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September 23, 2018By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press
Bishop McManus expressed an eagerness to participate in a national gathering of Hispanic Catholics this week, after experiencing the spiritual life of local Hispanics.
He is among four people from the Worcester Diocese attending the fifth National Encounter of Hispanic/Latino Ministry, or “V Encuentro,” being held Sept. 20-23 in Grapevine, Texas, near Fort Worth. (Encuentro is Spanish for encounter.)
Hispanic Catholics in the United States have held encuentros periodically since the first one in 1972.
In 2013 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs convened Hispanic leaders to begin the process for V Encuentro.
V Encuentro’s theme is “Missionary Disciples: Witnesses to God’s Love.” Bishop McManus said it is really a timely response to Pope Francis’ call to be missionary disciples.
The encuentro process was aimed at discerning how the Church can better respond to Hispanics, and at strengthening all Catholics’ evangelization efforts. It included prayer, reflection, outreach to non-church-goers and recording of findings. There were encuentros on the parish, diocesan and regional levels, leading up to the national one.
Bishop McManus said he found the diocesan and regional encuentros wonderful, filled with enthusiasm for the Gospel, and he was looking forward to the national one.
Such enthusiasm for the Gospel and love for the Church helps put things in perspective during the sexual abuse crisis, a crisis that can be spiritually and emotionally draining, he said.
“I’m looking forward to going to (the national encuentro) because you’ll see some of the best of Catholic life,” he said. As serious and tragic as the crisis is, the Church also has “great moments of light” like the encuentro.
“What I’m hoping to get out of it is some insights about how we can better organize Latino ministry,” Bishop McManus said. “Our young Latino priests are very strong on the need for formation of leaders.” He said the millennials (today’s young adults) are leaving the Catholic Church – not for evangelical churches like some of their parents and grandparents did, but for no religion.
Latino priests are very concerned about this, the bishop said, adding, “We cannot allow to happen in the Latino community what has happened in the American community.”
The national encuentro provides an opportunity to learn what has worked elsewhere. Bishop McManus said 2,551 delegates, 128 bishops, 250 organizations/sponsors and 102 exhibitors are expected.
Besides Bishop McManus, the Worcester Diocese’s delegates are Deacon Franklin B. Lizardo, director of the diocesan Hispanic Apostolate; Father Hugo A. Cano, the bishop’s delegate or liaison to the encuentro locally, and Sister Rosa Maria Campos, of the Oblates Sisters to Divine Love, secretary for encuentro in the diocese and pastoral assistant at St. John Paul II Parish in Southbridge.
“It’s good to see the bishop supporting this because the Hispanic community is very important for the Church in the United States,” said Deacon Lizardo, who serves at St. Paul Cathedral. “It is what is keeping the faith alive in many of our communities.”
Even so, a small percentage of the many Hispanics in the area go to Mass, so evangelization is needed, he said. He said even Catholics who’ve been in the Church a long time need to be re-evangelized and catechized.
“Our closeness to Christ is broken,” he said. “It should be a relationship based on knowing him.”
Information collected in the Worcester Diocese during the encuentro process went to the regional level, and information from the regional level went to the national level, Deacon Lizardo said.
“The bishop will be able to have this information” to help him set up a strategy for implementing the recommendations given and/or make his own recommendations, he said.
Father Cano, Catholic chaplain at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, said the national encuentro provides an opportunity for the Worcester Diocese to form a pastoral plan based on the concerns raised throughout the encuentro process. The national encuentro is like a moment of reflection, and is to include Mass, prayer and discussions about topics which came out of the regional encuentros, he said.
He said general topics are: evangelization and mission, formation in faith and catechesis, pastoral work with families, pastoral work with Hispanic youth, immigration, intercultural ministry, peace and justice, formation of pastoral leaders, liturgy and spirituality and vocations.
These topics will be broken down into subtopics such as campus ministry, prison ministry and Bible study, he said.
Encuentro has been successful in the United States and interacting with others at the national encuentro is important for Hispanic ministry in the Worcester Diocese, he said.
CNS PHOTO (Tyler Osborne : Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, delivers the keynote address to delegates Sept. 20 during the Fifth National Encuentro, or V Encuentro, in Grapevine, Texas.
