This column is a thank-you to 52,629 people — everyone who signed our Stand for the Land campaign letter to the Honduran Ambassador to Canada.  The letter draws the attention of the Government of Honduras to the struggles of people in Guapinol and the San Pedro sector. Since 2015, these communities have been protesting an open-pit iron mine that was irregularly set up in Carlos Escaleras National Park. Their struggle has come at great cost. Community members have been unjustly detained and three have even been murdered. 

The letter, which took three large banker boxes to contain, was delivered to her excellency Beatriz Valle on April 24 in Ottawa by a delegation from Development & Peace - Caritas Canada. Her Excellency said she was “touched by the solidarity expressed by the Canadian population towards the community of Guapinol, which is so far away.” She promised to pass on the message to her Minister of Foreign Affairs and to ask people in Congress to take up the Guapinol case with her government.

Solidarity, one of the key principles of Catholic social teaching, is a moral virtue that is most needed in the world today to turn the tide of our world towards the common good. St. John Paul II said that solidarity is “not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good.”

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Today I am thanking 52,629 people for expressing your solidarity by using something so simple and yet so personal — your names. It was a most simple act by which you indicated your belief in the cause of justice for the Honduran people of Guapinol and San Pedro. Most of you literally signed it (as opposed to clicking buttons or typing into a website form). This was not a letter that went “viral” online. It was the collective effort of hundreds of dedicated Development & Peace members who were empowered by our staff to come into your parishes, schools and everywhere else your communities gather. One person even collected the signatures of people at a restaurant — including the chef!

Therefore, I especially want to thank our volunteer members. You have not only signed the letter. You also took the time to share the message of our campaign from pulpits in churches across Canada. You took the time to set up tables, print and photocopy the letter sheets, find pens and clipboards. You honed your elevator pitches for when people would approach your table and say, “What’s this all about then?”

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The first of you to do this work were high school students at the Catholic Leadership camp at Camp Olympia in Huntsville, Ont. After learning about the campaign from our staff team at camp, you practised your campaign pitch and then went out to all the other campers attending the different camps taking place at the same time to spread the news. You found the first 284 people to sign the letter. A special thanks to you!

You were young and old alike. Lay people, nuns, brothers, priests, students, teachers, professors, professionals, retired professionals  and more! The last signatures to go in the last box were 551 collected by my own father at several parishes across the Archdiocese of Toronto. He, like others, would give up his weekends to spread the message of our campaign to the faithful.

The President of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, came to power on a platform to do something about problematic extractive projects in the country, including the mine in Guapinol. But powerful interests in the country have prevented her government from making good on her promises. We hope that this giant act of solidarity of people living in Canada will give her the courage and support needed to make good on them.

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Let me close this column of thanks with an image. The Rogers Centre, before its recent renovations, had seating for 49,286 people. Imagine the moment you signed our letter. Then, suddenly, you find yourself sitting in the Rogers Centre and every seat is filled. It is so full that 3,343 people have to sit on extra chairs, filling the field. The letter is delivered to the ambassador and a great roar goes up from the crowd! That is the sound of your solidarity travelling 5,844 km from the Honduran Embassy on Albert Street in Ottawa to Guapinol, Honduras. Thank you. This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.

(Stocking is Deputy Director of Public Awareness & Engagement, Ontario and Atlantic Regions, for Development and Peace.)