Secretariat staff has developed a PowerPoint presentation in a bilingual format for the promotion and implementation of Encuentro & Mission. The 3-part presentation highlights the history of Hispanic ministry, the pastoral recommendations included in Encuentro & Mission and a practical application for developing and/or strengthening Hispanic ministry at the diocesan and parish level.

The PowerPoint presentation has been piloted in several dioceses. It will be produced on a CD format for free distribution to all diocesan directors for Hispanic ministry, regional offices for Hispanic affairs and national Hispanic Catholic organizations.

The CD will be ready for distribution this spring.

Making the PowerPoint presentation available to the dioceses will make it easier for parishes to access and implement the values, principles and pastoral recommendations for Hispanic ministry.


Hispanic youth ministry at a glance

Hispanic ministry has experienced a tremendous growth in the past thirty years. With the approval of the National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Ministry in 1987, Hispanic ministry became widely accepted in most U.S. dioceses as a ministry that was to be done for the most part in Spanish and with great sensitivity to the cultural values and religious traditions of Hispanic Catholics. However, this understanding of ministry, based on the principle of integration versus assimilation, has been only consistently applied for the benefit of Hispanic adults.

As we look at the present status of Hispanic ministry, it is clear that the principle of integration versus assimilation applied to ministry with Hispanic adults has bore abundant fruit. .More than 20% of parishes in the U.S. serve Hispanic Catholics in their language and cultural context, and over 75% of all dioceses have a structure to promote and coordinate Hispanic ministry. These percentages are not surprising since Hispanics constitute about 35% of all Catholics in the country.

Youth ministry has also experienced remarkable growth over the past thirty years. With the publication of A Vision for Youth Ministry (1976), the U.S. bishops gave priority to the development of ministry with young people at the diocesan and parish level. They also provided a vision and an understanding of this ministry as comprehensive or total youth ministry. Today, youth ministry is highly professionalized and has an office in practically every diocese. It also has a strong presence at the parish level as youth ministers are often paid staff, are equipped with budgets, and have access to parish facilities and other resources.

Impact of growth on Hispanic young people

Unfortunately, Hispanic young people have only benefited marginally from the impressive growth of these two ministries. While Hispanic ministry focused mostly on the adult Hispanic population, mainstream youth ministry became highly proficient in serving only one segment of the Catholic young population. This segment is typically comprised of mainstream Americans of European descent, from middle or upper-middle class families living in the suburbs and registered in the parish. They are high school students who are college bound and, in good probability, went to Catholic schools. With the exception of some diocese and parishes where the great majority of the population is Hispanic--mostly in the Southwest and in the Miami area--Hispanic young people are not present in mainstream youth groups or diocesan youth conventions. This absence is reflected at national youth gatherings where Hispanics and other minorities are also visibly absent.

The unspoken assumption that Hispanic children and young people knew English, or were in the process of doing so, made the development of catechetical programs in Spanish quite difficult, even for First Communion and Confirmation. In the area of youth ministry, this assumption was even more prevalent as Hispanic youth were simply expected to assimilate into the existing parish youth group. This assumption has proved to be incorrect, as a large segment of the young Catholic population has gone without appropriate pastoral attention.

The experience of the past three decades shows that most Hispanic young people have not been a part of mainstream youth ministry. It is clear that the ability to speak English is only one component needed for Hispanic youth to feel at home in parish youth groups, or for the typical youth group member and/or minister to feel comfortable with Hispanic young people. Cultural differences, economic, social and immigration status, educational experiences and family situations are also important factors that need to be taken into account.

According to the official count of the U.S. Census in 2000, 37.5% of the 35.3 million Hispanics living in the United States are under the age of 18, and 17 million Hispanics, are under the age of 39. Today, Hispanics make up about 50% of the Catholic youth and young adult population in the United States. At the beginning of a new century, the Church has the challenge and the opportunity to find creative ways to reach out to, and to embrace, Hispanic youth and young adult Catholics in their uniqueness.

How can the Church respond in the future?

