En Marcha: Fall/Winter 2005
(Taken from a report by Ray Malavé, President of La Red)
Mark your calendars for the Hispanic
youth encuentro
June 8-11, 2006
University of Notre Dame, IN
**
Marquen sus calendarios para el
encuentro juvenil hispano
8 al 11 de junio de 2006
Universidad de Notre Dame, IN |
Planning for the Primer Encuentro Nacional de Pastoral Juvenil Hispana continues to move forward. Three national committee meetings have been held: two at the University of Notre Dame and one during the recent annual meeting of La Red in Chicago.
Our most recent communications with Regional Coordinators of Hispanic Ministry and Diocesan Directors in the field indicate that 116 dioceses across the country are participating in the encuentro process. These dioceses have planned or are planning their diocesan encuentro celebrations. All but one of the eight Hispanic ministry regions have planned their regional encuentros. The final region is in the process of finalizing its plans for the regional encuentro.
Based on the regional reports between 1,900 and 2,000 parishes are participating in the initial process. The average participation per diocese is from 10 to 25 parishes with some of the larger dioceses averaging around 25 to 45 parishes.
I have personally heard from several bishops who have seen the value of the encuentro process in their own diocese. The listening experiences and the opportunities to share with young Hispanic in the church have brought a face and name to this reality.
The national process is in the final editing and translation stage, as is the overall weekend program. The animators for the process have been selected, they are: Luis Soto of the Archdiocese of Denver and Ana Grande of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.
It is the hope of the national committee that many bishops will be present at the national event. The program includes a number of opportunities for bishops to engage the participants—as presenters, one-on-one and groups dialogue, panel presentations, as well as celebration of the Liturgy.
Housing arrangements for bishops have been made at the Morris Inn, located on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. Registration information will be sent to all bishops in early 2006, along with information on the variety of ways bishops can interact with young adult delegates and adult leaders during the weekend.
La Red has hired the following persons as staff to the national event: Carolyn Adrian, as event coordinator; Samuel Burgueño as co-coordinator; Lucien Costley as stage manager/script writer; Santiago Fernandez as liturgy/worship & environment coordinator and Father José Antonio Medina as process/facilitator writer & coordinator.
Policies and procedures have been set for the national event to provide direction and parameters for staff as well as the various committees involved in planning the event.
Two priority initiatives—higher education and vocations—will also be addressed during the weekend. There will be a presentation to the entire assembly on each initiative (Higher education on Friday afternoon and Vocations on Saturday afternoon), as well as a “plaza” area for each initiative near the exhibit area. The USCCB Secretariat for Vocations and Dr. Gil Cardenas, Chair of the Center for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame will serve as lead agents for these two initiatives.
A potential list of exhibitor invitees has been developed and will be reviewed by the Secretariats for Hispanic Affairs and Family, Laity, Women & Youth, as well as the regional coordinators for Hispanic ministry. Following their review and approval, invitations will be sent to potential exhibitors.
The anticipated attendance at the national event is approximately 2,000 delegates. Additionally, bishops, diocesan leaders and national groups and organizations will be represented. Planning continues on the opportunities to include observers who are invited to be present but are not part of the discussion process. They will benefit from being present at the encuentro.
Many organizations and companies have also expressed an interest in providing funding in one way or another for the event. These will be selected in a manner that is in the best interest of our young people, the event sponsors and collaborators, as well as La Red.
As 2005 comes to an end and 2006 becomes a reality, excitement for the encuentro continues to build. La Red’s work continues and updates on the progress of planning the national event will continue on a monthly basis. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact RMalave@bsaorl.com.
Peace in Jesus!
Rey Malavé
President
National Catholic Network of Pastoral Juvenil Hispana La Red
Dear brothers and sisters,
During the next three years I will have the privilege to serve our Church as Chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on Hispanic Affairs. The Committee is in charge of promoting and guiding the pastoral efforts that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops makes to serve over 30 million Hispanic Catholics who live in the United States. This national over-sixty-year old pastoral effort, is called Hispanic ministry.
The overall mission of Hispanic ministry is to empower the Hispanic/Latino and promote their enthusiastic participation in the life and mission of the Church in the United States as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.
To fulfill this mission and make it a reality in the next three years, the Bishops’ Committee on Hispanic Affairs will concentrate on the following priorities:
- Promote pastoral ministry with Hispanic youth and young adults as a follow up to the First National Encuentro for Hispanic Youth Ministry.
