Description:
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.