The recently published document of the U.S. bishops on Hispanic ministry Encuentro & Mission: A Renewed Pastoral Framework for Hispanic Ministry, calls for the development of alternative models for Hispanic youth and young adult ministry (#70). These models need to move beyond the wrong assumption that Hispanic young people will assimilate into existing mainstream youth groups or programs. Instead, they need to adhere to the principle of integration versus assimilation that has benefited Hispanic adults. Reaching out to U.S. born Hispanic teenagers is particularly urgent. They are the population with the largest numbers and the one who have more often fallen through the cracks between Hispanic and mainstream youth ministry.

But there are already encouraging signs of hope in the horizon. Last June, the National Catholic Network de Pastoral Juvenil Hispana, also known as La Red, presented a Hispanic Youth and Young Adult Ministry Initiative to the Bishops’ Committee on Hispanic Affairs and to the Sub-committee on Youth and Young Adults. Both committees welcomed the initiative and directed their respective staff to review further this initiative and to generate a plan of action within their existing plans and programs for 2003 and 2004. The Southeast Pastoral Institute (SEPI), the Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC), Instituto Fe y Vida, and the Regional Offices for Hispanic Affairs are strong advocates for the initiative and can be a great resource for its implementation. The National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM), the National Catholic Young Adult Ministry Association (NCYAMA), and other national Catholic organizations serving young people have also been engaged in this effort. The National Conference for Catechetical Leadership (NCCL), and the National Organization of Catechists with Hispanics (NOCH) can also be key players in providing faith formation models for Hispanic youth and young adults.

The initiative has specific goals, objectives and strategies that point on the right direction. Encuentro & Mission, Renewing the Vision for Youth Ministry, Sons and Daughters of the Light, and other USCCB documents are a great resource in developing ministry models for Hispanic young people. They also provide the necessary ecclesial context for future efforts. However, collaboration between Hispanic and youth ministry structures and ministers at the diocesan, parish and national level, is key to an effective response and a fruitful harvest.

Most of all, an effective response needs to provide Hispanic youth and young adults with their own space in the faith community and the support they need to develop their own identity as Hispanic Catholic young people. A space in which they are welcomed for whom they are and from which they can relate to other Catholic young people as well as to the rest of the faith community.

Recommendations for action

The following are recommended actions to promote a more effective and collaborative response to Hispanic young people. Some of the actions are included in the initiative generated by the National Catholic Network of Pastoral Juvenil Hispana (La Red). Others have been generated through dialogue with NFCYM, NCCL, and other regional and national Catholic organizations ministering with young people.

• Conduct research to measure the extent to which Hispanic young people are been reached by current diocesan and parish youth and young adult ministry, and catechetical efforts. The research can include mainstream parish youth groups and Confirmation classes, as well as long existing and emerging Hispanic grupos juveniles (youth groups) and apostolic movements working with young people.
  
  
• Sponsor a national consultation with youth ministers working with Hispanics at the parish and diocesan levels. The consultation can focus on identifying best models and practices, and how they can be incorporated into parishes and dioceses.
  
  
• Conduct a national consultation with diocesan and parish youth ministers working with different cultural populations and pastoral models. The focus can be on having a common experience and a conversation on the need to provide relevant pastoral response to different youth and young adult populations, thus, going beyond the one-size-fits-all approach. This dialogue can lead to a common understanding and vision for youth ministry that includes diverse groups and models of ministry working collaboratively in parishes, dioceses, and national organizations.
  
  
• Champion the leadership development and formation of Hispanic youth ministers, youth ministers working with Hispanics, and young adult Hispanic leaders. This can be done by providing formation and training opportunities which are accessible in terns of language, cost and distance. Formation and training for all youth ministers and catechists on how to minister with Hispanic young people should also be a part of this effort in dioceses and parishes with significant Hispanic populations. A partnership between key organizations ministering with youth is of essence for the successful implementation of this action.
  
  
• Promote the use of existing bilingual resources and develop new ones to form youth ministers. These resources could be used in youth and young adult ministry settings for leadership development and catechesis.