- Identify and promote effective diocesan, parish, and regional models as best practices in Hispanic ministry and ministry formation.
- Promote Christian unity among Hispanics through and open and respectful ecumenical dialogue
- Collaborate in an active way Justice for Immigrants, the Catholic Campaign for Immigration Reform: A Journey of Hope.
- Work closely with all apostolic movements to establish a more coordinated ministry and, thus, obtain more abundant fruits.
Besides these priorities, the Committee will continue its promotion of vocations to the priesthood, religious life and marriage.
The Committee will continue collaborating with all the different ministries and, in this way, responding to the needs and aspirations of Hispanics and including their gifts and contributions.
I invite you to collaborate with the Committee and with the Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs in this very important pastoral work.
I also ask for your prayers so that these next three years be filled with blessings and growth for the Hispanic peoples and the whole Church in the United States.
Bishop Placido Rodriguez, Bishop of Lubbock
Chairman
Bishops’ Committee on Hispanic Affairs
As we come to the end of 2005, secretariat staff wishes to thank Bishop James A. Tamayo, Bishop of Laredo, for his three-year term as chairman of the USCCB’s Bishops’ Committee on Hispanic Affairs. Much was accomplished during his term, and a major portion of this issue of En Marcha is dedicated to those accomplishments.
Staff is also thankful for the new committee chair, Bishop Plácido Rodríguez, Bishop of Lubbock. He was elected chairman by the full body of Bishops during the US Bishops’ General Meeting in November 2004. For the past year he has attended committee meetings and is anxious to start his term as chairman.
In his reports to the US bishops this past year, Bishop Tamayo reminded his brother bishops that this year marked the historic establishment of a national office for the Spanish-speaking in the United States, which was established sixty years ago in 1945 in San Antonio, Texas. He also reminded the bishops that 2005 marked the twentieth anniversary of the III National Encuentro for Hispanic Pastoral Ministry, convoked by the full body of bishops at the Catholic University of America, in 1985. He reminded them that the III National Encuentro gave birth to The National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Ministry, which was approved unanimously by the full body of bishops in 1987.
The National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Ministry and the supportive documents published during the past twenty years, provides Church leaders a more intentional, systematic, comprehensive and structured approach to pastoral ministry among Hispanic Catholics in parishes and dioceses throughout the country. With the creation of numerous national Hispanic Catholic organizations and pastoral institutes, and the proliferation of research projects, ministries, and resources designed to respond to the ever-growing Hispanic presence, Hispanic ministry is helping to enrich the life of the Church in the United States.
Bishop Tamayo thanked the bishops for the support given Hispanic ministry over the years, and shared the committee’s appreciation for the commitment of lay leaders in the Church, the clergy, religious, and the countless collaborators who have sacrificed, and continue to do so, to see Hispanic ministry evolve and mature.
He shared with the bishops that “as the Church has come to realize, the Hispanic presence will continue to be an influence well into the new millennium and that, thankfully, the work of the past twenty years has served the Church well and will continue to do so in generations to come.”
In the closing comments of his last report to the US Bishops, Bishop Tamayo wrote “The Committee on Hispanic Affairs strongly encourages a continuity of pastoral efforts and support for Hispanic ministry within our parishes, in the dioceses and in the US Bishops’ national pastoral efforts.”
With this vision and commitment by the Committee on Hispanic Affairs, the Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs is likewise committed to make Hispanic ministry an integral part of all ministries and pastoral efforts of the Catholic Church in the United States.
As the late Bishop Enrique San Pedro, and former chairman of the Bishops’ Committee on Hispanic Affairs was fond of saying, “Hispanics are not a minority; Hispanics must be formed and trained to be ministers to all Catholics; and, that Hispanic ministry must collaborate with all ministry offices to assure that all Catholics accept Hispanics as ministers.” This is clearly what the committee Chairmen and staff seek to accomplish. Thank you, Bishop Tamayo and our prayers are with you, Bishop Rodríguez.
Peace,
Ron Cruz
Executive Summary
The promotion and implementation of the pastoral statement Encuentro & Mission: A Renewed Pastoral Framework for Hispanic Ministry has been the driving force for the work of the Secretariat since its approval in November 2002. The Bishops’ Committee on Hispanic Affairs, under the chairmanship of Bishop James Tamayo, set the following priorities to focus the implementation of Encuentro & Mission during his three-year tenure as Chairman:
- Foster the development of effective ministry models among Hispanic Youth and Young Adults
- Hispanics into leadership in the Church through education and ministry formation
- Strengthen the Church’s capacity to respond to the Hispanic presence in a more systematic, structural and collaborative manner in dioceses, regions and national Catholic organizations.
