Hispanic Ministry: New Realities and Choices
Allan Figueroa Deck, S.J.,
Executive Director
Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
October 5, 2008
INTRODUCTION
It is a great honor for me to be here this evening with such an august group of leaders and experts in the field of Hispanic ministry. As many of you know, my job at the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is still new, and so my remarks this evening will undoubtedly reflect sometentativeness and searching for clarity. Need I say that we live in a time of accelerating changes? It is not just a question of the transition taking place at the Bishops Conference due to the very extensive reorganization that began in 2007 but also of the much greater transition taking place in the Church of the United States itself as the historic European American Catholic communities age and decline in numbers and as the Latino, Asian, African and African American components rise in presence and influence in the Church where they now constitute a majority. It is no secret, moreover, that the actuarial tables show that huge numbers of priests and religious will be retiring or passing on in the years just ahead. In addition, the European American Catholic laity who have been leaders in so many areas of Catholic life in this country are also aging and disappearing. No one can predict exactly how the personnel challenges will be met. But it is hard to deny that they will be dramatic and the consequences profound.
I am not alone in sensing that times are changing, that we are in the early phases of a new epoch of American Catholic Church history. We in this room are among those who for almost half a century now have been reading the handwriting on the wall. The leadership and vision that many of you exercised over so many years has, despite many disappointments and detours, reached a point of maturity in which now it is no longer possible to avoid the weighty implications for both Church and U.S. society of the Hispanic presence. The Catholic bishops pointed this out 25 years ago in their perceptive Pastoral Letter Hispanic Presence: Challenge and Commitment.That presence together with the changes in personnel taking place today as permanent deacons and lay ecclesial ministers assume ever growing roles of pastoral service and leadership promises willy-nilly to make the coming years a time of reorganization and reconfiguration of ministries.
Sociologists of religion Robert Putnam and David Campbell recently shared with me some initial findings about Latinos and the Catholic Church from their massive study of religion in the United States still in progress. This is their closing remark: “Just as financial observers often speak of “leading indicators” to gauge the state of the economy, we would recommend that the U.S. Conference of Bishops consider Latinos to be the leading indicator of American Catholicism’s future.”[1] Yes, I think most of us would agree with this recommendation of two outstanding researchers since many of us have spent a lifetime trying to make the very same point when it was much less fashionable to do so. Nevertheless, questions remain as to the broader implications and meaning of this sea change in U.S. Catholicism as the Hispanic presence reaches a point of critical mass and becomes in fact “the leading indicator” of the Church’s future.
In my remarks this evening, then, I wish to share some observations and reflections about the present moment in an effort to achieve at least a bit more clarity. The metaphor we use for this moment might be “crossroads” or, even better, “roundabout” or (for those familiar with Latin American cities) “glorieta”. Here in Washington we have many roundabouts and what characterizes them is the bewildering number of choices and the speed with which one needs to make choices. Sometimes you make a mistake and find yourself literally “going around in circles.” The U.S. Catholic Church and not just Hispanic ministry is approaching this roundabout that offers more roads to take than just a crossroads. By using this metaphor I wish to stress the realization that choices have to be made in the light of new situations and thatthose choices may not be as straightforward or obvious as one might think. In doing so I also hope to stimulate the imaginations of researchers and practitioners who may find in these comments some encouragement and even food for thought.
SPOTLIGHT ON YOUTH
I begin with a topic that many would agree is strategic: Latino youth. The research, workshops and writings of Instituto Fe y Vida have laid out in considerable detail the extraordinary youthfulness of Latinos andtheir majority status among Catholics under the age of 35 in the U.S.[2] Beyond their numbers the research demonstrates the diversity among these youth and the absence of adequate human and material resources in parishes and dioceses to attend to them. The contributions of Instituto Fe y Vida have been crucial in responding to several aspects of the needs for Hispanic youth ministry starting with basic research but including as well youth ministry training programs and resources especially in Spanish. Along with this the Instituto has engaged in advocacy at various levels of the Church on behalf of youth and their pastoral needs.
The gradual development of La Red, a national network of Hispanic youth and young adult leaders, over a period of more than 16 years has been an important benchmark for this ministry as youth themselves take more responsibility for their needs in the Church. The First National Hispanic Youth Encuentroheld at the University of Notre Dame in June of 2006was an important breakthrough because it brought Hispanic youth leadership together for the first time in large numbers and linked that leadership with colleagues at the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry (NFCYM). As a result an ongoing conversation has developed in which La Red and NFCYM are collaborating more and pursuing some important projects in common[3].