Pope John Paul II named Monsignor Felipe de Jesus Estevez last November as Auxiliary Bishop of Miami. Bishop Estevez was installed January 7, 2004 as the eight auxiliary bishop of Miami.
Amidst the jubilation of family and friends and approximately fifty bishops and archbishops, including Cardinal Keeler, of Baltimore, and Cardinal McCarrick, of Washington, DC, the new bishop referred to himself as “a symbol of a recurrent story,” that is, of a Cuban in exile who was received by the local church.

Bishop Estevez was born in La Habana, Cuba in 1946. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1970 in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. He was later named rector of the Regional Seminary of Boyton Beach, Florida.


Center run by National Evangelization Teams draws hundreds of teens

CNS – The Twin Cities’ newest teen hot spot isn’t the Old Navy store at the mall or the trendy nightclub downtown, but a converted gymnasium in West St. Paul known as the NET Center.

More than a thousand kids cram into the center on the first Saturday of every month to listen to Catholic speakers, sing at the top of their lungs and celebrate Mass together in a program called Lifeline. They come from all over the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, and as far away as the Dakotas, Wisconsin and Iowa, for an experience many describe as life-changing. Joe Roueche, outreach coordinator for NET Ministries, came up with the idea for Lifeline in 1995 as a way to make his organization more visible in the archdiocese, he said.

NET (National Evangelization Teams) Ministries is an international youth ministry based in the Twin Cities that challenges young Catholics to love Christ and embrace the life of the church, according to the group’s Web site at www.netusa.org

NET Ministries offers training in youth ministry and leads over 1,000 retreats each year for youths across the United States, Canada and Australia. Lifeline started small, with about 150 teens attending the first event. But every year since then attendance has skyrocketed, Roueche said.

Last year, an addition to the NET Center was built to accommodate more than 1,000 people. “I think we’re booming,” Roueche said. “We just open the doors and they show up.”

Roueche said he believes several factors have boosted Lifeline’s attendance; they include the lack of parish-based programs for young people and Pope John Paul II’s 1993 visit to Denver for World Youth Day.

Teens also enjoy the dynamic speakers, peer testimonies, lighthearted skits that send a spiritual message, camaraderie and contemporary Christian music, Roueche added.

“We make sure we have people here who can speak to youth, who have that gift,” he said. “You can have the best message, but if they can’t hear it or get it, that’s tough.”

Roueche doesn’t underestimate the power of music to reach teens, but Lifeline is more than a concert, he said. “The music might be what gets them here initially, but the truth is what keeps them coming back,” Roueche said. The Mass is always the pinnacle of the evening, he said.

It takes a small army of volunteers to make such a huge event run smoothly. About 80 to 100 people, including 25 teens, help out at Lifeline every month, doing everything from selling T-shirts to handing out snacks to serving at Mass.

The teens, who commit to volunteering for one year, also are encouraged to attend a four-day retreat over the summer. Roueche said he has seen many of the volunteers grow spiritually from the experience. “Two or three of the volunteers are giving serious thought to seminary life when they graduate,” and some of the girls are considering religious life, he said.

In addition, one Lifeline a year focuses on discerning vocations. Archbishop Harry J. Flynn of St. Paul and Minneapolis celebrates Mass, with clergy and religious from many orders present. At the end of the night, those who are open to religious life are invited to approach the stage for a blessing. “Every year, 200 to 300 kids come up,” Roueche said. “It’s amazing.”

Teen volunteer Anna Carter, a parishioner at Holy Trinity in South St. Paul, started attending Lifeline a couple of years ago when friends invited her, she said. “The first year I was coming here, I came not as much for God, but to hang out with my friends,” she told The Catholic Spirit, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

“At school, no one acts like a Christian, and you just kind of are like, ‘Is there anyone who shares the same faith I do?” said the Hill-Murray junior. “You come here and everyone is alive in their faith. It’s really great, really encouraging.”

Nick Vanderbroeke, a teen volunteer who attends Guardian Angels in Chaska, said he likes the energy of Lifeline. “You feel more free to express yourself,” he said. “You can put your hands up here.”