- Collaborate on addressing immigration issues impacting Catholics, especially Hispanic families
- Collaborate in the promotion of vocations to the priesthood and religious life among Hispanics
- Collaborate with USCCB Departments, Offices and Secretariats and other special projects.
These priorities continue to challenge the Church today. However, significant progress has been made during the past three years.
In the area of ministry among Hispanic youth and young adults, the Secretariat has partnered with a number of Catholic organizations in the development and implementation of the First Encuentro for Hispanic Youth and Young Adult Ministry. This ground-breaking pastoral process has already made a significant impact in the way the Church looks at Hispanic young people. Most dioceses have become more aware of who are Hispanic young people and the extent to which they are reaching them.
More than one hundred dioceses are already engaged in the First Encuentro’s Process. This involves the participation of hundreds, even thousands of Hispanic young people involved in a process of catechesis and pastoral development in each diocese. It is quite likely that most dioceses in the country will be engaged by the time the First Encuentro event takes place in June of 2006. A significant outcome of the First Encuentro could be a pastoral statement and strategies to guide dioceses and parishes in their efforts to bring Hispanic young people to a more active participation in the life and mission of the Church. The decision to develop a statement will be up to the in-coming Committee on Hispanic Affairs.
In the area of leadership development and education, the Secretariat has provided formation and training in the eight Hispanic ministry regions and to twenty Catholic National Organizations. It has also provided on-site technical assistance and formation in nearly fifty dioceses. More than fifteen thousand Hispanic and other Catholic leaders, ordained and lay, have been reached through these training and formation sessions based on Encuentro & Mission.
The PowerPoint presentation on the document developed by the secretariat has been widely used within the Hispanic ministry network as well as by diocesan and parish leaders from other ministries.
The presentation on the Nine Steps for Ecclesial Integration, based on the stewardship process outlined in Encuentro & Mission, has provided a road-map to promote the integration of Hispanics in decision-making groups within the parish structure, thus promoting their sense of ownership and stewardship.
The Secretariat has promoted the inclusion of Hispanic leaders in national Catholic organizations at the decision-making level. Today most of these organizations have Hispanics on their boards or are actively recruiting them. In the case of the publishing houses, many of them have hired staff to work specifically on the development of resources and materials for use in the Hispanic community.
Last year, the Secretariat sponsored a national education consultation to look at the educational attainment of Hispanics.
The consultation brought together approximately fifteen people to hear position papers on Hispanic education attainment and the challenges faced by students, their families and the schools. After the presentations by experts in public schools and an expert in Catholic schools, the participants had the opportunity to reflect on the information provided and met in small groups to reflect on what they heard, discuss priorities, and make suggestions as to how the USCCB Committee on Hispanic Affairs might be able to respond to this serious educational problem. The final report will be mailed to regional and diocesan directors for Hispanic ministry, superintendents of schools and the USCCB Department of Education.
The purpose of the consultation was to: a) quickly obtain the latest research and best practices experiences from credible and reliable professionals, b) assess the state of Latino education c) for the invitees to brainstorm on how the Church might influence families through the parish structure, and public and Catholic schools to help increase the education attainment levels among the Hispanic/Latino population, and d) to develop a report with recommendations for the Bishops’ Committee on Hispanic Affairs.
Data and insights from the proceedings generated by the consultation have been widely used by groups and organizations committed to raise the educational attainment of Hispanics, particularly young people.
There is evidence that the Church’s capacity to respond to the Hispanic presence has been strengthened in the past three years despite a challenging economic environment. An important element of this achievement is the understanding that Hispanics are a responsibility of the entire Church, not only of the Hispanic ministry office or person.
Today, many diocesan and parish leaders and administrators see Hispanic ministry as an integral part of the life and mission of the Church.
This understanding is most evident in the development of diocesan pastoral plans for Hispanic ministry, in which the various ministry offices and institutions play a unique and active role on its development and implementation. It is also evident in the growing number of parishes equipped with Hispanic ministry capabilities. Encuentro & Mission has proven to be a very good resource in the area of pastoral planning. A number of dioceses have developed plans for Hispanic ministry for the first time, while others have updated their plans using the pastoral understanding of Encuentro & Mission as they apply it to their new reality.
