Bejuco, Panama--Native children stand outside a small rural Catholic church under construction here in the interior of Panama. The structure is one of a number in a church building revival among Panamanian villages. The revival is said to be intended to counteract the increased activity of Protestant groups doing missionary work in rural areas. With improved transportation, Catholic priests and missionaries will visit these new churches more often to minister to the spiritual needs of the people. Small churches like this are springing up through rural Panama. There appears to be a revival of church building which may be explained as the action of the Roman Catholic Church, traditional church of the Panama people, against the increasing activity of some 12 different Protestant groups now doing missionary work within the Republic of Panama. Many times there have been villages in the interior of Panama where a priest came to say mass only the one day a year of the patron saint of the village. Now, with improved transportation, these smaller villages are receiving more visits from the clergy. This church under construction was at Bejuco, on the Pan-American Highway in interior Panama, and was being built by a neighborhood group to house their devotions.