Percentage of Hispanic Catholics under age 30 in 2000, by diocese

(Taken from Changing the Face of Ministry with Catholic Hispanic Youth and Young Adults, a division of Instituto Fe y Vida)

The National Research and Resource Center for Hispanic Youth and Young Adult Ministry has published a map which shows the proportion of Hispanics among Catholics under age 30 for each diocese in the country. The map was created to assist in pastoral planning, taking into account some basic facts about young Hispanic Catholics in the United States:

• Hispanics account for more than 45% of all Catholics under age 30 in the U.S.
  
  
• More than half of all Hispanics are under 26 years of age, which contributes to the projected rapid growth of the Hispanic population in the coming decades.

• Data from Census 2000 on the ethnic/racial profile of each county in the country (which will not be updated until after Census 2010).
  
  
• Data from national surveys of religious identification, since the census does not track this information.

• From 2000 to the middle of 2003, the young Hispanic population has grown about 9% while the young White population has decreased about 1%.
  
  
• The highest percentage growth rates for Hispanics are found in dioceses that presently have few Hispanics; most of this growth is due to immigration.

(Excerpts from Welcoming Hispanic Youth/Jóvenes in Catholic Parishes and Dioceses, by Ken Johnson-Mondragón. Taken from Changing the Face of Ministry with Catholic Hispanic Youth and Young Adults, The National Research and Resource Center for Hispanic Youth and Young Adult Ministry, a division of Instituto Fe y Vida. (1737 W. Benjamin Holt Drive, Stockton, CA 95207. Telephone: 209-951-3483. E-mail: info@feyvida.org)

Forty per cent of the 4.4 million Catholics of high school age in the United States is Hispanic. Roughly, half of these Hispanic teens are the children of immigrants. Therefore, it may be helpful to take a closer look at how the Catholic population breaks down among teens of high school age.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Pew Hispanic Center suggest that about half of the immigrant Hispanic youth and about 20% of the U.S.-born Hispanic youth will not complete high school. Altogether there are about 500 thousand Catholic Hispanics of high school age who will not complete high school.

Linguistically, about 15% of the Hispanic Catholics of high school age are likely to be primarily Spanish-speakers due to their recent arrival from their country of origin. About 60% are bilingual, with varying degrees of proficiency in English and Spanish, and about 25% speak English and little or no Spanish.

More will be said in this article about the challenge of reaching larger number of Hispanic youth in Catholic youth ministry. For now it is sufficient to mention that low educational attainment, linguistic differences, and cultural differences between Hispanic youth, their parents, and the youth ministers, all conspire to make mainstream Catholic youth ministry unattractive to many (not all) Hispanic youth and/or their parents. If Hispanic Catholic teens have not felt comfortable in their parish youth groups, it follows that as they become adults they may also be underrepresented among youth ministers, and indeed in the leadership of the Catholic Church at every level as they currently are.

There seems to be a myth among Catholic youth ministers that Hispanic teens will be cared for by the Hispanic adults who are of their culture, so the non-Hispanic ministers need not reach out to them. The reality if that most Hispanic youth are living between two cultures, neither of which is fully theirs.

This means that adult leaders of youth ministry—both Hispanic and non-Hispanics alike—must learn to do cross-cultural ministry in order to reach more of today’s Hispanic youth.

Many of today’s youth ministry formation programs (both in English and in Spanish) are leaving their graduates ill-prepared for this challenge. Until this situation is changed, a significant sector of the young Catholic Church will continue to be isolated and alienated from the pastoral care offered in their parishes.

Structural exclusion of Hispanic youth

The results of this kind of “structural exclusion” of Hispanic youth are most evident at large national gatherings of Catholic youth. For example, at the 2001 National Catholic Youth Conference (NCYC) in Indianapolis, only about 5% of the 20,000 plus Catholic teens attending the event were Hispanic.

This means that 11 times as many Hispanic youth would have had to attend in order to have representation proportional to the size of their population among Catholic youth. For comparison purposes, the Asian and Black participants were also underrepresented, but to a lesser degree. Only 3 times as many of them would have had to attend in order to have proportional participation.