The Best Practices in Diocesan Hispanic Ministry project, developed over the past year, has the potential to have a significant impact in the way dioceses will structure Hispanic ministry in the future. The twenty one dioceses identified as best practices offer excellent organizational models, successful programs and continued growth that can be duplicated in other dioceses. The arch/dioceses selected were: Chicago; St. Paul and Minneapolis; Grand Rapids; Denver; Galveston-Houston; Fort-Worth; Portland; Yakima; Stockton; Orange; Monterey; Salt Lake; Washington; Rockville Centre; Wilmington; Richmond; Raleigh; Charlotte; San Bernardino; El Paso; and Omaha.
The Secretariat collaborated very closely with Migration and Refugee Services (MRS) during the past three years. Staff assisted in the development of the pastoral statement Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Faith (2002). Once approved, staff promoted the distribution of the statement within the Hispanic ministry network and its study by the regional and diocesan directors for Hispanic ministry.
Part of this effort included the joint national conference between the MRS network and the Diocesan Directors for Hispanic ministry celebrated in 2003. The Secretariat has been instrumental in bringing together these two networks to partner on the Justice for Immigrants Campaign launched by the Bishops on May 10, 2005.
In addition, the Secretariat has partnered with MRS staff on relating to the leadership from the Mexican Bishops’ Conference responsible for migrant ministry and immigration public policy issues. Secretariat staff and the Hispanic ministry network are at the very heart of the Justice for Immigrants Campaign as partner organizations.
The past three years have brought good news in the area of Hispanic vocations to the priesthood and religious life. Priests of Hispanic descent constituted 15 % of all new ordinations in each of the past two years. To increase this number, the Bishops Committee on Hispanic Affairs has started a dialogue with the Bishops Committee on Vocations on future collaboration. Staff from both secretariats have analyzed projects and programs previously developed and used in this area to build on their successes and avoid weaknesses. There is also dialogue about collaboration on the national vocations awareness program, Priestly Life and Vocation Summit: Fishers of Men, to be launched in the near future.
In addition, the number of foreign-born priests from Latin America and Spain ministering in the United States has grown to more than twenty-five hundred. Secretariat staff has collaborated with the Asociación Nacional de Sacerdotes Hispanos (ANSH) in its efforts to provide support and assistance to this very significant number of priests. A strategy to promote vocations to the priesthood and religious life will include close collaboration with ANSH.
The USCCB Publishing Office and the Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs co-sponsored a national conference on the development and translation of Spanish-language materials together with Our Sunday Visitor Institute, the Mexican American Cultural Center of San Antonio, and JM Productions, bringing together Catholic publishers, creators of resources, distributors of the resources, and users of Spanish language materials. The users of materials consists largely of Hispanic Catholics. The October 12-14, 2005 conference was by invitation-only. Hispanic Affairs received a $36,000 grant to provide scholarships to the lay people and religious who use the resources among people in the pews.
The grant also covered the costs related to translation services during the “In Our Own Tongues” conference. The 150 participants who gathered in San Antonio, started an on-going process of assessing the issues that impact and challenge all involved in developing and translating catechetical resources for the Spanish-speaking Catholic population.
For the past two years the Committees on Hispanic Affairs and African American Catholics have partnered in providing education to their respective communities on the health care concern of HIV-AIDS. With the help of the Faith-Based Initiative, the two committees have received federal grants, of about $60,000, for professional technical assistance and the development of educational resources for use within their respective communities.
To date, Hispanic Affairs has had HIV-AIDS educational resources translated into the Spanish language. The manual was used as a resource for training Hispanic ministry leaders in HIV-AIDS education. The grant also served to re-purchase the talent rights for two Public Service Announcements produced by the USCCB’s Catholic Communication Campaign’s Spanish videos on HIV-AIDS in the Hispanic community. The PSAs re-aired on nation-wide Hispanic television networks (Galavisión, Telemundo, Univisión). In 2002, a national campaign was done to promote awareness of HIV-AIDS within our Hispanic community. The televised Sunday Mass at San Fernando Cathedral on December 1, 2002, was dedicated to Advent and World Aids Day in the Hispanic/Latino community.
Plans and strategies are underway to promote HIV-AIDS education during World Aids Day 2005, which is on December 1st of each year.
