U.S. Bishops approve Hispanic ministry plan

By Tony Guttierez, OSV News
and Tanya Connor, The Catholic Free Press
 
(OSV News) – The U.S. bishops approved a new National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministry to multiply pastoral responses addressing the realities of close to 30 million Hispanic Catholics in the U.S.
 On June 16, with 167 supporting votes out of 171, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops resoundingly approved a comprehensive plan aimed at responding to the needs of Hispanic/Latino Catholics in the U.S. and strengthening Hispanic/Latino ministries across the country at the national, local and parish level. The last time the U.S. bishops put forth such a plan was in 1987.
With a recent Pew Research Center analysis showing that 43% of Hispanic/Latino adults self-identify as Catholic in 2022, down from 67% in 2010 – and that the number of Latino Catholics drops to 30% for those ages 18-29 – the urgency to provide pastoral care for Hispanic Catholics is a high priority.
“We were waiting for this document to come out,” Deacon Franklin B. Lizardo, who serves at St. Stephen and Holy Family parishes in Worcester, told The Catholic Free Press.  The fact that the bishops came up with it shows how important it is, he said.
The plan has been in the works since the four-year Fifth National Encuentro of Hispanic/Latino Ministry (V Encuentro) process that culminated with a national gathering in Grapevine, Texas, in 2018, though its advancement suffered a setback during the COVID-19 pandemic. It directly responds to the pastoral priorities and recommendations generated through the V Encuentro process.
Deacon Lizardo was involved in that process locally and nationally when he was director of the Worcester Diocese’s Hispanic Apostolate.
Priorities listed in the plan include formation, accompaniment of families, immigration and advocacy, care for those on the peripheries, the promotion of vocations, and the need to engage with youth and young adults.
The plan calls on “pastoral leaders ‘to exercise their prophetic role without fear’ and to develop or promote specific pastoral responses to the issues that pervade their local communities, while also inviting the faithful to promote the common good on the national and global levels.”
Deacon Lizardo said the plan calls for an approach that would be new for the Worcester Diocese. In the past, activities for Hispanic Catholics here have been held on the diocesan level, bringing together members of Spanish-speaking communities from different parishes. He said that is good. But, after those occasional events, participants return to their parishes, where they attend Sunday Mass and live their faith. So it is important to pay attention to Hispanic communities in the individual parishes.
The plan calls for “going down to the parish level, taking account of the reality” of Hispanic communities in each parish, Deacon Lizardo said.
He said he thinks the next step is for dioceses to set up a strategy for parish Hispanic ministry that comes from the bishop to the pastors, who would work with the diocesan Hispanic ministry director to create a strategy, or pastoral plan, specifically for their parishes.
On the parish level, Catholics evangelize by going out to the peripheries, encountering people where they are and bringing them to God and the Church, Deacon Lizardo said. They do this in various ways, including through festivals, social media, and visits to homes with pilgrim statues.
The plan recognizes the unique ways Hispanic Catholics engage in their faith.
“For Hispanic/Latino ministry, evangelization also requires a deep appreciation for the gift of the living popular piety in our communities,” says the document.
“At my parish – St. Joan of Arc (in Worcester) – we have a vibrant Hispanic community … 150 to 200 people in the church each Sunday,” said Father Enoch K. Kyeremateng, administrator. “And the role that they play” – including directing religious education, praying for the diocese and volunteering for church renovation – “is very important.”
Father Kyeremateng said the fact that the bishops’ conference identified the growth in numbers and spiritual needs of Hispanics in the United States highlights the Church’s universality and care of souls.
He said the plan will increase the number of active Hispanic Catholics and “increase their sense of belonging,” since a plan has been made for them.
The document offers a renewed vision and mission for ministry among Latinos in the context of a culturally diverse Church and recommends the comprehensive response of the U.S. Catholic bishops through specific objectives and activities to be implemented over the next 10 years, said Detroit Auxiliary Bishop J. Arturo Cepeda, who chairs the USCCB’s Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church.
This “living document,” he said, is a sign of the times that recognizes Hispanic/Latino Catholics as “missionaries among us” that can reinvigorate the life of the church.
A key component of effective outreach at the diocesan level is to encourage vocations.
“The number of Hispanic priests and religious in the United States is not proportional to the number of Hispanic Catholics in the United States,” Bishop Oscar Cantú of San Jose, California, chairman of the bishops’ Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs, told OSV News.
Hispanics account for more than 40% of U.S. Catholics, yet media reports indicate that of the 37,300 U.S.-based priests, only 3,000 of them are Hispanic/Latino and, of these, 2,000 are foreign-born.  
Bishop Cantú said many of the plan’s goals are already being implemented throughout the country and that the plan “will provide impetus and some guidance for our dioceses and our parishes for further development of activity.”
The plan also called for an active engagement with youth and young adults.
“Hispanic/Latino young people are a great treasure to the Church – as both recipients and protagonists of accompaniment and pastoral care – and they are uniquely situated as bridge builders among cultures, languages, generations and ecclesial experiences,” it said.
Included in this outreach should be an effort by Catholic schools to enroll and graduate Hispanic students.
Another pastoral priority is for the church to be a prophetic voice advocating for those affected by immigration.
“The work of missionary disciples is urgently needed amid the inhumane and immoral treatment of asylum seekers, families and unaccompanied minors, particularly at the U.S. southern border,” the plan said.
The document called for initiatives of the plan to be implemented at the local level ahead of the 500th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe, coming in 2031, and 2,000 years after Christ’s death and resurrection, coming in 2033.