Mission among the Maya

Fr. Eugene Theisen, MM with a Mayan family in Petecbiltun, Mexico.

By Father Eugene Theisen, MM, from Wadena, Minnesota

Having worked with the Mapuche Indians in southern Chile for some 37 years, learned their language and customs, I had to leave because the cold, humid winters of June, July, and August, finally got to me. I wanted to continue to work with indigenous peoples, so I volunteered to work in the Maryknoll mission in Yucatan, Mexico, with the Mayan people. They are the second largest indigenous group in Mexico, numbering some 500,000.

The Mexican government has educational programs by which children in grade school study the indigenous language and customs of the area. The Mayan people communicate among themselves in Maya and with others in Spanish. When I arrived some ten years ago I learned that the Bible had been translated in Maya with the joint effort of the Catholic Church along with several Protestant groups. However, that edition was no longer available.

Parish music group from Fr. Eugene Theisen's parish in the community of Tzacala, Mexico.

Since people love to sing, my first effort was to contact some religious who are Maya and knew a number of religious songs in Maya. We went to a layman who produces many charismatic songs on tapes and had a tape made with songs in Maya for use at Mass. The tape was well received by the priests of the Archdiocese of Yucatan along with their parishioners. Now in our Masses we sing only in Maya.

Since no written catechetical material existed in Maya, I decided to tackle that problem. At Maryknoll, N.Y. I came across a Bible History printed in various languages and sponsored by the Catholic Church in Germany. I wrote to Germany asking whether they would sponsor the translation of the Bible History in Maya. The e-mail answer was affirmative.

Since I was new in Yucatan and did not master the Mayan language, I asked a nun belonging to the same group that sang in Maya for the tape to translate the Old Testament part. She is adept in writing Maya since she teaches the language to the postulants and novices of the congregation. The next step was to contact the priest who teaches Maya in the major seminary. I asked him to translate the New Testament part of the Bible History.

The Bible History in Maya has now been printed and distributed in the numerous parishes of the Archdiocese which have a large Maya population and also in the adjoining dioceses of Campeche and Quintana Roo. The Mayan people are happy to learn the history of God's people in their own native language. This is an effort to put into effect the message of Pope John Paul II when he visited this area over twelve years ago, namely that the Mayan people should foster and appreciate their own culture, their language and customs and of course their Catholic heritage.

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