Staff continues its close collaboration with USCCB Offices, Departments and Secretariats and national Catholic organizations. In arch/dioceses, staff continues to give presentations and provide training on Hispanic ministry and pastoral planning, as requested.ÿ
CNS --A new vocations campaign is being launched by the U.S. bishops with the idea that more men simply need to be invited to become priests by priests who are happy with their lives.
Announced in Washington Oct.14, the program, called Priestly Life and Vocation Summit: Fishers of Men, is based on having dioceses and religious orders convene priests to discuss their vocations, emphasizing the positive aspects, and then encouraging them to invite other men to consider following them.
Father Edward Burns, director of the Secretariat for Vocations and Priestly Formation at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, cited a survey of the 2003 U.S. ordination class in which 78 percent of the men about to be ordained said a priest had invited them to consider the priesthood.
Another poll of young adult Catholics found that only 15 percent had ever been encouraged to think about a religious vocation. In that study by the University of Notre Dame, those who said they had been encouraged to consider the priesthood or religious life said the suggestion came primarily from family members.
A 2001 survey by the USCCB found that about 30 percent of priests actively invite men to consider the priesthood.
Since the 1960s, the number of ordinations in the United States each year has dropped by more than half, to 467 last year. The 2005 Official Catholic Directory reported a total of 43,422 religious and diocesan priests for about 68 million Catholics in the United States, a ratio of about 1 priest for every 1,580 Catholics. In 1966, there were 59,000 priests ministering to 46 million U.S. Catholics, a ratio of about 1 to 800 Catholics.
Father Burns said that in the six dioceses where the program was tested he was surprised by how much the priests appreciated the chance to reflect on what made their vocation rewarding. Even when that part of the program ran for an entire day, he said, some priests said "it wasn't long enough."
Despite the contrary impression sometimes given in popular media, "priests love being priests," Father Burns said.
Bishop Blase J. Cupich of Rapid City, S.D., chairman of the bishops' Committee on Vocations, said that as a bishop he hoped the program is able to: bring his priests together and encourage them to invite more men to consider the priesthood; help his priests become more enthusiastic about their work and their vocation; and eventually lead to increased numbers of priests.
The four-part program includes interviews with priests to find out what encouraged them to consider a religious vocation; what excites and gives them hope about their work; what about their vocation has nurtured their relationships with God; and what they value most about their vocation.
During a daylong summit, priests are encouraged to reflect on the results of those interviews and discuss ways they can use their renewed sense of commitment to invite others to the priesthood.
"We found that the priests were energized by such discussions," Father Burns said.
The program includes a follow-up phase to keep priests actively encouraging men to consider vocations.
Father Burns said it takes about six months to prepare a diocese to begin the program, which would then be ongoing. Costs to individual dioceses should be no more than whatever it normally costs to gather all the priests for a convocation or other meeting. Preparing the program cost the USCCB about $200,000, including $60,000 for a video depicting priests discussing the rewards of their vocation.
Bishop Cupich said that although there is no mandate to adopt the program he expects all dioceses to participate.
Religious orders also will be encouraged to adopt Fishers of Men, but Bishop Cupich and Father Burns pointed out that because orders tend to have members scattered across multiple states and countries it is much more difficult to bring all their priests together for a summit.
CNS -- Greater cooperation is needed between Hispanic ministry leaders and Catholic publishers to better serve the growing Spanish-speaking Catholic population in the United States, said speakers at a three-day conference in San Antonio.
People involved in Hispanic ministry emphasized the need for more and better Catholic materials in Spanish adapted to the cultural context by which Hispanic Catholics understand their religion.
Publishers stressed the difficulty in finding qualified writers and creators of written and audiovisual materials in Spanish who are also attuned to Hispanic culture and the diversity among Hispanics, who come to the United States from many countries.
The Oct. 12-14 conference brought together 140 publishers, creators and users of Catholic educational materials under the bilingual title "In our own tongues/En nuestras propias lenguas."
Among the organizers and sponsors were the U.S. bishops' publishing office and Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs, Our Sunday Visitor, the Mexican American Cultural Center, William H. Sadlier publishers and J.M. Communications.
"We need materials that are 'bueno, bonito y barato,'" said San Antonio Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, using the Spanish words for "good, attractive and cheap."
Archbishop Gomez said about 28 million of the 45 million Hispanics in the United States are Catholics and most of the rest were once Catholics.
"They left because inadequate attention was paid to their pastoral needs," he said, in opening the conference Oct. 12.
