100 years of evangelization are completed in the Darien’s jungle, Panama

The Darién region, on the border between Panama and Colombia, is internationally known as a dangerous step for migrants seeking to reach the United States. However, there is a less told story: that of its local population. In this vast and challenging land, the Catholic Church will turn 100 years of missionary presence.

Mons. Pedro Joaquín Hernández Cantarero, Apostolic Vicar of the Darien since February 2005, has dedicated years to promoting the Gospel in this region. In an interview with ACI Press, he recalled that in November 1925 the congregation of the missionaries of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (Claretians) was entrusted to the vicariate’s pastoral care.

After a century of ecclesial presence that will be fulfilled in this area, which covers not only the province of Darién but also the regions of Emberá-Wouunaan and Wargandí, according to Mons. Hernández Cantarero, today 5 diocesan priests, 2 seminarians and 6 Claretian priests.

“They have tried to carry the mission over the past 20 years with the aim of increasing faith in the Darienite people,” as those who live in this area are known.

These priests are responsible for accompanying pastorally to an estimated population of 60,000 people, distributed in a territory of 16,666 square kilometers, according to website data Catholic Hierarchy.

The jungle of the Darién, vast and almost impenetrable, is a labyrinth of rivers, wild animals and a humid climate that surrounds those who venture into it. This region has been, in recent years, one of the most traveled and dangerous migratory routes of the continent.

In 2023, the National Migration Service From Panama, he reported a record of 520,085 people crossing the area. By 2024, the figure was 302,203. From January to May 2025, only 2,917 people crossed the Darién, mostly from Venezuela, followed by nationals from Colombia, Nepal, Cameroon and Iran.

Cultural diversity in the middle of the jungle

Like its territory, people who live the Darién are deeply diverse. Mons. Hernández Cantarero points out that, “there is a plurality of races”, of which “each has its own origin and its way of speaking and constituting its cultural reality.” A priest and a religious pass next to the bodies of migrants deceased in the jungle of Dari

As noted, indigenous peoples such as Emberá, Wouuna, Kunas and Guaymíes coexist, along with Afro -descendants settled in different areas – in the coasts, in the center of the Darién already throughout the road – in addition to peasants who emigrated from other Panamanian provinces such as Veraguas, La Chorrera, Herrera, Los Santos and Chiriquí.

“All this gives us a very heterogeneous cultural wealth. And the region is enriched, on the one hand, by the plurality of culture and, on the other hand, by the richness of its sources, its races and its most typical aspects of culture,” added the bishop.

Love for sacraments

Although it is not a nomadic population, Mons. Hernández Cantarero warns that “faith always has to be constantly remakeing because the people do not stop anywhere.”

Many inhabitants move continuously, either more inside in the jungle or towards capital and interior cities, which, in the words of the bishop, makes the “mission more difficult and harder every day because we are always in the first stage of evangelization.”

One of the greatest pastoral challenges, he says, is to encourage that “love for the Eucharist is increased.” He explained that “it is one of the most difficult sacraments to live in this area because people have more love of the sacrament of baptism” and “this means that within the population there is little frequency to the sacrament of confession and the Eucharist.”

To counteract this situation, he indicated that he has tried to encourage communities promoting processions with the Blessed Sacrament in the streets, touring the ten missionary areas where there is pastoral presence.

The objective, he said, is that this “helps people become aware of what the Eucharist is, the great love that you have and as we have to give a more authentic sense to the sacrament of marriage.”

In this way, he adds, “little by little we are making the community aware and some couples who have more than 20, 30 years of married can currently get married to live their life in communion with Christ Jesus.”

The poverty wound

In addition to spiritual challenges, poverty marks the region deeply. According to ACNUR, the UN Agency for Refugees, “Darién is the largest and poorest province in Panama.” Mons. Hernández Cantarero coincides: poverty “is one of the greatest difficulties that the population has.”

The bishop points out that the greatest future challenge is to ensure that the “central government becomes aware of the need that the Darien has, of taking it into account in all aspects and being able to get out of the underdevelopment in which we are living.”

In the midst of these challenges, the message of Mons. Hernández Cantarero on the occasion of the centenary of the Vicariate that will be fulfilled in a few months, is that “we all feel the people of God and that we are able to live the meaning of synodality in communion of life, sharing the pilgrimage of hope.”