The pioneering studies of Ken Johnson-Mondragón have demonstrated among many other things the need for classifications and differentiated approaches to Hispanic youth ministry given the growing diversity among youth themselves in terms of generation, English/Spanish language dominance, immigration status, levels of assimilation and social class. Hispanic youth and young adult ministries exemplify the growing range and depth of diversity, a subject that I will discuss a bit more later. Let me turn now to some other changes worth noting.
A NATIONAL CONCERN AND NEW POSSIBILITIES
Today we no longer think of Hispanic ministry as a regional matter confined to California and the Southwest, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey and Chicago. For the Catholic Church it is an issue in virtually every part of the country. In a certain sense Hispanic ministry is especially critical for the Church in “exotic” places like North and South Carolina, and other venues in the South where the Hispanic presence has literally doubled or tripled the Catholic population of those states and, as it were, put the Catholic Church on the map in a big way. Geographical diversity is only part of it, however, as diversity of national origin becomes the rule in many Latino urban contexts. Persons of Mexican origin continue to account for at least 60%of all U.S. Latinos, yet the internationalization of Latino communities has continued non-stop throughout the 90’s and well into the new millennium.Social and economic mobility has created a Latino middleclass while Latinos have emerged as key swing voters able to virtually determine the winner of elections in major states like California,Texas and Florida and even the presidency in a close national election.
Globalization, the internet, mass communications and an endless flow of new technologies are bringing changes in attitude, possibilities, habits and dispositions among Latino communities throughout the land. These changes affect the youth more than others but in several ways all Latinos are exposed to these changes. The Church in the form of parishes and dioceses, organizations, movements and educational institutions, has to pay attention to this veritable revolution since it brings with it both challenges and special opportunities. For example, for the first time the Diocese of Las Vegas in 2006 was able to inaugurate a lay ecclesial ministry formation program in Spanish without having many local instructors by using e-mail to give and do assignments. The vast majority of instructors along with the coordinator of the Program came from outside the state. This was made possible by modern air travel and the internet. Latinos in Las Vegas finally gained access to the internet which allowed this program to get off the ground; and the Lay Ecclesial Ministry Program successfully completed in 2008 gave rise in turn to the first permanent diaconate program in which Latinos are well represented. Once again the Diocese is depending on outside resources and some local ones to carry out the new program.
While there continue to be hopeful developments like this in many parts of the country, the over-all picture is worrisome: The regional and national structures available to address the urgent needs of Hispanic ministry, as well as that of other emergent groups of non-European origin, are simply inadequate. I want to focus on this now.
THE INADEQUACY OF REGIONAL AND NATIONAL STRUCTURES
Despite the relentless growth of the Hispanic presence over the past fifty years there has not been anywhere near the appropriate development of what I would call an Hispanic ministry infrastructure. This is particularly true in my view at the regional and national levels.What I mean is that institutions of, for and by Hispanics focused on the education, formation, and leadership development in ministry as well as on visioning for the future have been inadequate. To say this is not to diminish the significant efforts that have been made over many decades by the Bishops Conference itself in sponsoring, for example, the three encuentro processes and Encuentro 2000. But the point is that most Hispanic leaders and the communities themselves have unfortunately not been touched by that process. Like Catholic social teaching, the National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Ministry and its 2000 revision Encuentro and Mission remain well-kept secrets for most of the faithful and even for the ecclesial leadership -- priests, deacons, religious and committed laity. Yet that Plan provides a compelling, balanced, theologically solid vision approved by ecclesial authorities for Hispanic ministry today. And besides, there really isn’t anything else any other credible framework around which Latino pastoral leadership can rally. The Plan provides a key element in the elaboration of a more robust, cogent response to the Hispanic presence, but not enough leaders in the Hispanic or wider ecclesial communities themselves have paid much attention to it.
