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Wide variations in ministry to
Hispanics
By ARTHUR JONES
NCR Staff Washington
Approaches to Hispanic Catholic ministry vary widely, but away
from the more customary Hispanic/Latino U.S. venues (Chicanos in the Southwest;
Puerto Ricans in New York, Cubans in Florida), the new areas face
similar underlying problems. Whether the location is Atlanta, Arlington, Va.,
or Rockford, Ill., theres a general racism and, frequently, the lack of a
welcome.
In Atlanta, when archdiocesan Hispanic ministry director Gonzalo
Saldana was asked what three priorities hed urge on the U.S. Catholic
church, he answered, One, really prepare the people for the coming of the
Hispanics. Our diocese is doing it, but we dont have enough
resources.
Two -- and actually this a national concern -- not only
develop lay leaders, but develop the recognition that they are lay
leaders, Saldana said. Sometimes we form our people, offer all
kinds of training, but when they go back to the parish, they are not recognized
as leaders. Theyre kept separate from the parish team.
And third, young families and young adults need programs. We
are not doing enough. Theres a lot of proselytizing here, very
significant. Those communities [Protestant groups] are small, people are known
on a first name basis. Our churches are becoming too large, said Saldana.
When Hispanic Catholics are sharing facilities and programs with
mainstream churches, he said, they sometimes get lost in the
shuffle.
Fr. Ovidio Pecharroman, director of the Hispanic apostolate in the
Arlington, Va., diocese, said that to the Hispanic newcomer the U.S. Catholic
church is cold -- in some dioceses more than others -- detached, distant.
When you come from a culture in which the traits are proximity, hospitality and
openness, then the frontal attack is very strong. It can provoke a reaction of
I am not welcome here, and I will go to a sect that will open
their arms to me.
Pecharroman directs the dioceses Pastoral Formation
Institute that in seven years has trained more than 1,000 Hispanic Catholics as
catechists and pastoral workers.
Pecharroman said he believes the Arlington diocese, with 63
parishes and 336,000 Catholics, has some 220,000 Hispanic Catholics, the
majority not registered. Spanish-language Masses are celebrated in 25 parishes
for a Spanish-speaking population unlike any other in the country. The range is
from a large majority of very poor people to highly educated embassy and
international organization officials serving in the U.S. capital. The institute
trains workers in five areas: cathechesis, liturgy, Christian life , charisms
and youth.
The segments are led by a lay staff (U.S. bishops Hispanic
Affairs Secretariat staff are among those who teach at the institute) and
attracts priests from outside the diocese to observe its work.
The shortest course is a 24-hour catechist training program, but
the range is extensive, from theology to Christology to Spanish culture,
offered Monday to Friday 7 to 9 p.m.
Pecharroman is a member of the secular institute Diocesan Priest
Laborers. He has lived in the United States for 36 years and has directed the
Arlington apostolate for six.
Rockfords Hispanic Ministries director, Msgr. William
Schuessler, who previously worked in Peru, said his dioceses immediate
problem is the absence of accurate figures. I suspect there are 125,000
Hispanics. The local newspaper reports 31,000, and the local deanery
thinks about 15,000.
Where he started with 10 to 40 people at Mass a few years ago, now
the churches are packed. The dioceses Escuela de Formacion Catolica is
busy; several Hispanic candidates for the priesthood are in formation.
In Atlanta, director Saldana said, the diocese sends all its
seminarians -- who are expected to learn Spanish -- to inculturation programs
run in the El Paso, Texas, diocese, and Cuidad Juarez, Mexico.
Theres continuing awareness at the diocesan level that
every office needs to respond, and to have bilingual personnel, he said.
For example, the education department runs the Hispanic lay leadership
programs, and other programs that in a different diocese might have a separate
institute. Saldana, who has been Hispanic ministry director for 11 years, is
proud of the formation retreats for the younger population and the Hispanic
catechist training for a diocese where some rural parishes in less than a
decade have become majority Hispanic.
Practicing guesstimates, said Saldana,
theres a half a million Hispanic population out there and its
mainly invisible. Yet the diocese does not run a training program for
evangelists, he said. In all honesty, we leave that up to particular
parishes. There are so many, we cannot be everywhere.
National Catholic Reporter, February 11,
2000
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