Hispanic Apostolate

Tonight we began with a (surprise) task to choose a class representative to speak at our graduation ceremony. The program administrator was there and she wasn’t going to leave until she had a name. She suggested that this person should be a class leader, someone who could speak eloquently, and it must be someone who has completed all of their work.

 

Whomever we chose would be the “Voice of our Class”, and their short speech would have to compress three years of study into a three to four minute presentation. She turned it over to one of the students in our class who facilitated the discussion, nominations, and election. Eight people in our class were nominated, including me. I and one other person declined our nominations, and the first round of voting clinched it for one of the remaining six.

 

After that the administrator left and the instructor began her lecture by asking the question, “How much do you know about the Hispanic Ministry in your parish”? I think she was a bit surprised by how much we did know, although I’ll admit that I didn’t recognize that the Hispanic group is made up of so many cultural distinctions. This ministry includes Mexicans, Columbians, Hondurans, Guatemalans, etc. It’s obvious to me that we need to better understand the various cultures that make up this group, because despite this diversity their faith is deep and from the heart.
 
The American way is to compartmentalize functions and assign tasks; like the Office of Family, Office of Youth, Office of Seniors, etc, whereas the Hispanic way is to combine functions and tasks. Families are one and must be addressed together. Every culture has their own gifts and we are (still) not doing enough to cross over between the various cultural groups.

 

Different parishes have different traditions too, including informational handouts, and sources that are not being equally distributed. There is something new called the “Strong Catholic Families” program that has been successful in Los Angeles. This program was developed as the result of the Los Angeles Bishop’s strong support there, and it’s in the process of being disseminated during this Year of Evangelization.

 

We noted something called “Roots and Wings” in the instructors handouts and asked her to discuss it. It’s an encounter program that brings Hispanic directors together from the different diocese to a weeklong national retreat with lectures.

 

The Hispanic ministry, like so many others, depends on the ADA for its budget, but additional funds are collected through projects. Those involved in the ministry use an idea expressed as conjunto which represents the idea of wholeness; combining tasks. They strive to see, judge, and act: To see what’s going on, to judge what is happening, and to act to make things better. This is a huge task in the US, especially in our diocese, because we’re small compared to some of the other dioceses. Nevertheless, together we can do a lot.

 

For instance, parish life is usually organized around committees, but Hispanic groups do not work well in committees because although small groups represent the whole, it is not the way the Hispanic community works. It often requires education to help people understand the purpose of committees. It is also necessary to inform the parish leaders about this issue. In Latin America the Pastor makes all the decisions, and this is what they, as a culture, know. The Hispanic church needs to learn from the American church in order to organize and take control of their own communities.

 

The Office of Parish Services, or the Hispanic Apostolate as our instructor refers to it, is a ministry that is about two years old. The Mission of the Hispanic Apostolate is "to be a local church that will inspire the people of this valley to live the values taught by Jesus Christ, inspiring them to integrity and action."

 

In order to support the mission of the Hispanic Apostolate the following core values must be understood and lived: 1) Dedication to incorporate liturgy, catechesis, social ministries, community outreach to the community and evangelization: 2) Fidelity to the mission and tradition of the church: 3) Honesty in the ministry that includes a sense of professional ethics: and 4) Working in collaboration with other ministries and cultures.

 

Companionship and cooperation is very important in the Hispanic community; for them being a companion is being a disciple. The model for the Hispanic Apostolate is concentric circles with Jesus at the center. Radiating outward are Liturgy, Education and Catechetics, Outreach and Social Justice, Community building, and Communication and Evangelization.

 

It incorporates the following ministries exemplified in Mark 16:15, Youth and young adult ministry, Movements, Encounters, Popular religiosity, Protection of children and vulnerable adults, and vocations. The mission of the ministries is rooted in the mission of the Gospels and the social teaching of the church. The challenge is to educate, communicate, and develop a pastoral plan in diverse settings according to the Gospel.

 

The short terms goals of the Hispanic Apostolate are: 1) Relationship building with the clergy who are ministering with the Hispanic community; 2) Develop and conduct a survey of all parishes to discover the needs of their Hispanic community so that they can understand how to respond to the needs of each parish; 3) Have a gathering with the pastors who have a Hispanic community to inform them and invite them to be a part of the development of their own Hispanic Apostolate; 4) Bring together all the leaders of the movements to inform and educate them so that they can do their ministry based on the Diocesan Pastoral Plan; and 5) Establish criteria for the Hispanic board.

 

The long term goals of the Hispanic Apostolate are: 1) To establish a Hispanic Apostolate board; 2) To establish a leadership committee to establish relationships between the members and the different groups and movements; 3) To establish polices of professional ethics in the Hispanic leadership; 4) To establish programs of education and evangelization for the leader of the different ministries; and 5) To promote stewardship education in the communities.

 

Obviously this is a new ministry with lots of work to do, and there are openings available on the Hispanic Apostolate Advisory Board. This is the time to get in on the ground floor of a growing ministry.