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By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer
ATLANTA—In an effort to reach Hispanic Catholics, the
Archdiocese of Atlanta is plugging into Spanish media outlets as one of many
means to invite Latinos home to their church.
As part of a new evangelization program, advertisements will be
printed in the newspapers El Norte and La Opinion de Georgia and commercials
will be aired on Spanish Radiomex, said Father Jaime Barona, who leads Hispanic
ministry at St. Benedict Church, Duluth. He is also the Hispanic representative
on an evangelization committee formed in January by Archbishop John F.
Donoghue.
Father Barona hopes to secure a weekly or twice weekly Catholic
hour on Radiomex where he and other priests will discuss issues relating to
Catholicism. Hispanic clergy will also be encouraged to submit articles for
publication.
“Radiomex reaches about 45,000 people per day in the metro
area of Atlanta so that’s a great tool for us in the evangelization
program,” Father Barona said.
Archbishop Donoghue initiated the archdiocesan-wide outreach in
response to the Holy Father’s desire for the universal church to focus on
evangelization in the Jubilee Year. Entitled “Come To Me,” the
program will begin on Corpus Christi Sunday, June 25, with a 2:30 p.m. service
at the Cathedral of Christ the King.
“I think it’s going to be a great opportunity for
Hispanic Catholics to come back and (rediscover) their faith, to have the
reassurance that the church is always there for them, that we are happy to have
them back, that we are one church, that we are one spirit in Christ. And most
of all that we Hispanics in this diocese count and we are a very important part
of being Catholic, of the church,” Father Barona said.
While the region has a growing Latino middle class, Mexicans and
Central Americans continue to pour into North Georgia for low-paying, unskilled
jobs in the state’s poultry processing, carpet, agriculture, landscaping,
construction, hotel and restaurant industries and other service jobs. They have
fled conditions like immense poverty and natural disasters. There are an
estimated half million Hispanics living in the archdiocese, with the majority
identifying themselves as Catholic, and 41 churches have Hispanic outreach
programs. Officially, the diocese has 320,000 Catholics.
Father Barona explained that, like the Anglo outreach efforts,
parishioners in Hispanic parishes will be trained and will form evangelization
teams to reach Hispanics no longer coming to church. Each parish will determine
its specific needs and will also employ existing evangelization efforts, such
as small faith-sharing groups. Father Barona will form a Hispanic committee and
plans to meet occasionally with representatives of all Hispanic ministries.
The effort will include initiatives like the “Catholics
Returning Home” program, a six-week series that will be offered after
Christmas and Easter. Spanish and English prayer cards will be distributed on
Corpus Christi Sunday that will include a phone number and web page information
so recipients can access the resources of the archdiocese. The project will
culminate the weekend of Corpus Christi 2001. The archdiocese has rented the
Georgia International Convention Center for June 16, 2001, and will host a
daylong celebration for all Catholics. It will include Hispanic speakers.
While many poor Latino immigrants are faith-filled and former
churchgoers in their homelands, Father Barona said they are the hardest to
reach as they drift away while struggling to absorb the culture, learn English
and work 12-hour days.
“Now it is a great time for us to reach out to them and tell
them, ‘We know what you’re going through, but we love you. We want
you back home. This is your home. We welcome you.’”
Actions for Hispanics speak louder than words, as they need more
immigration and social services and English classes. Transpor-tation is a
common need, he said, noting that St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Alpharetta has
an effective shuttle service to Sunday Mass. Hispanic ministers are doing their
best, he said, but there’s always room for improvement.
“I have a great number of Hispanics in downtown Duluth who
don’t come to the church because they don’t have transportation. So
we need to reach out to these people. We need to let them know we care for
them, that they are part of the church,” he said.
“There are many different things we can do to reach out to
Hispanics, teaching ESL, providing information about immigration services,
domestic issues. We have tremendous services at Catholic Social Services ... As
we continue to grow in the Hispanic community every pastor, every parish will
implement evangelization programs, outreach programs, sacramental, pastoral
programs that will be beneficial for their communities.”
