Servants

The American bishop of a Bolivian vicarate reflects on the challenges of his ministry, and the profound needs of the people whom he serves.

For Bishop Morgan Casey, pastoral visits can mean long hours bouncing over rutted dirt roads or chugging along a muddy river on a motorboat to one of more than 300 tiny communities scattered throughout the lush rain forest.

"We're an alive church. We're a church that's trying to address social problems," Bishop Casey said of the Apostolic Vicariate of Pando, whose six parishes serve about 160,000 people in an area of Bolivia nearly the size of Oregon.

Social problems are acute in this hot, humid corner of the poorest country in South America. Nearly three-quarters of the people in the vicariate live below the poverty line, and about one-third of town residents and half of those in rural areas live in extreme poverty, with an income of $1 or less a day.

The vicariate is a tropical frontier area on the border between Bolivia and Brazil. Riberalta, where the vicariate office and the cathedral are located, is difficult to reach by road from the highlands, especially when seasonal rains churn the red clay roads to mud. As a result, there are very few cars in town. Most people get around on bicycles or motorcycles. Taking a taxi means balancing on the back of a motorbike.