This underrepresentation of “minorities” may be due in part to the location of the NCYC, since it was held in one of the areas of the country with the lowest levels of Hispanic presence. Perhaps there are other reasons for the low Hispanic turnout that are not yet fully understood. Conversations with the organizers at the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM) reveal that great efforts were made in preparation for the NCYC 2001 to welcome Hispanic participants, including making $100,000 in scholarships available, yet the results of those efforts continue to disappoint.

Irrespective of the circumstances, the low participation of Hispanics in national Catholic youth events begs the question of whether it is reflective of a larger failure on the part of parish and diocesan youth ministry efforts to reach the Hispanic youth in dioceses across the country.


Nationality and language are important elements of Latino identity
(Taken from The Cara Report, Georgetown University, Vol. 8, No. 4, reprinted with permission)

The attitudes of Latinos in the United States are discernibly different than non-Latinos according to the 2002 National Survey of Latinos, a nationally representative survey sponsored by the Pew Latino Center and Kaiser Family Foundation. However, there are many distinct sub-groups within the U.S. Latino population that define a multifaceted Latino identity.

The survey was conducted during April-June 2002 and examines how members of the Latino community identify themselves, their views of the United States, their experiences with discrimination both within the Latino community itself and from non-Latino groups, their language abilities and preferences, their economic and financial situations, and their experience within the health care system.

Results of the survey show that Latinos take different views than non-Latinos on what it takes to be successful in the workplace, and Latinos overall show a strong attachment to the Latin American nations where they or their ancestors were born. While Latinos generally take a positive view of life in the United States, many express concerns about the moral values their children are acquiring.

Significant differences on a wide range of attitudes are apparent depending on whether respondents were born in the United States or abroad and whether they are primarily Spanish or English speaking. Although large-scale ongoing immigration keeps Spanish a vibrant presence in the Latino population, English is rapidly gaining ground, even in immigrant households. Among native-born Latinos and those who are fully fluent in English, views on a range of issues are often closer to those of non-Latinos than to those who are foreign-born or Spanish speakers.

More detailed highlights:

Religion and Morality. Latinos who were born outside the United States tend to me more socially conservative than those who are native-born, though it depends to some extent on the age of immigration. Differences in social views are even more pronounced between Latinos who speak Spanish predominantly and those who predominantly speak English. Some differences also exist based on country of origin, with Mexicans and Central Americans tending to be slightly more socially conservative.

• Some of these differences in values may be explained by religion. Latinos overall describe themselves as very religious with a majority (70 percent) identifying themselves as Roman Catholic. Latinos who say they have no religion express views that tend to be less socially conservative and more similar to those of Anglo/whites.
  
  
• A larger majority of Latinos (72 percent) than whites (59 percent) feel that sex between two adults of the same sex is unacceptable. Again, differences are considerably more pronounced between Spanish- and English-language dominant Latinos—82 per cent vs. 60 percent, respectively—and the foreign vs. native-born—77 percent vs. 64 percent respectively say “unacceptable.”
  
  
• Latinos express views that emphasize the importance of family ties, and they have somewhat more conservative views on gender roles than whites.

• More than half of Latinos (54 percent) say their country of origin is the first or only choice for identifying themselves, compared to one-fourth of Latinos (24 percent) who say that “Latino” of “Hispanic” is their first choice, and one-fifth (21 percent) who say “American” is their preference.
  
  
• More than two-thirds (68 percent) of foreign-born Latinos primarily choose their country of origin. Those born in the U.S. of immigrant parents are about equally likely to identify themselves by their parents’ country of origin (38 percent) or as American (35 percent). Over half (57 percent) of those with U.S. parents identify first as Americans.

• Three in ten Latinos (29 percent) believe that you can be more successful in an American workplace if you are willing to work long hours at the expense of your personal life, compared to nearly half of whites (46 percent). However, less than a fifth of Latinos who predominantly speak Spanish (17 percent) voice that view, compared to 45 percent of those who predominantly speak English. Similar gaps exist between the foreign and native-born.
  
