Oscar Bolioli returns as Methodist leader in Uruguay
2/27/2003 News media contact: Linda Bloom · (646) 369-3759 · New York NOTE: A photograph is available. By Linda Bloom* NEW
YORK (UMNS) - When the Rev. Oscar Bolioli first served as president of
the Methodist Church of Uruguay in the 1970s, that country's military
regime tried to expel him because of the church's support of families of
political prisoners and outspokenness on human rights issues.
Eventually,
as the end of his term neared, he moved to the United States, knowing
that he would be in danger once he left the highly visible church post.
But
now, after 22 years with the U.S. National Council of Churches, the
68-year-old pastor is returning to his roots. In March, he again becomes
president of the Methodist Church of Uruguay, an unpaid position
similar to that of bishop. This time, he brings along two decades worth
of experience with churches and social issues in Central and Latin
America and the Caribbean.
Bolioli was a teen-ager when he made
his personal commitment to the church, later attending Union Theological
Seminary in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was working in an ecumenical
position when the 1973 military coup occurred in Uruguay. "We, as a
country, had never had that experience, so we didn't know how to handle
an abusive situation," he recalled.
With many Methodist pastors
and lay people in prison, Bolioli found himself "in the middle of a
critical situation" and did his best, as the denomination's president
from 1974 to 1979, to lead the church in advocating for the religious
care of political prisoners and for protection of their families. U.S.
churches supported Uruguayan Methodists in their cause, he said, but the
military government was resistant, and limited progress was made.
"During the time of oppression, we were the only church who dared to confront or disagree with the government," he added.
When
he arrived in the United States, he thought he might take a
congregation, but decided to work for the New York Council of Churches.
After determining he could still not return to Uruguay, he became
director of the Latin America and Caribbean department of the National
Council of Churches and Church World Service, its humanitarian agency,
in 1981. He remained in that position for 18 years before becoming the
NCC's associate general secretary for international relations. He
retired from the agency in February.
Bolioli said he quickly
discovered that some counterpart programs in Latin America were
operating "in the opposite direction" of the NCC and CWS. In Chile, for
example, the CWS license for humanitarian goods was being used to import
Volvos and color televisions for the officers of Augusto Pinochet,
Chile's dictator.
So he spent five years dismantling all CWS
offices across Latin America and beginning new programs, set up by
locals, which allow program beneficiaries and donors to sit at the same
table and decide jointly how money is used.
The impact of Bolioli's work during his NCC career has not gone unnoticed by church leaders across Latin America.
The
Rev. Bruce Robbins, chief executive of the United Methodist Commission
on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, witnessed that
appreciation when he attended a celebration of Bolioli's ministry by the
Cuban Council of Churches in February.
"Person after person
talked about the important role that Oscar serves, and served, beginning
in 1964," he said. "Oscar began to build relationships that continue to
unfold today."
Bolioli himself lists his top achievements with
the NCC and CWS as creating a new model for relationships between the
churches of the South and churches of the North; helping bring
reconciliation in Latin America, such as working on a peace agreement
for Guatemala; creating a Latin American network to address the issue of
street children; and working for the return of Elian Gonzalez to Cuba.
And
he has never forgotten Uruguay. Through his NCC office, Bolioli has
assisted family members and others pressing the cases of 165 Uruguayans
who disappeared between the 1973 military coup and the restoration of
democracy in1985.
Although the dictatorship is over, he said he
will face a new kind of tyranny in Uruguay: economic tyranny. The
government doesn't shoot people, he explained, but kills them through
hunger. Corruption and misuse of funds have "built a terrible sense of
frustration in the people."
The government does not know how to
deal with the economic crisis, according to Bolioli. A political leader
told him recently that the only institution that the Uruguayan people
trust is the church, he said.
Though small, with about 20
congregations, the Methodist Church has earned trust because of its
outspoken presence in society. He hopes to build upon that trust by
educating both lay people and the general public "in what we call faith
and citizenship" and making sure they are fully informed about the
economic crisis. With financial assistance from the World Council of
Churches, the church plans to host five or six informational seminars
this year.
On a more practical level, the Methodist Church, with
the support of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, opened soup
kitchens in Uruguay last summer after the collapse of the banking
system. By the end of the summer, the kitchens were feeding 8,000
people, and Bolioli is talking with UMCOR about assisting with other
economic-related programs.
Uruguay's economic situation also has
caused serious psychological problems among its population.
"Middle-class people have been made poor in less than three months, and
they don't know how to be poor," he explained.
The pastor hopes
the denomination can help fill the moral vacuum the economic crisis has
created, and he has set a goal of 10 percent growth in membership each
year.
Bolioli's wife, Stella, is also from Uruguay and expects to
retire this year from the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries
in New York. Married for almost 43 years, they have four children and
seven grandchildren.
# # #
*Bloom is United Methodist News Service's New York news director.
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