Because of his love for them and for Honduras, he spent these years not only tending to their spiritual needs, but also trying to better their lives by forming cooperatives, strengthening unions, fighting for land that was rightfully theirs, all in the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Fr. Jim was a gentle man whose love for the poor was accompanied by a great hatred for injustice and oppression. As a result, he was considered a subversive by the Honduran government and was exiled without trial in 1979. Since Fr. Jim could not return to Honduras, he went to live in Nicaragua and served the poor in a parish near the Nicaraguan-Honduran border.

Fr. Jim never forgot his beloved Honduran poor; when he had the opportunity to accompany a group of Honduran "freedom fighters" who were crossing from Nicaragua to Honduras in July, 1983, he welcomed the chance to return with them as their chaplain. Fr. Jim did not carry arms.

On September 20, 1983, the Carney family received word of the death of Padre Guadalupe in Honduras. The U.S. State Department and Honduran Government have since given at least six different versions of what happened to him. Since that time, his family has worked unceasingly to determine the truth and to recover his body for burial in a known grave in Honduras.

We now offer Fr. Jim's private letters, personal photos, documents and articles for your perusal, investigation, and research. Copies of these materials were generously donated to CLASA by, and included here with the gracious permission of, Mrs. Virginia Smith, sister of Fr. Jim, and by Drs. Eileen and Joseph Connolly, sister and brother-in-law of Fr. Jim, respectively.