Interview with Fr. Matt Ruhl, S.J., Pastor at St. Peter Claver
For 3.5 months, the schedule for Fr. Math Ruhl, S.J., the pastor at St. Peter Claver in Punta Gorda, was an unusual one.
In the mornings, Fr. Ruhl would wake up, eat breakfast, and then hop on his bike to ride for six hours each day. In the evenings, Fr. Ruhl would host gatherings to talk about Belize and offer Mass often on an ironing table in the hotel, which he admits is a “quite unusual place to pray.”
But this was the commitment of Fr. Ruhl, who was on a mission to raise $5 million for Belizean schools by biking across the United States — a 3,000 mile trek.
“It was strenuous and arduous and rigorous,” Fr. Ruhl said. “But, then when I thought, ‘God, I am so sick of this,” I thought about all of those 27,000 children whom so many are in dilapidated buildings. It breaks my heart to see these children in such [bad] buildings. That was my ongoing motivation — the welfare of the education system for the Catholic Church in Belize.”
Fr. Ruhl at a makeshift altar in his hotel room.
Fr. Ruhl has served as pastor for seven years at St. Peter Claver parish in the southern region of Belize called the Toledo District, which is also known as the “Forgotten District” because of its poverty and lack of investment in the area.
Fr. Ruhl, along with Belize 2020, has made significant strides to transform the region and provide more “stability” for the community. The group have invested in significant infrastructure repairs, including a seawall to prevent erosion on parish grounds, and have started nutrition programs at the school. Yet, Fr. Ruhl wants more for St. Peter Claver and the surrounding villages.
“[Punta Gorda] is filled with beautiful people who are really looking for a greater future for their children and social stability,” Fr. Ruhl said. “There needs to be social, political, and spiritual stability.”
To bring that stability, St. Peter Claver has sponsored a series of efforts, including initiatives to foster more community and faith formation opportunities.
The Shepherd Center, which opens in November, is one of those initiatives where members in the surrounding villages can be trained to offer spiritual guidance to their community. Fr. Ruhl said there are only three priests in the region and 27 churches, meaning that many villages go without having a regular Mass time. Fr. Ruhl said the Sheperd Center would train people to be catechists who can hold prayer services to supplement the lack of Masses throughout the region.
The other effort will be a Mayan celebration in October that will bring Mayan families from throughout the region to connect with one another. Fr. Ruhl said the Mayan villages often do not have opportunities to be with one another. He hopes that by bringing villages together the groups can collaborate on ideas to build up the impoverished region.
“The Mayan community do not often get together in [large gatherings],” Fr. Ruhl said. “But this is a gathering that will have many in the Mayan community together. And the spirit of that is going to be creative and uplifting.”
The biking across the country is the latest major effort from Fr. Ruhl to serve the Toledo District, along with all of the Catholic schools in Belize. The trip was called the Lighthouse Ride, named after the route that took him from a lighthouse in Maine to a lighthouse in Santa Monica, California. It raised around $1.5 million for all schools in the country, falling short of the overall goal of $5 million, at least for now.
Still, the response from the people he met was positive, which gave him hope — even when he was biking on days with 104 degree weather through the Mojave Desert. He said that if you cannot support the work of Belize financially, at least offer prayers.
“Pray for us,” were Fr. Ruhl’s closing words.
Various stops along the 3,000 mile ride.