  
• More Latinos (89 percent) than Anglos (67 percent) agree that relatives are more important than friends. However, on this issue, foreign-born (92 percent) and native-born (82 percent) are more likely to agree with each other than with their non-Latino counterparts.

• More than three-quarters of Latinos think Latino children growing up in the United States will get a better education than they did (80 percent) and will have better jobs and make more money than they do (76 percent).
  
  
• Fewer, but still about half (56 percent), have confidence that Latino children growing up in the United States will have the same moral values they do.

• This is one instance were Latinos from different places of origin agree. For example, an overwhelming majority of Mexicans (89 percent), Puerto Ricans (86 percent), Cuban (89 percent), Central Americans (94 percent), South Americans (89 percent), Salvadorans (94 percent), Dominicans (92 percent), and Colombians (88 percent), all agree that immigrants need to learn to speak English.
  
  
• Almost three-quarters (72 percent) of foreign-born Latinos predominantly speak Spanish and nearly a quarter are bilingual (24 percent). Six in ten (61 percent) native-born Latinos predominantly speak English and a third (35 percent) are bilingual.

January 8, 2004

On behalf of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration, I welcome President Bush's decision to engage the important issue of immigration once again by issuing his January 7, 2004 proposal on immigration reform. I also commend the President for his plans to renew bilateral migration talks with the government of Mexico on this important topic. It is significant that the President recognizes that our immigration system is broken and is in need of reform. However, it is critical that we recognize the importance of immigration reform that is comprehensive and that will truly address our current immigration crisis. In this regard, we have serious concerns about the scope and type of reform the President has proposed.

We commend the President's comments in which he recognizes the importance of worker protections. In addition, we welcome the President's call for an increase in the number of available "green cards." These represent the beginnings of needed reforms.

While the issuance of a proposal is an important first step in a long overdue reform of our immigration system, this particular proposal does not provide a solution to the serious problems we experience as the result of continuing undocumented migration and an immigration system that is broken.

What is needed to respond to these problems is truly comprehensive immigration reform that will provide opportunities for legalization for the undocumented currently living in the united States, temporary worker programs with full worker protections and a path to permanency, as well as a reform of our family immigration system that will allow immigrant families to reunited in a timely fashion.

Any legislative proposals that might evolve will be measured by the Bishops on the basis of the principles for immigration reform enunciated in their pastoral letter of January 2003, Stranger No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope.

As the President acknowledged in his comments yesterday, immigrants and their families benefit our nation economically, culturally, and socially.

As the President's plan also recognizes, legal status for immigrants contributes to our national security. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops stands ready to work with the Administration and Congress to fashion an immigration system that meets all of the goals of comprehensive immigration reform.?

NOTE: An analysis of President Bush’s Immigration Proposal vs. the Principles in Strangers No Longer is posted on our web site: www.usccb.org/hispanicaffairs


Government looking to reach out to immigrants with new assistance

CNS – The federal agency charged with settling immigrants will enlist churches and community organizations to provide a range of services to help newcomers with the transition to life in the United States.

Alfonso Aguilar, chief of the new Office of Citizenship under the Department of Homeland Security, said in November that in the next six months his agency would launch a test run of a program that follows the models of Canada and Australia when it comes to helping new immigrants adjust to the country.

Among the differences between the current U.S. approach and that of the other countries are things as simple as providing basic information would-be immigrants need in an easy format on agency Web sites, and efforts such as Canada’s practice of pairing new immigrants with Canadians who serve as mentors while they get settled.

Other aspects of the proposal would include having community groups and churches provide classes in English, American history and U.S. culture, in addition to similar courses already directed at immigrants who are at the point of seeking naturalized citizenship.

Aguilar told Catholic News Service he hopes to have a pilot program running in a handful of cities by March.

Mark Franken, director of Migration and Refugee Services for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he thinks Aguilar’s concept is “right on”.

“We’ve tried to influence the government on this in the past,” he told CNS.

But he’s concerned that there has been little mention of any financial resources to support the churches and community organizations being asked to provide a range of new services to immigrants.