Our Lady of the Americas Mission in Doraville is one example of
ministry in action, he said, and “a great place for people to come and
relax and feel at home and be welcomed.” The mission offers ministries
including health care, a citizenship class and domestic violence counseling.
Gonzalo Saldaña, director of the archdiocesan Hispanic
Apostolate, said the mission was established where Hispanics live. Other
parishes may need to offer services out in their communities, he said. At the
cathedral’s mission in Lind-bergh, “they’re trying to go where
the people are because of the difficulty in transportation.”
Saldaña believes parishes must also focus on Hispanic youth,
particularly from the second and third generations who reject their
parents’ traditions, as gang violence is on the rise among them. And many
Hispanic immigrants are single young men with plans to return to their
homeland. He said door-to-door evangelization is one of the sharpest tools, as
are small Christian communities. He finds Latinos hungry for Scripture.
Saldaña also stressed outreach to the most vulnerable.
“People integrate from a position of power. If you are
powerless in society, when you don’t even have documents to make an honest
living, how are you going to integrate into the greater society? I think we
need to do a lot of things to enable them to (integrate),” he said.
“... Hispanic ministry needs to be looked upon as an integral part of the
church, not an appendix. The whole Catholic Church needs to respond to the
diversity which is one body.”
St. Joseph’s Church in Dalton has brought the Gospel since
March to Latinos at “Mexico Chiquito” trailer park. Seminarian
José Hernández Ayala rounded up a team of parishioners at the
heavily Hispanic parish to initiate “Our Lady of the Streets”
outreach after learning that Dalton has 30,000 Hispanics. At the trailer park,
parishioners knocked on nearly 50 doors, making house calls about thrice
weekly. Residents, many of whom are Catholic but unfamiliar with St. Joseph
Church, received the parishioners warmly after word spread they were Catholic.
With plans to minister in other locations, St. Joseph Church is now organizing
an outdoor Mass at the trailer park.
“What we’re doing is after the Mass we’ll be
calling them to see who needs what sacrament,” the seminarian said.
“You have people living (here) four years or coming and going (after) six
months. It’s really unstable. That’s why you have to call them and
follow up to see what services we can give.”
If not given, Father Barona said, other Christian denominations
will proselytize Catholic immigrants. A recent report of the U.S. Bishops’
Committee on Hispanic Affairs estimates that hundreds of thousands of Hispanics
leave the church yearly, making this the “worst defection in the history
of the Catholic Church in the United States.”
“We have to reach out to the Hispanic community. We are
counted as (nearly) 50 percent of the Catholic population in the diocese. And
unfortunately, we are losing a lot of Catholics and the reason why is because
we need to be more present. They’re going to other churches simply because
they cannot reach a Catholic Church, simply because they don’t know where
(the churches) are. They don’t have transportation.”
“The other denominations are right at their doorsteps to
provide them the services, the help they need ... In most churches we provide
Mass in Spanish, sacraments and some kind of outreach program. But still the
need is out there.”
He said the plight of the undocumentados who represent the
majority of Mexican and Central American immigrants is “the greatest
tragedy” as they endure profound hardship. Having risked their lives to
cross the border, some live shadowy lives often fearing police and deportation.
“Our purpose is to reach out to Catholics. It doesn’t
matter whether you are illegal or have a green card or you’ll be deported
... They are our brothers and sisters in need.”
“They are coming to this country from these faraway
countries. They have absolutely nothing. Obviously they are afraid. They are
mistrusting because they don’t know you,” he said. “... The only
contact (many of) the Anglos have literally with the Hispanics is when they
come to backyards to do some kind of repairs for the house.”
To make Hispanics feel welcomed in parishes involves
“diversity within integration,” said Father Barona, noting that St.
Benedict’s has several bilingual Masses yearly in addition to Masses in
Spanish only. Parishes can sensitize themselves to the traditions of the
various nationalities regarding marriage, baptism, novenas, posadas and Our
Lady of Guadalupe devotions. And as the archdiocese’s Hispanic ministries
grow, that fabric will blend into God’s perfect design. |
