Hispanic leaders return to diocese energized

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

Bishops were blessed – and a blessing – at last month’s national gathering of Hispanic Catholics, local participants said. They returned from the fifth National Encounter of Hispanic/Latino Ministry enthusiastic, looking to the future.
More than 3,200 delegates and leaders attended V Encuentro, held Sept. 20-23 in Grapevine, Texas. The theme of the several-year process that culminated in this national gathering was “Missionary Disciples: Witnesses to God’s Love.”
“The Fifth Encuentro was wonderful… So many things we are bringing back,” rejoiced Deacon Franklin B. Lizardo, director of the Worcester Diocesan Hispanic Apostolate, one of the four representatives from the diocese. “It was like everybody was brother and sister. … Everybody was so happy. … Some people, I was giving them my hand as a way to say, ‘Hi,’ and they’d say, ‘Give me a hug.’
“The Holy Spirit was present. … It was so lively. … It was so good to be part of that,” he said.
The energy at the encuentro “was great for us,” said Father Hugo A. Cano, Catholic chaplain at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. “Everybody was on fire. We finished the encuentro with dancing. Saturday night there was a beautiful opportunity to dance together.”
Father Cano was Bishop McManus’ liaison to the encuentro process locally.
The process has made inroads in initiating dialogue, opportunities for encounter and collaboration among Hispanics in more than 2,500 parishes and more than 150 dioceses in the nation. It identified and prepared 25,000 new ministry leaders, according to organizers.
The national encuentro “was a moment of great joy and growth in our awareness of God’s action in the Hispanic/Latino community all these years since 1972,” when the first encuentro was held, said Sister Rosa María Campos. A member of the Oblates Sisters to Divine Love and pastoral assistant at St. John Paul II Parish in Southbridge, she was secretary for encuentro in the diocese. (See her reflections on Page 4.)
Deacon Lizardo said it was “outstanding” that there were more than 100 bishops, “including our bishop,” at the national encuentro. He said he told Bishop McManus, “It’s so great that you’re here.”
“He was really participating in all of the sessions – he was participating with the people” like other bishops, said Father Cano. “There was no special place for (the bishops). … To have the opportunity to have the bishop there with us was a blessing.”
Father Cano said the bishops had the opportunity to see “the Latino community in the United States is growing and is prepared to face and deal with the different challenges in the Church and in the world.”
Hispanics represent about 40 percent of U.S. Catholics and nearly 60 percent of millennial Catholics, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.
“I’m delighted that I went,” Bishop McManus said. “It was a shot in the arm, I think for everybody.”
He said the sexual abuse crisis was not avoided, but mentioned – by bishops, in prayer services, several times. But the whole encuentro was very uplifting, a demonstration of deep Catholic faith.
Latino bishops gave energetic, motivating homilies, Bishop McManus said. And he was impressed with the numbers – of Hispanics from around the country, of young people, and of men and women religious, “in their habits, young and very ‘in’ with the young adult delegates.”
The interaction of the young adults and bishops was very powerful, Bishop McManus said. Bishops mostly listened, and the young adults pleaded with them to listen to them; they want to be part of invigorating the Church.
“They are very valuable to our Church,” Deacon Lizardo said of the young adults. He said it was impressive seeing them wanting to be leaders, and also humbly saying they want older adults to mentor them.
Bishop McManus said he saw several bishops who were at the encuentro when he went to Rome afterwards, and their comments about the national gathering were “all very, very positive.”
Asked what is being brought back from the national encuentro to the Worcester Diocese, Bishop McManus said he thought the local delegates were energized and motivated to continue what they are already doing well, and to further organize the Latino communities in the diocese through the administration of the Hispanic Apostolate. He said he’s seriously considering the recommendation, made at the Diocesan Encuentro earlier this year, for a full-time director of the Hispanic Apostolate. (Deacon Lizardo is part time and also serves at St. Paul Cathedral.)
Deacon Lizardo said the bishops were “100 percent supportive” of priorities that came out of the national encuentro: formation, families and youth.
Now, he said, the conclusions have to be brought back, to be implemented under the leadership of the bishop in each diocese. Local Hispanics need to meet with each other and Bishop McManus, he said, adding, “We’ll follow whatever he wants.”
Work on the regional level needs decisions by the bishops of the region, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops might come out with recommendations on the national level, Deacon Lizardo said.
In the next few months, the leadership team of the Fifth National Encuentro, or V Encuentro, will distribute a concluding document listing the main priorities and problems identified across 28 ministry areas; the document will assist dioceses, parishes and national structures in drafting their own pastoral plans according to their own realities and priorities.
The top three recommendations that rose up in the Encuentro process are: the need to develop pastoral plans for Hispanic ministry tailored according to the needs of each parish and diocese; the need of the parish community to help strengthen families; and to hire more Hispanic young adults in paid positions of leadership.
The 28 ministry areas addressed by the V Encuentro include those that reach out to youth, young adult, college campuses, immigrants, families, people with disabilities, and the incarcerated, as well as ministries in vocations, pro-life, faith formation and catechesis, justice and peace, and even care for the environmentw among others.
“I wish we had another Fifth Encuentro next month. … It was like a retreat,” Deacon Lizard said. “I took it with me and nobody can take it away. That is what our Church needs – the unity. … We are all one in Jesus Christ.”

– The Catholic News Service contributed to this report.