By Paula Day

For almost a decade ministry to Hispanics who have settled in Hall County has been developing. Recently the Church took another step in this ongoing effort.

Drawn by year-round employment in the poultry industry and carpet mills of the area, immigrants from Central and South America are settling in and around the county seat of Gainesville in steadily increasing numbers. While an exact count is unavailable, using numbers provided by the state agriculture department of those employed in the poultry industry, people working with the Hispanic population estimate their number is now close to 8,000. The county has a total population of 95,428, according to the 1990 census.

Two bilingual priests assigned to St. Michael's parish in Gainesville help meet the spiritual needs of the many Catholics in this population. And last month Hispanic Services of Catholic Social Services opened a satellite office in the city. Deacon Felix Cosme is director of the office, assisted by a core of volunteers. Their task is to help Hispanics gain access to existing community resources. The office and its adjacent waiting room are part of St. Michael's parish facilities.

Deacon Cosme, himself a Puerto Rican, came to Gainesville in 1986 from upstate New York. He says the largest percentage of Hispanics in the area are Mexican, but every Central and South American country is represented with sizeable numbers from Colombia, El Salvador and Panama.

"When they (the immigrants) come here," he explained, "they are very confused. We try to give them an orientation and information because the laws and culture are so different."

Cosme, who is 62, was ordained a deacon in St. Patrick's Cathedral in 1981 and assigned to work with the Hispanic population in upstate New York. He continued this ministry as a volunteer when he came to Georgia.

Needs range from finding employment, emergency food, clothing and housing, to legal assistance, transportation and health care, the director said.

Gainesville does not have public transportation. To own a car involves expense, he pointed out, and obtaining a driver's license for one who doesn't speak English is nearly impossible.

Average rent in the city's trailer parks is $100 a month, he estimated. Workers earn five to six dollars an hour. After rent there is little left to feed and clothe those in the household.

"They are very family oriented and have brought all the family and relatives, everything but the dog, to live with them, so there are many mouths to feed." It will be the job of the satellite office with its bilingual staff and volunteers to link those seeking assistance with appropriate agencies to help with these needs. "No one person or agency can handle all the problems," Cosme concluded.

Cosme agrees this effort is part of the Gospel mandate to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless and preach the message of salvation. "Speaking for myself and my wife," he said, "we are dedicate in compassion to help with these problems."

St. Michael's parish is providing the space, a separate telephone and salary for the part-time position of director for six months. Jeffrey Tapia of the Hispanic Services unit said CSS is seeking other funding sources to continue the work of the office beyond August.

"Funds are very tight, but the concern for helping the Hispanic population seems to be a real priority within the Gainesville community," Mrs. Tapia said. "I am also encouraged about the number of volunteers who are available."

Catholic Social Services has provided training for the satellite office staff and will be available to assist with immigration matters.

The satellite office is the latest effort in a developing ministry to Hispanics in Hall County. Pastor Father Bill Hoffman, who is bilingual, and parochial vicar Father Leopoldo Valenzuela, will continue to be available for emotional and spiritual counseling, Cosme said. When Father Valenzuela came to the parish in 1987, Masses in Spanish were added to the regular Mass schedule. The parish now has Spanish-language Masses each Sunday at 1 and 6 p.m. But from late 1983 Father Joe Fahy and Father Hoffman traveled to the area from Atlanta on an increasingly regular basis to celebrate Mass in Spanish.

"Father Fahy drove an old Volkswagen," Felix Cosme recalls, "and we used to pray that he would make it."

For the past eight months seminarian Alvaro Avendaño from Colombia has worked in the parish. Before leaving for an assignment at Christ Our Hope in Lithonia he had initiated a prayer group which meets at the church on Friday evenings as well as in a mobile home area and apartment complex other days of the week.

Father Hoffman is a strong advocate of this effort to bring the Church, its devotional experiences and ministry to the people. He likens the extra work this takes to a car salesman in a buyers' market who has to offer special incentives to draw customers.

"We are competing for their attention," the priest explained. "We must be more aggressive. Many come from rural Mexico and are probably used to a church with a dirt or terrazzo floor and some untidiness where you can light a candle wherever you want and it doesn't matter where it drips, and where there are a lot of statues. Our churches are strange to them, something they're not used to. Some adaptation on our part is needed in this buyers' market. We have to have things that appeal to their culture, sensibilities and customs, and if possible, in their neighborhood."

St. Michael's Hispanic youth group, organized in 1987, boasts some 60 members, 50 of whom recently carpooled to Red Top Mountain State Park. They joined 400 other Hispanic youths in the yearly celebration of the Pascua Juvenil, directed by Father Brian Pierce of the archdiocesan Hispanic Apostolate. The young people spent the day in reflection, prayer and scripture reading. They renewed their baptismal vows and celebrated the Easter Vigil Mass.

St. Michael's Hispanic youth group sings at the Hispanic Masses and has begun to share its talent with the Hispanic community at St. Mark's parish in Clarkesville.

Adults from the Hispanic community at St. Michael's are also active in the parish. Parish secretary Lucia Vargas, whose family came from Mexico when she was three years old, said plans are being finalized to hold renewal weekend, Christ Renews His Parish, in Spanish in the fall. It will be followed by a six-month renewal program coordinated by bilingual women of the parish who have already participated in a program conducted in English. Father Hoffman will be spiritual advisor for the renewal.

The opening of the satellite office is a welcome event for Father Hoffman and others who have been helping the Hispanics on an ad hoc basis.

"The parish secretary has been deluged with calls asking for help with immigration papers and other needs," the pastor explained. Non-English speaking Hispanics need assistance in understanding employment benefits, especially those related to job injuries, a byproduct of the fast-moving assembly-line methods in poultry plants. A state leader of the Ku Klux Klan lives in Gainesville, the priest said, and "keeps things stirred up," decrying the presence of Hispanics whom he claims take jobs away from U.S. citizens.

Bob Yarem and Ron Gress, two members of St. Michael's parish, employ Hispanics in their companies. Yarem, owner and president of Protein Foods, is impressed with the immigrants' work ethic saying, "They have a willingness to work. The want to get ahead and better themselves. The work at work."

Gress, owner of Gress Foods, Inc., said the immigrants are "taking jobs needing to be filled for many years."

"I applaud the Catholic Church for stepping forward to help the immigrants who fill a need in our community -- that of being a steady, viable work force."

So far response to the opening of the satellite office from community agencies in Gainesville has been "very positive and enthusiastic," Deacon Cosme said. The office is open from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Its telephone number is 404-287-0762.