Franken said he has argued for years that the government should provide all immigrants the kind of resettlement assistance it currently offers to refugees. That includes helping refugees find jobs, providing English classes and matching them with people in the communities where they settle who help them acclimate to life in the United States. Refugees also are given a monthly stipend for about eight months, as well as medical coverage and assistance in finding employment.

Refugees come to the United States after fleeing their homeland, typically because of war or natural disasters. Their status of being unable to remain in their own countries distinguishes them from the general immigrant population, including people who come to the United States to reunite with family members, for better jobs or for education.

Through MRS-affiliated programs in dioceses, the Catholic Church resettles more refugees than any other entity in the country. That work is largely funded by the federal government through grants.

MRS also provides a range of services, from legal aid to pastoral programs for migrants, for other kinds of immigrants.

Franken said he believes some of the kinds of services Aguilar is promoting are currently being offered to other immigrants through parishes and dioceses operating on their own, but it’s not in any kind of nationally coordinated system, as Aguilar envisions.

Aguilar said he thinks such efforts will help newcomers become more integrated into their new home.

“Many people arrive skeptical of government,” he said. “The Canadians have found that this helps them understand how government functions in a place where government actually functions well.”

He said the Canadian experience after 30 years of this kind of outreach has been that immigrants’ perceptions of how government works is dramatically better because of the outreach.


SEPI celebrated its 25th Anniversary

The year 2003 marked the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the South East Pastoral Institute (SEPI). Congratulations to its director, Father Mario Vizcaino, Sch.P., and to the staff of the South East Pastoral Institute for a job well done!

Twenty five years ago SEPI began an apostolic venture in the Southeast region of the United States. Guided by its Board of Directors, SEPI began to inspire, promote and coordinate the work of the many dioceses of the South East region in an effort to organize, evangelize and train Hispanic leaders in the area. Since its inception, SEPI’s two main priorities were organization and formation. In the beginning, that is, in 1978, SEPI began its work with two dioceses. Today, SEPI is working with 28 dioceses and its staff has been asked to assist three other dioceses outside the region. By 1983, there were 124 organized communities in the Southeast and today there’re more than 700. SEPI is changing the face of the region. The Catholic Church’s presence is more and more visible in the Southeast and it keeps growing just as it did 200 years ago in the Northeast region of the country.

Here are some highlights of SEPI’s work in the past twenty five years:

• Pastoral plans. Twenty three dioceses have already developed their own pastoral plans which are modeled after the national pastoral plan approved by the bishops in 1985. These dioceses have used materials and technical assistance provided by SEPI.
  
  
• Encuentros. Since 1978, SEPI has organized 12 regional encuentros and more than 30 sub-regional encuentros. These encuentros have provided the leaders of the region with an opportunity to share their experiences and insights and to renew their perspectives according to the guidelines provided by the USCCB. These encuentros have also served to study and to respond to the needs of the dioceses.
  
  
• Mobile teams. SEPI’s staff visits dioceses on a regular basis. SEPI’s mobile teams have traveled more than 4 million miles in the past 25 years.
  
  
• Programs. More than 86,000 leaders have participated, at different levels, in SEPI’s programs. 585 students have graduated from SEPI’s schools of ministries and 61 students have obtained their Masters’ degrees. SEPI is assisted in its mission by 30 devoted professors who have taught a variety of courses with much dedication and commitment.
  
  
• Youth ministry. One of SEPI’s most popular publications is La Pascua Juvenil which serves as a formation tool for youth and young adults. SEPI has been providing leadership formation and services to youth and the young adult population whose average age today is 26.6 years old. SEPI has made youth ministry one of its main priorities because they believe that “we are not talking about the Church of the future but the young Church of today.” To this date, twenty one different issues of La Pascua Juvenil have been published.
  
  
• Migrant ministry. Every year, for the past twenty years, SEPI has organized a workshop for migrant ministers. SEPI’s very first publication La Guia Campesina is an invaluable manual for migrant farm workers and for those that work with them on how to apply the teachings of the II Encuentro National Hispano de Pastoral to their own situation.

