been moving forward, and it has been a time of great generosity from God for me, too. There is a lot of communication and transparent dialogue throughout the entire management process. We are in the process of internal consolidation and teamwork training. There are four characteristics that I emphasize, and they mark the dynamic of an apostolic work and of a social center like ours. One, we must identify with this apostolic work, two, we must have a fidelity to the work that we have, and three, have a sense of belonging. The fourth is care of each other, because the work that we do is high-risk. We must be attentive and maintain a spirit of critique and apostolic creativity.
It’s a great commitment to service of the communities and the people. The people who love us most are the communities we accompany, the most vulnerable sectors, the impoverished sectors, the excluded sectors. We do not discriminate against anyone or any group, but our work has clear apostolic options.
What has been the most important contribution of ERIC-Radio Progreso in Honduran society?
ERIC-Radio Progreso’s slogan is “the voice that is with you.” It is the voice that does not replace the voice of the community, or of the people, but rather makes that voice be heard, and allows itself to be challenged.
Our service is fundamental in Honduras because we are not a commercial radio station. We are not at the service of powerful interests, and we offer information from the perspective of the people who are most affected.
They have a common denominator: socio-environmental vulnerability, human vulnerability due to human rights violations, and vulnerability due to exclusion.
What are the major challenges facing Radio Progreso today?
We live in a society with serious socio-economic and political crises. We are at the centre of it because we are reporting, we are communicating the truth, we are saying what people feel and think. We are analyzing, we are giving our opinion, we are investigating issues that are problematic for those in power in and outside this country. The most important thing is to maintain that excellence of service to the communities and the most impoverished sectors.
We are in a country with a lot of uncertainty and high levels of social, economic, and political conflict. We feel it very keenly in this election year because the crisis is one that’s created by the powerful groups who are in conflict. They want negotiated elections, where regardless of which party or group comes to power, concessions will already have been made, and negotiations will have taken place behind the people’s backs. We are in this electoral environment with a lot of confrontation and political violence. What is expected is that as we get closer to the November 30 elections, there will be more violence, more conflict, more polarization.
ERIC-Radio Progreso has experienced violence and threats because of its work. What’s the situation now?
There are constant threats, and they may not be public, but we feel them, we know about them. These are powerful groups so, of course, we are concerned; that keeps us working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We’re constantly exposed and very attentive to anything that might happen. One of the cases that worried us a lot, was last year, when one of our journalists in Tegucigalpa became a victim of a night-time assault. They broke into her house, stole her computer, which contained a lot of journalistic information, helped themselves to food and left a message. These are the kinds of assaults that are not carried out by just anyone or any criminal group. They are assault groups with great planning and capacity. This is part of the same strategy of intimidation and terror used by powerful groups to silence the voices of journalists and our team.
Our website has been hacked. We lost information and it hasn’t been easy to restore it. We are concerned because we don’t have the technical capacity or the resources to work on this issue. Our capabilities are very limited. We do the best we can. We’re on constant alert, we know that whatever they do, they can do it when we least expect it, like, for example, an attack on the antenna or an attack on the communication networks to get us off the air.
There are mounting disinformation campaigns to attack our team and our staff.
How does ERIC-Radio Progreso work in such a challenging environment?
How can we send a message of encouragement to the population when what lies ahead is not easy? We’ve been at this for two thousand years, haven’t we? Since Jesus of Nazareth. We live in a time when there is conflict between the elites. The paradigm of their relationships is individualistic and utilitarian. The consequence is catastrophic because individualism is about worrying about yourself, doing what benefits you most, regardless of what happens to others. It is a conflict of power and a serious and grave economic conflict, in which there is a voracious struggle for control of national resources, finances, institutions, and organizations that serve their own interests.
The new development is the emergence of the Free Party, which historically grew out of groups opposed to the 2009 coup and of dissidents from the Liberal Party. They say they have a left –wing progressive ideology , but they also have the vices and practices of traditional parties. We find ourselves in a real problem because spaces are running out and opportunities and resources are being wasted to really address the great needs of the population. But from the perspective of power and the logic of capital, the more precarious the situation, the more opportunities there are for investment by transnational companies such as these. The maquilas arrive. Why? Because people are willing to work for precarious wages. The more ignorance there is, the easier it is to achieve polarization and confrontation, and at the same time it is a possibility for consolidating perverse leadership.
Within that logic, they’re not looking for the kingdom of God, are they? Nor are they seeking the welfare of the population. They are seeking to exercise the power that benefits them most and the capital investment that will guarantee them the most profits. It does not guarantee general well-being. It is a hellish, perverse circle of domination and dependence.
Which side are we on? Obviously, on the side of the dispossessed, like those in Nazareth. We accompany the most affected, most beaten and most vulnerable people. That is our commitment, because it is Jesus’ commitment, it is a commitment to the kingdom of God And it is the right commitment for a social centre of the Society of Jesus.
What vision do you and your team have for Radio Progreso?
When I arrived, we did a SWOT analysis. We started a strategic communication plan that has already been completed. Among the fundamental issues is improving our hybrid communication capacity, not just in radio, but in other platforms and social networks, and digital culture tools. We are entering the world of artificial intelligence, which is having a significant impact on disinformation and misinformation, and is creating a lot of uncertainty. We are facing new challenges, a new reality, but we are also expanding our technical capacity.
We are present in 13 of the [Honduras’] 18 departments, but we have a network of about 20 community correspondents, which allows us to reach and have access to communities with no direct radio transmission. We can report on what is happening in these areas; we get first-hand news of what the communities are experiencing. We have a Radio Progreso app, and we can be heard in Australia, Europe, the United States, and Canada via the internet, but we also want to improve our national coverage. We can’t do it on our own technical capacity. We must work with community radio stations, coordinate with local journalists, broadcasters, and local communicators, to have a greater presence in the country.
These are very troubling times not just for Honduras but for the world in general. What do you pray for?
I have a wonderful experience of God. I feel a very close intimacy and friendship. It’s like constantly meeting my companion on the journey and the person I trust completely in everything I do and everything we do. The decisions I make are prayed over and discerned. In all the difficulties I have experienced and the difficult transitions we have had, including personal ones, God has been very timely and effective in the moment. That’s what it says in the telos, the kairos, the right moment. The decisions and solutions to difficult issues or problems have been like illuminations. I feel complete trust in God. I don’t seek power, I don’t seek privileges, nor do I seek a position that gives me security. All I ask is to be with God wherever He wants me to be. And to serve wherever He wants me to serve.
I have been doing things I never imagined I would do as a Jesuit. I never imagined I would cross borders, live my missions far away, not because I asked for it, but because that is where I was sent. God has always been with me every step of the way. I feel a wonderful and inexplicable presence of God and of my vocation and mission. So that gives me absolute confidence, not because of my merits, not because of my abilities, not because of institutional support. The fact of celebrating the Eucharist every day is a source of extraordinary spirituality for me.
At Eric Radio Progreso, we pray for the missions of our other colleagues. There is a kind of strength and an inexplicable source of response that is not ours, that goes beyond our human capacity. I say, “Well, God, you speak, and you must help us take the steps to respond to what you are inviting us to do at this moment. And, to rise to the occasion, and to respond in a way that is appropriate to the moment.”
When I talk with my colleagues, we are constantly in a one-on-one dialogue. At the same time, we are seeking the light on the path to take the necessary steps in our work as a team. It is not just strategic institutional operational planning, but it is a spiritual, mystical experience of the work that God asks of us. There is something that goes beyond the calculations and plans of the organization in normal institutions.