Of course, much has been accomplished by national and regional pastoral institutes and centers such as the Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC), the Southeast Pastoral Institute (SEPI), the NortheastHispanicCatholicPastoralCenter, and the Midwest Cultural Institute for Leadership (ICLM), and the Tepeyac Institute along with several regional centers supported by dioceses and episcopal regions throughout the nation. These institutions along with membership organizations like the Federation of Pastoral Institutes (FIP), National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry (NCCHM) and the National Catholic Association of Diocesan Directors of Hispanic Ministry (NCADDHM) have borne the heat of the day in serving the needs for training, planning, programming and visioning for Hispanic ministry over several decades. I should also mention programs based at Catholic universities.By all accounts, these organizations have all struggled and experienced considerable fragility due to lack of adequate financial and moral support and, in some cases as well,to the lack of internal capacity in non-profit management, fundraising, board development and other necessary skills. My point is that precisely at a time when the Hispanic presence is reaching ever higher levels of critical mass the structures necessary to sustain and develop the Church’s response to these challenges and opportunities are relatively weak and even getting weaker—this, at least from reports reaching us at the Bishops Conference from many different parts of the country. This ought to be a major concern for all those interested in the vigorous evangelization of U.S. Hispanics, the key indicators, as Putnam informs us, of the entire U.S. Catholic Church’s future.
At the diocesan and parish levels Hispanic ministry can be viewed in terms of lights and shadows. The ministry certainly continues to expand as the number of parishes offering services of some sort in Spanish grows beyond 4000 and as more dioceses begin to structure Hispanic ministry into their activities.Of course, there is a tremendous unevenness from region to region due to many factors, notrably how long local communities have been at it. In California the Hispanic presence is quite overwhelming and a long-standing reality, but it is another matter altogether in Mississippi or Iowa. Consequently there is a complex curve in the knowledge and experience around Hispanic ministry as one moves from region to region.
It is worth noting, as well, that Hispanics now constitute about 15% of all seminarians and the number of international priests, among them many Latin Americans, continues to grow.[4] Perhaps the most dramatic area of growth is in regard to the permanent diaconate where Hispanics constitute a significant percentage of the total. Not only is the permanent diaconate attracting Hispanics but it is providing them and often their wives, with an expanding base of ministries in hospitals, prisons and in social service of many kinds along with the traditional parish-based functions. The emergence of Hispanic permanent deacons is an under-reported success story in the life of the U.S. Catholic Church today.
The way in which Hispanic ministry is structured in dioceses today continues to vary as some move toward a multicultural organizational framework and others maintain a more traditional Hispanic ministry office. We need to know more about the ongoing effectiveness of these diocesan arrangements. For one thing there seems to be some difficulty in maintaining consistency and continuity in Hispanic ministry across diocesan and regional divisions. This is due in part to confusion about how to organize ethnic ministries and the appropriate place for Hispanic ministry in particular.[5] In several dioceses the demographics are so dramatic that almost all church ministry becomes “Hispanic” because indeed Hispanics constitute such an overwhelming, youthful and dynamic part of the entire Catholic community. In others, the presence of numerous ethnic communities makes the Hispanic presence less noticeable, even though the numbers of Hispanics may be quite elevated. While recourse to a so-called multicultural approach may be indicated in some places where a clear record of leadership and service with and for Hispanics has been demonstrated, in others such measures deprive Hispanics of both the specific attention they need as well as the space necessary to call forth and develop their own leadership.[6]
Whatever be the resolution of these ecclesial growing pains it seems to me that there will be more need for religious education, leadership formation, programming, visioning and, of course, fund raising for Hispanic ministry especially at the regional and national levels where support is especially lacking due to the heavy diocesan and parish focus of the U.S. Catholic Church. The cutback in budgets in dioceses and at the Bishops Conference has also made funding of new and needed projects even more difficult today. The end result is that the sum of resources, structures and institutions at the service of the burgeoning Hispanic community is simply incommensurate with the enormity of the situation on the ground.
This matter is especially urgent today because the mandates developed by the bishops for the reorganization of the USCCB clearly state their desire to work more collaboratively with movements, organizations and private associations of the laity rather than directly respond to all these needs.[7] They desire to observe the principle of subsidiarity whereby the persons and groups closest to the circumstances and needs are empowered to take responsibility for their affairs rather than seeking the direct intervention of higher authorities. This principle of Catholic social teaching will not function well if the intermediate organizations like the ones mentioned here are too fragile, unstable or unprepared to do the job. I therefore consider this challenge to be one of the most strategic ones faced by Hispanic ministry along with that of ministry to youth.In this regard I can report that the Committee on Cultural Diversity in the Church under the leadership of Archbishop José H. Gómez and the Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs headed by Bishop Richard J. García have encouraged the Secretariat of Cultural Diversity to work with Catholic foundations and other national agencies to design a program to address the need for strengthening regional and national organizations that serve emergent Catholic racial/ethnic and cultural groups. To this end Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has provided a generous planning grant and is partnering with the Secretariat and other interested parties to address this strategic issue.