February 20, 2009
Hispanic Ministry board looks at ‘best practices,’ immigration
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
The newly formed Diocesan Advisory Board for Hispanic Ministry has met, and its first meeting focused on “best practices” in diocesan parishes and on immigration issues.
Benedictine Sister Karen Durliat is the diocesan director of Hispanic Ministry. She said that during the recent meeting participants shared “best practices, what is working well to integrate Hispanic and Anglos in their parishes.
“Most of these practices included sharing around the table, both at Mass and at common meals. Bi-lingual Masses work well for many parishes, but some mentioned the difficulty for some parishioners to accept a bilingual Mass especially when it replaced what was originally an English Mass.”
Participants noted that the presence of the pastor at the time of the Spanish Mass greatly helps the Hispanic community to identify with the parish and the pastor. Also, meals and celebrations with both groups together have been helpful to the integration of many of the parishes.
When the board members discussed the next steps or priorities in Hispanic Ministry, they agreed on four priorities:
• The need to promote leadership and involvement of Hispanics in parish and diocesan life. This might be attained by encouraging membership on committees and serving as St. Vincent de Paul volunteers and translators, and by having a parish welcoming committee.
• When the members discussed pastoral and staff needs, it was noted that “few diocesan priests know Spanish; the Benedictine priests who served in Peru are getting older and younger monks are not learning Spanish, and newly ordained diocesan priests are assigned to parishes where they are not using their Spanish,” Sister Karen said.
The board recommended to Bishop Gerald A. Gettelfinger that Spanish-speaking priests be recruited, that priests with Spanish preparation/study/immersion be required to serve Hispanic communities/parishes soon after ordination so that they don’t lose what they have learned, and that the diocese promote vocations among Hispanics. Members also suggested a Permanent Diaconate for His-panics, and that parishes hire bilingual staff members.
• In taking a look at immigration issues, the board resolved to “educate ourselves and the people about immigration issues.” That means preparing for “best and worst case scenarios.” For example, a best-case scenario is that com-prehensive immigration reform will pass and immigrants will need help in preparing documentation for work visas. A worst-case scenario would be preparation to help immigrants in the event of raids.
• Focus on education, which ac-cording to the board means continuing and increasing outreach and educational opportunities to Hispanic children, perhaps through scholarships to diocesan schools.
The board includes members from the five parishes where there is presently a weekly Mass in Span-ish. They include
- St. Joseph Church, Dale: Amelia Marmolejo, Ken Moran, Nora Weber, Irma Lopez;
- Nativity Church, Evansville: Abraham Brown, Pilar Tirado;
- St. Mary Church, Huntingburg: José Alfredo Dubón, José A. Gil C., Jan Seger, Rosie Welp;
- St. Joseph Church, Jasper: Dee Ann Bell, Dan Mundy, Patricia Scheeter, Elizabeth Regalado;
- Our Lady of Hope, Washing-ton: Laura Allison, Ramona García, Brenda Sobecki.