CNS – Today’s culture is marked by a relativism that has become “the religion of the mass media and also of the educational establishment,” Boston Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley told some 300 listeners at the national assembly of Communion and Liberation January 19.

“Today, we’re turning out writers, editors, teachers, and managers who embrace this new religion of relativism,” he said. “Perhaps our idolatry of freedom has led to the belief that we can all choose our own truth because the truth as an absolute is rejected as too confining, too demanding on the autonomous self.”

“This crisis is quite complex,” he said. “We have a crisis of faith; people are prepared to believe almost anything. It’s a crisis of credulity. Religion is being reduced to New Age, warm fuzzies, (a) little inner voice, a little ritual. I’m OK, you’re OK, even when I’m a wreck.

Communion and Liberation is a movement in the Catholic Church founded in 1954 by an Italian priest, Father Luigi Guissani. Popular in Italy, it is also present in more than 70 countries, including the United States.

Members focus on the human and divine nature of Christ and how to experience that dual nature in everyday life. The movement goal is “to propose the presence of Christ as the only true response to the deepest needs of human life in every moment of history,” according to its materials.

Archbishop O’Malley spoke at a discussion with author and theologian Msgr. Lorenzo Albacete, who is considered the spiritual leaders of the Communion and Liberation movement in the United States. Together, they said the movement’s goals can lead Christians to becoming agents of change in the culture.

“We live at a time in history when believers will again be singled out as those strange people who don’t kill their offspring, those quaint folk who share their table but not their bed,” Archbishop O’Malley said.

“Our challenge is to be champions of the Gospel of life, defenders of the sacredness of marriage and family, promoters of the common good,” he added. “When we do these things, we are building a civilization of love.”

Msgr. Albacete said the message of Communion and Liberation is that Christianity is an “event,” not a set of rules for living or a solution to problems. The most important role of the church, he said, is to help the faithful experience “the enfleshment of Christ in the person of Jesus of Nazareth in our time.”

“The church’s task is not to resolve human problems,” he said. “Christ did not come to introduce a code of individual or social behavior, but to teach the truth about man and his life.”

The experience of Christianity “must change the way we do our politics,” Msgr. Albacete said. “It must change the way we participate in the economic life of the country. We must change the way we marry and have children and educate them and fall in love. If nothing happens, then there is nothing.”

“We need not worry,” he added. “The problems will be dealt with by changed human beings who will enter the world of politics and science, medicine and economics. And with the power of the new humanity they have experienced, (they) will deal with the problems in a new way, a way that is not violent.”


Resources

RENEW INTERNATIONAL 2004 INSTITUTE

July 8 – 11, 2004

The RENEW International 2004 Institute: Why Catholic? Professing, Living, and Celebrating our Faith will be held at the Sheraton Meadowlands Hotel, in East Rutherford, NJ, July 8-11, 2004. All liturgies and selected workshops will be offered bilingually, and of particular interest is the Instituto Hispano which will be held Saturday, July 10, 2004. On this day, workshops and the main presentation will be done in Spanish. Join Adele Gonzalez, major keynote speaker, and Donna Peña, liturgist, as well as other presenters as everyone explores the richness of the Catholic faith in workshops, presentations, and discussions which will inspire and enlighten small Christian community members as well as catechists, RCIA, adult faith formation, and pastoral ministers, priests, young adults, and diocesan leaders.

For more information, please call 908-769-5400, extension 123, or visit RENEW International on line at www.renewintl.org


Opening

DIOCESE OF ROCHESTER

The Diocese of Rochester is seeking a Director of Multicultural Ministries/Spanish Apostolate Coordinator for a full time Hispanic minister to provide diocesan leadership and empowerment for the culturally diverse communities of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rochester, New York. He/she will direct the multicultural offices and develop a vision for the Hispanic communities in coordinating the office of Spanish Apostolate. This position requires a Master’s Degree in pastoral ministry (or its equivalent), a special or advanced study and understanding in cultural diversity and successful experience in working with diverse cultural communities.

For more information, please call 585-328-3210 or send your e-mail to Barbara Pedeville at pedeville@dor.org


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