Jeanette Rodriguez, theology professor at Jesuit-run Seattle University, said Spanish is important in transmitting religion to Hispanics as Catholicism is ingrained in the culture.
"Everything we know is transmitted through our culture," she said in an Oct. 12 keynote talk. "Language transmits the worldview of our culture."
This need for Spanish as a transmitter of faith doesn't stop when Hispanics learn English, she said.
"If I speak English, that doesn't mean I want to pray in English," she said.
"If you change the language, you change the concepts," said Rodriquez.
Now Hispanics are reclaiming the importance of their language, she said.
"At one time the church was more interested in Americanizing us than in evangelizing us," said Rodriguez.
Father Virgilio Elizondo, theology professor at the University of Notre Dame and a San Antonio priest, said Spanish missionaries purposefully embedded the Catholic faith in the Spanish they taught in the Americas.
"They taught phrases such as 'gracias a Dios' (thanks be to God) as everyday expressions," he said during the homily at an Oct. 13 Mass for conference participants.
"They even invented new cuss words so their converts wouldn't blaspheme," said Father Elizondo.
In a closing talk to the conference Oct. 14, Father Elizondo said the church has to be attentive to the diverse needs of different generations of Hispanics and of the different economic and educational levels of Latinos.
"The recently arrived immigrants are the most vulnerable and in most need of the church," he said.
There are also second-generation Hispanic young people who don't know who they are, he said. They are different from their parents but they are not part of the U.S. mainstream, he added.
Another group is Hispanics who are comfortable in urban mainstream parishes, he said.
A fourth group is composed of upwardly mobile professional Latinos who feel abandoned by a church that does not seem to offer them anything, he said.
These are the leaders the church needs to cultivate, he said.
During an Oct. 13 panel discussion, several producers of Catholic educational materials discussed current difficulties in preparing adequate materials in Spanish.
John Limb, president of Oregon Catholic Press, which produces liturgical music, said Hispanics are not a homogenous group.
"It's hard to produce things that meet all needs," he said.
"We bring in music from Spain and are told: 'OK, but we have our own music,'" he said.
Limb and William Sadlier Dinger, president of the publishing company William H. Sadlier, said that simply translating materials from English to Spanish is not enough as the Hispanic cultural context is missing.
"We have to find out from the community what is working," said Dinger.
There was general consensus among participants that there is a major need to develop formation programs to train Spanish speakers in sound theology and communications techniques so that they can begin producing original church materials for a U.S. Hispanic audience.
Adan Medrano, president of J.M. Communications, which produces television programming, said church leaders and publishers should look to popular culture for the "cultural currency of the people" within the U.S. Hispanic community.
He said the top 10 programs on Spanish-language television in the United States during the week of Sept. 26 were all soap operas. "This is where the great mythical stories of good and evil are being fought. These are the dramas discussed over the dinner table," he said.
The University of Scranton Press is pleased to announce the publication of Preaching the Teaching, a groundbreaking homiletics resource book for all who minister to Hispanic communities and want to incorporate Gospel and social justice themes into their preaching. Preaching the Teaching represents an important new development in the field of homiletics because it specifically seeks to educate those who preach to Hispanic congregations.
Volume editors Davis and Pérez have structured each chapter with four common sections: a theme-specific document from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; an essay by a leading Hispanic theologian; a helpful guide to appropriate scripture readings; and a brief discussion of how the each of seven key themes selected relate to liturgical feasts or civil holidays important to the Latino community. It also includes a Bibliography.
Order form: http://www.Press.uchicago.edu
Chicago Distribution Center
11030 South Langley Avenue
Chicago, IL 60628
Phone 773-702-7000
Fax 800-621-8476
Director of Hispanic Ministries
The Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph is seeking a full-time Director of Hispanic Ministry. The selected individual will collaborate with the parishes and other diocesan offices in serving the Hispanic community.
The candidate must be an active practicing Catholic, faithful to the Church’s magisterium who has a commitment to the faith life and the building up of the Hispanic Catholic community; master’s degree in theology preferred; must be proficient in Spanish and English written and spoken grammar, multicultural experience, administrative and pastoral experience with the Hispanic community preferred; demonstrable leadership and organizational skills required; the ability to work collaboratively with diverse groups of people, and be computer literate.
Interested individuals are encouraged to send a resume and references by December 30, 2005 to:
Human Resources
Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph
300 East 36th Street
Kansas City, MO 64111
Or send e-mail to Stucinski@diocesekcsj.org