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Vatican II: 40
years later
Voices
Council a vital boost to Hispanic identity
By ROSA MARIA ICAZA
As we celebrate the 40th anniversary
of the Second Vatican Council, it is good to reflect on how that event has
affected the Hispanic community. Since the majority of my people are Catholic,
all the changes in our church have a great impact, but in different ways and
degrees. We welcomed the use of vernacular languages in our liturgical
celebrations. But for the majority in our communities the change was not
immediately experienced, since Mass was celebrated in English and it was hard
to find a priest willing to preside in Spanish. When we were able to have a
Hispanic or bilingual priest, our celebration was relegated to the church
basement and scheduled at an inconvenient time. We felt that we were continuing
to be second-class Catholics.
However, thanks to God and to many efforts of our leaders during
these 40 years, the bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy established a
subcommittee for the revision, translation and publication of liturgical
rituals in Spanish even before this language was approved as a liturgical
language for the United States. In 1970, Patricio F. Flores was named the first
Mexican-American bishop, and several Hispanic priests became pastors. Up to
this point, few Hispanic priests had been named to any position of leadership.
Now many dioceses are requiring that seminarians learn Spanish.
Today we can celebrate the Eucharist and the sacraments in our own
language and with our own customs, thanks to Vatican II’s
“Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy,” which states: “If certain
locales traditionally use other praiseworthy customs and ceremonies when
celebrating the sacrament of matrimony, this sacred synod earnestly desires
that these by all means be retained.” As a result, Hispanic Catholic
weddings now incorporate traditional customs like the lazo and the
arras. The lazo is a garland, often made of ceramic flowers, that
is placed around the shoulders of the bride and groom as a sign that they are
now one. The arras is another popular custom in which a small sum of
money, usually 13 dimes, is given to the newlyweds by their godparents and then
shared between the two -- another symbol that what they each have individually
they now share together as a couple.
Together with the use of the Spanish language, we have had more
opportunities to celebrate with our own traditions and to share with the wider
church the wealth of our popular expressions of faith. Before Vatican II we
were ashamed of some of our practices. Pope Paul VI confessed to the
church’s long suspicion of inculturation when he wrote in
“Evangelization in the Modern World”: “These expressions were
for a long time regarded as less pure and were sometimes despised [by the
church], but today they are almost everywhere being rediscovered.”
We, ourselves as Hispanics, have studied more deeply the
theological and scriptural basis of these expressions of faith, their cultural
values, and their ability to communicate the Good News. They help us to fulfill
the desire of Vatican II that calls for an “active, full, and meaningful
participation” in our liturgical celebrations. We rejoice in how far the
church’s magisterium has come when we read in the document of the synod of
the Americas, “without these expressions our faith is weakened”
(“The Church in America”). In the Spanish translation, this statement
has even more beautiful and stronger symbolism: “Their absence leads to a
shipwreck of faith.”
I rejoiced when Pope John Paul II named Mary, under the title of
Our Lady of Guadalupe, “Mother and Evangelizer of America,” meaning
the whole continent was being placed under her protection. And what a joy and
what pride when the Holy Father canonized St. Juan Diego, one of our own
people.
Even before the council, some efforts were made to respond to the
needs of Hispanic communities. Beginning in 1945 in San Antonio, the late
Archbishop Robert E. Lucey began to address the lack of instruction in the
faith among Hispanic people. He was concerned that religious instruction was
not being offered in Spanish and that physical facilities to hold classes and
celebrate Eucharist were not being made available to these Spanish-speaking
communities. Later on, the U.S. bishops’ conference assumed the
responsibility for nationwide pastoral care of Hispanic people. They founded
the Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs, which today continues to respond to many
of our needs as our numbers grow.
Several dioceses have organized offices for Hispanic ministry.
This has been both a blessing and a hindrance, since anything that is related
to Hispanic communities is passed on to this office. The result is that many of
us feel again that we are a “problem” or a “burden” for all
the other diocesan services when we go to ask for a specific service. This
arrangement also has contributed to the burnout of several great leaders,
Hispanic and non-Hispanic, who tried to respond to every need -- from
immigration papers to food and shelter, to the great lack of opportunities and
resources for faith development, to the lack of resources for overall needs in
the Latino/Hispanic communities, and last but not least, the lack of resources
for liturgical celebrations in Spanish.
