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Two of the workshops offered a look at current key issues in catechesis, not only in the Archdiocese of San Antonio, but nationwide. Leading the break-out session on “Implications of the NDC on Hispanic Catechetical Ministry” was Sister Mary Dumonceaux, OSF, associate director of the ACC, with a panel consisting of members of the Hispanic Adult Catechesis Committee, Liliana de la Torre, Maricella Salazar of St. Vincent de Paul Church, and Deacon José Ocampo, Western Deanery resource coordinator.
Sister Mary noted that The National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Ministry, a document by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), led to Hispanic ministry offices being opened around the country. More recently, their document, Encuentro and Mission, was published in an effort to re-evaluate what has occurred as a result of the earlier directive.
Now a new document has been prepared by the Bishops’ Committee on Hispanic Affairs, Study on Best Practices for Diocesan Ministry Among Hispanics/Latinos. Members of this committee, which included Archbishop José H. Gomez and Sister Mary Lou Barba, MCDP, interviewed and talked with parishes around the nation with a diocesan office for Hispanic ministry. This document is awaiting publication, but can be viewed online at www.usccb.org.
With input from all these documents in mind, the local Hispanic Adult Catechesis Committee has been trying to evaluate, from the Hispanic perspective, the section on adult catechesis in the National Directory of Catechesis (NDC). The resulting reflections were presented by the panelists.
Liliana de la Torre spoke on “Culture as a Vehicle of Adult Catechesis for Hispanics.” Noting that the NDC states adult catechesis should be based on the circumstances of those to whom it is addressed, de la Torre pointed out the significance of culture.
“We are all born in a culture,” she said, “so wherever we go, we take our culture with us because it is an intimate part of us.” This culture includes, she continued, “things that are tangible and observable,” such as food, music and language, but also an internal culture that includes values, thoughts and myths — things that are learned implicitly.
Regarding values, de la Torre noted the importance placed on family by Hispanics, thus making the Holy Family something Hispanics can easily relate to and a vehicle for catechesis. Another significant value to Hispanics, she related, is respect for elders. “A lot of those elders are part of the household for many Hispanic people,” she said, “so when we talk about the sacredness of life, from conception to natural death, yes, Hispanics know about that.”
Hospitality is also a value Hispanics treasure (“mi casa es su casa”), with Hispanics readily identifying with the Good Samaritan and welcoming the stranger. “If there’s not enough food, just put some more warm water in and we all eat,” she said smiling. This ties in with the Bible story of the multiplication of the bread as well, de la Torre noted. Hispanics are no strangers to the beatitudes, she said, as “blessed are the poor” and “blessed are the hungry” many know from personal experience. The Mass itself, with its breaking of bread, she related, can be taught to Hispanics as something they are very familiar with — the family meal and fiestas with food and music.
Likewise the Book of Exodus will have personal meaning for Hispanics, who comprise what has been referred to as the “Immigrant Church.”
Maricella Salazar’s topic was “Evangelization as Missionary Moment” and she elaborated on the NDC’s statement that the goal of adult catechesis is to help form Christian disciples who “accept their rightful place in the Church’s mission to evangelize ...”
The National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Ministry states, she said, that the church’s fundamental mission “is the continuation of Jesus’ word to announce the kingdom of God and the means for entering it,” and that Jesus is at the center of evangelization/catechesis.
One of the things Salazar became aware of in her parish work was that, in preparing children for the sacraments, it was often hard for sponsors or godparents to be found in their own families. Here she stressed the importance of evangelizing the family in order to evangelize the child.
If family members were not married in the church, the preparation of a child for a sacrament offers an evangelization opportunity to bring them back into the church, exploring why they did not receive the sacrament of matrimony and helping them to get it con-validated in the church. This is true evangelization, she noted, as opposed to the quick fix of coming up with sponsors or godparents for them.
“Our challenge is to go and make disciples, she said, quoting from the NDC. “And the fruit of evangelization is changed lives and a changed world.”
Deacon José Ocampo’s topic, “Hispanic Adult Catechesis — Priorities and Applications,” focused on the importance of truly understanding the persons being catechized. “I think we have to get to know them,” he said, “and see what it’s all about before we go into the relationship of catechesis, so that the catechesis for adults helps them to become more willing and able to be Christian disciples in the world.”
“My experience with the Hispanic people,” he added, “is that, becoming disciples, if you give them enough catechesis, our problem is not going to be making them disciples — it’s keeping up with them!”
He noted the importance of baptismal spirituality to Hispanics. “They are baptized Catholic, they were born Catholic, they will die Catholic,” he said,
“ ...it’s part of their family and their tradition.”
One of the problems facing young male Hispanics in the United States, he said, is the lack of mentors. In Hispanic countries, there is a mixing of age groups, with the young men having uncles and grandfathers around as adult role models, whereas in this country, age groups are kept separate.
Another group that needs to be addressed, Ocampo noted, is Hispanic singles. The community should not assume that they ought to marry and should not make them feel that something is wrong with them if they do not marry young or do not marry at all. Another challenge for Hispanics is sex education, which is something freely discussed in the United States, but not in Hispanic culture.
The median age of Hispanics in the United States is 24 to 34, he said, noting this provides a unique opportunity to deal with the family in many ministries and can be challenging, as sacramental preparation or catechesis must be worked around work schedules. He added he has conducted baptismal classes at all hours of the day and evening to accommodate families. “It depends when they’re off, when they can be together,” he said.
Homilies are another area that needs to be made more relevant to the lives of Hispanics, he said, including such issues as immigration, abortion, the war and single parents.
“There is one saving word, Jesus Christ,” he said in conclusion. “But that word can be spoken in many different languages and I think that we have to find our own way to speak that language, so that Jesus Christ becomes ‘our’ savior and not ‘my’ savior in the United States of America in working with Hispanic ministry.”
The workshop on “The Critical Nature of Adult Faith Formation and Its Impact on Children’s Programming” will be covered in the March 16 issue of Today’s Catholic. |