June 24, 2011
Christina Rosario
‘Voice to Latino population’ retiring from Catholic Charities
Christina Rosario, a counselor at Catholic Charities since April of 2001, is retiring. Her boss, Gayle Uebelhor, interim director at Catholic Charities, says of her, “What will really be missed is her gentle, Christ-centered persona that was evident to her clients and to our Catholic Charities staff.” (Message photo by Mary Ann Hughes) Click for a larger version.
By MARY ANN HUGHES (Message staff writer)
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall possess the land.
Blessed are they who mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice: for they shall have their fill.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the clean of heart: for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5: 3-10
Editor’s note: This is one of several stories to be published this year on people who are living examples of the Beatitudes.
Times are bittersweet right now for Christina Rosario as she leaves her job as a counselor at Catholic Charities, and heads into retirement.
Her boss, Gayle Uebelhor, interim director at Catholic Charities, says of her, “Rosario was years ahead of the curve in providing a voice to the Latino population of Southern Indiana. She was our spokesperson, translator, provider of counseling and of programs to the burgeoning Latino communities in Evansville and the Guadalupe Center in Huntingburg.
“But what will really be missed is her gentle, Christ-centered persona that was evident to her clients and to our Catholic Charities staff.”
Rosario says she learned about Christ and the Catholic faith at her mother’s knee when she was a young child living in El Paso, Texas.
Her parents were from northern Mexico, and she was born in California. When her father died unexpectedly, her mother moved Rosario and her sister to El Paso.
“My mother had a very deep faith. Her faith deepened living through the death of my father, and raising her two children as a single mom. She trusted God implicitly. She never became resentful or angry even though she needed him so much in daily life.”
She went to daily Mass, and Rosario remembers, “I went with her, hand-in-hand, to early morning Mass. We would go to Benediction on Friday evenings, faithfully going as a little family.”
Because their mother placed so much importance on Catholic education, the girls attended both Catholic grade school and high school.
“I’ve had a faith walk since early childhood, and I never lost it,” she said. “I’ve always remained faithful to Christ and to his Church.”
Over the years, she realized that “everything pointed to his presence and his protective care. My challenge was only to be attentive and aware, to recognize his presence in my life. He was there guiding, directing and protecting.”
After Rosario graduated from Loretto Academy in El Paso, she studied math, Spanish and education at the University of Texas at El Paso. “Then I went to work for Shell Oil Company in Houston, Texas, which was 800 miles away.” It was there that she met her future husband, Peter.
“I met him at Mass.” He had his eye on her, she says laughing at the memory. “He left a little poem with a flower on my car as an initiator for contact.” He has an identical twin, and “I didn’t know who to thank.”
One day, as she left the church she asked his brother, “Do I need to thank you for something?” The twin replied, “Oh no, it was my brother.”
She and Peter married in 1973, and moved to St. Louis where he did his training in internal medicine. She became a homemaker and stay-at-home mom to Rafael, Roxana, Roland and Roderic. The family moved to Evansville in 1990 from Roswell, N.M., when an opportunity “opened up” for Peter.
As “her nest” was being emptied, she began to think of ways to serve in the community. At age 50, she returned to college to study for a master’s degree in social work. “I took on the challenge, and I often got the highest grades. My children made fun of me because I read my chapters twice.”
With her degree in hand, she pondered, “Where do I want to search for work?” She knew she wanted to be under the umbrella of the Church, so she contacted Jim Collins, then the director at Catholic Charities, offering her services as a bi-lingual counselor. “He called me back. I was hired in April of 2001.”
Soon her job entailed counseling clients — both Anglo and Hispanic — as individuals, married couples and families, working at Catholic Charities outpost offices in Jasper and at the Guadalupe Center in Huntingburg, as well as downtown Evansville.
“When I started in my outpost site, one or two clients were Hispanic, and the rest were Anglo. In time the percentage changed to one to two clients were Anglo and the rest were Hispanic due to word of mouth and increasing referrals.”
Besides the honor and privilege of walking with clients through tough times, she said her favorite part of the job was giving presentations about Our Lady of Guadalupe. She would talk about the method of evangelization that the Blessed Mother used which “empowered the indigenous people who were being exploited and decimated by the conquistadors. Our Lady of Guadalupe came and honored them by appearing like one of them.
“She lifted up their dignity and their human value by honoring their cultural heritage.”
Because of her appearance “millions of Aztecs flocked to Baptism because they saw the wonder of her message pointing to her son, the one true God.” The Guadalupe message and story “open up the awareness of people in the Church community to see others as brothers in Christ. We are all children of our God.”
She believes no one needs any documental papers to come to the altar.
If she was happy to share the story of Our Lady of Guadalupe, she said her heart was broken as she heard “degrading comments” about people who are different. She believes that “we are all made in the image and likeness of our God,” and attributes derogatory comments to a “lack of understanding.”
She was also sad to see the children of her Hispanic clients who are losing their language and their culture. With increasing frequency, the children can’t communicate with their parents in Spanish,” she said. She believes “they could maintain both languages.” She would like to see families merging the “best of both cultures and Hispanics living the richness of their cultural traditions.”
The Hispanic culture offers many gifts which would benefit the Catholic Church, especially the gift of its people. “They put God first,” she says, living the words “God first,” and “if God wills it.”
There is also a respect for parents in the culture. “We have so much in the Hispanic culture that would benefit [the Anglo] culture.”
She knows “full-well” that both cultures “can be kept and lived. My mother did it with me.”
Rosario recently reached the age of retirement, and made the decision to leave her job at Catholic Charities. “I have a broken heart,” she says. “It was a true gift for me to be with Catholic Charities, but I felt it was time. I sensed it was time to quit.”
Ubelhor said, “We will need to find a bi-lingual counselor and presenter to continue her mission to this growing community.”