Through some Hispanic leaders at the national, regional and
diocesan levels, together with many efforts from people in our communities, we
have been able to organize several groups to respond to our needs. First among
these would be two organizations for Hispanic priests and women religious:
PADRES -- Padres Asociados para los Derechos Religiosos, Educativos y Sociales,
which translates as Priests Associated for Religious, Educational and Social
Rights -- and Las Hermanas, the Sisters. An additional key resource is the
Mexican American Cultural Center in San Antonio, which is a national center
founded in 1972 “to empower leadership through faith and culture.”
MACC in many ways was the pioneer for the other regional and diocesan pastoral
institutes and centers for Hispanics, like Miami’s South East Pastoral
Institute.
Together, all these institutos have formed the
Federación de Institutos Pastorales (Federation of Pastoral Institutes).
A wide range of ministries is represented by several other national
organizations, such as the Instituto Nacional Hispano de Liturgia (National
Hispanic Institute for Liturgy); the Asociación Nacional de Sacerdotes
Hispanos (National Association of Hispanic Priests), which founded the Academy
of Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States and its publication, the
Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology; the Asociación Nacional de
Diáconos Hispanos (National Association of Hispanic Deacons) and the
National Organization of Hispanic Catechists.
Church personnel working in the Hispanic community have also
helped launch several other groups, such as the Catholic Migrant Farmworker
Network. This group falls under the umbrella of Hispanic ministry, since most
of the people it serves are Hispanic. Individual Catholics and small groups, in
some cases with support from dioceses and/or parishes, created other
organizations to help include Hispanics in U.S. political, economic and social
life. Among these are Communities Organized for Public Service; EPISO (El Paso
Interreligious Sponsoring Organization); UNO (Spanish for “one” and
an acronym for United Neighborhood Organizations), the Chicago area’s
largest Hispanic community-based organization; United Farm Workers; Southwest
Voters Registration Office and many others.
Yet, even though we, the Hispanic people, have made great efforts
to take our rightful place in our church, there are still some key issues that
all of us in the Catholic church need to address. According to a study
conducted by Salvatorian Fr. Raúl Gómez and Dr. Manuel A.
Vásquez, “Assessing Hispanic Ministry in Eight Dioceses,” the
issues that surfaced are: leadership development and formation at all levels;
becoming a church of integration as opposed to one of assimilation; tension
between multiplicity and unity in the parish; increasing Hispanic diversity;
intergenerational conflicts; tension between popular religiosity and
evangelization; tension between a pastoral focus on the sacraments and one
stressing social justice; the current restricted view of stewardship;
ministering effectively to Hispanic youth; the loss of Hispanics to other
faiths; and welcoming Hispanics within an increasingly culturally diverse
church.
Fr. Virgilio Elizondo, a well-known Hispanic theologian and
pastoral leader, summarizes the development within and growth and maturation of
the Catholic Hispanic community since the council in his book Galilean
Journey: “Vatican Council II had told us we had a right to our
heritage, to our art and music, to our traditions, to our language, to our
festivals, and to our culture. It reminded us that this was ‘the way of
the Incarnation.’ ”
All of us Hispanics have become ever more aware of the richness of
our heritage, which knits together our faith and our culture. Therefore, I
thank God that the Second Vatican Council marked for the Latino community, the
path for us to express culturally our faith with great pride, joy and hope.
We know that there is still a lot of work to be done in the
Lord’s vineyard. As Hispanics we still struggle. We are encouraged to
continue going to our bishops, pastors and leaders to request what we need. But
at the same time we are becoming more responsible for our own baptismal call to
follow Christ.
Our Lady of Guadalupe sent St. Juan Diego to his bishop (and the
first bishop of Mexico, Juan de Zumárraga) with these words:
“Listen and hear in your heart, my most beloved son: That which scares
you and troubles you is nothing; do not let your countenance and heart be
troubled; … you are my ambassador; in you I place all my trust.”
We, simple Juan Diegos of our own era, must realize that we are
all responsible and accountable to God and to our church and society for the
constant building of the temple of God, for all the peoples of the world hunger
and thirst for justice, peace and harmony. With Jesus and Mary our Mother we
will go forward!
Rosa María Icaza is a member of the Congregation of the
Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word of San Antonio. Involved in Hispanic
ministry since 1978, she is a faculty member at the Mexican American Cultural
Center, a member of the Subcommittee on the Liturgy in Spanish of the
Bishops’ Committee on Liturgy. She is also a consultant for the National
Institute of Liturgy in Spanish and was its president for six years.
National Catholic Reporter, October 4,
2002
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