By Gretchen Keiser

The Hispanic apostolate in the archdiocese has its roots in the early 1960s when Cubans began to come to the southeastern United States through Florida as refugees fleeing Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution. But what began as a ministry to Cuban refugees has grown like topsy into a branched extension that has many parts and reaches out to many different nationalities who share an Hispanic heritage.

Father William Hoffman, who grew up in Georgia, has worked as a missionary in Peru for 10 years and returned to become director of the apostolate in 1982. He has gradually been ‘finding his way’ around a community which extends into many of the archdiocese’s parishes and movements – and which also, in many ways, still has to be reached by the institutional church.

The 1980 census “detected 32,000 in this diocese who classified themselves as Hispanic,” Father Hoffman noted in an interview. That figure, which depends upon the person filling out the form to identify themselves as Hispanic, is viewed as a conservative figure by those knowledgeable, Father Hoffman said. The figure is believed to be closed to 60,000 people, he said.

The largest single group of people is Cuban, but there are also many Colombians, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and, more recently, those fleeing war-torn areas in Central American, like Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Those who arrive in the Atlanta metropolitan area find a number of parishes where Mass is offered in Spanish on a regular basis either by Hispanic priests or, Father Hoffman noted with a smile, by “gringos” like himself – English speaking priests who also speak Spanish with varying degrees of success.

Parishes where Masses are regularly celebrated in Spanish include Immaculate Heart of Mary, Sacred Heart, Cathedral of Christ the King, Holy Cross and St. Anthony’s in Atlanta and St. Joseph’s in Dalton, where Father Jorge Cristancho is an assistant pastor.

Beyond those parishes are others with Hispanic populations, but with no Spanish-speaking priest in residence Over the last year, Father Hoffman began reaching out to some of those communities including ones in Marietta, Lithia Springs and Hapeville. Then, last summer, he was contacted by Father Joe Fahy, C.P., a priest who was interested in coming to the diocese to work in Hispanic ministry. With this added help, “we were able to take on more commitments,” Father Hoffman said. Particularly, the two priests have been trying to reach additional Hispanic communities, with either one priest or the other making scheduled visits to areas such as Gainesville, LaGrange, Cedartown and Carrollton where Hispanics have settled.

The apostolate also embraces a special population – Cubans who are being held at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta as detainees since the 1980 Freedom Flotilla out of Cuba. Several thousand Cubans have been held in the penitentiary while their cases are individually considered by immigration authorities. Among them are some men with criminal records in Cuba, others whose activities since arriving in the United States have been questioned, others who are mentally ill and those who, by human error, have wound up in the special prison group. A special chaplain, Father Walter Halaburda, is assigned to the penitentiary and is in residence in the archdiocese. In addition, a small group of Hispanic laymen has been visiting the penitentiary in recent months and evangelizing among those being held.

In speaking about the Hispanic apostolate, a sense emerges of a blossoming gift to the Church which is, perhaps, just beginning to be appreciated here and in other parts of the country. Of the thousands of Hispanics in the archdiocese, only 3-4,000 are clearly identified as parishioners of Catholic churches. A number that cannot be pinned down are people who are already completely a part of the American parish and, so, do not turn up in efforts to enumerate Hispanics. But, clearly, there are also thousands who need to be reached out to by the Church.

At the moment an active effort is being made to reach out to them as part of preparation for a third national meeting of people involved in the Hispanic apostolate. The third national “Encuentro” will be held in Washington, D.C. in 1985 and, in the archdiocese, Hispanics are reaching out to others at the grass-roots level. The aim of the door-to-door contact is to “get in touch with as many Hispanics as possible,” Father Hoffman said – to find out how they feel about the American culture and the American church and to try and identify their needs. The sense among those working in the Hispanic apostolate in Atlanta is that the third national “Encuentro” will bring together a majority of lay Hispanics working in ministry across the country and that the contribution of Hispanics from the southeastern United States will be unique and significant in shaping a national vision of the needs and gifts of Hispanics in the U.S. Church.

Among his own observations about special gifts which Hispanics bring to the Church, Father Hoffman noted a “spirit of celebration” which incorporates music, procession, poetry and dance to express, with zest, the wonder of any occasion. By contrast, he said, the traditional American celebration of Christmas seems, to Hispanics, sadly lacking in festive qualities and joyfulness.

Drawn to the personal, rather than the institutional, Hispanics are attracted to movements like Cursillo, Father Hoffman said, because of the emphasis upon building bonds of friendship and togetherness and a community which extends beyond the traditional gathering together at Mass. This “promotion of bonds of friendship” and the continuing emphasis within Hispanic families upon the extended family relationship are enduring contributions to the Church, Father Hoffman said. While the extended family concept is not unique to Hispanics, it is a gift brought to the U.S. culture from those, like Hispanics, who originate in a less mobile and transient society.

On the other hand, the Hispanic apostolate is uniquely challenging representing, as it does, not a single ethnic group, but a wide variety of nationalities and economic groups, all of whom have made their home in a new land.