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By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer
COLLEGE PARK—Latino speakers at Corpus Christi 2001 invited
Hispanics to come to “el gran sacramento” of the Eucharist to be fed
and to renew their spirits through the very life of Christ.
There didn’t appear to be any regrets to the invitation as
over 2,000 Hispanics enthusiastically joined over 10,000 of their Anglo
brothers and sisters, adoring Christ in the Eucharist, listening to God’s
word and spontaneously singing hymns in Spanish.
“The overwhelming feeling was a feeling of rejoicing, a
feeling of unity in faith, of praising God for this wonderful day celebrating
Corpus Christi, for the opportunity (to hear) so many languages and (see)
people from all over the archdiocese in one celebration centered in the
Eucharist,” said Father Jaime Barona, coordinator of the Hispanic track.
“I think that was the most intense feeling — and the
commitment to Hispanic ministry, (their desire) to show their faith, share
their faith and rejoice in their faith . . . For me it was the next best thing
to heaven, honestly. It was the Holy Spirit — God intervened.”
The theme, translated “Ven A Mi,” was planned by an
evangelization committee, including Father Barona, pastor of St. Bernadette
Church, Cedartown. The Latino track reflects one response by the archdiocese,
which now has 45 churches with Hispanic ministries, to the needs of the 210,600
Latino immigrants, predominantly Catholic, who moved to metro Atlanta in the
1990s, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Latino speakers were Bishop James Tamayo of the newly created
Diocese of Laredo, Texas, who serves on the National Conference of Catholic
Bishops’ Committee on Hispanic Affairs, and Father Fabio
Sotelo-Peña, parochial vicar serving most recently at the Cathedral of
Christ the King, Atlanta.
Members of Hispanic ministries stood and cheered when Father
Sotelo-Peña enthusiastically announced participating parishes, ranging
from St. Philip Benizi Church in Jonesboro to St. Mary’s Church in Rome.
Some Latino groups made banners to carry in the opening procession, like San
Felipe de Jesus Mission in Atlanta, which had one reading “God’s
Beloved Forgotten Ones” and the Hispanic Catholic charismatic renewal,
whose coordinator estimated they had over 600 in attendance from some of the 19
Spanish prayer groups.
With a friendly demeanor, Bishop Tamayo, a native of Brownsville,
Texas, invited Latinos to choose to open their hearts to the love of Jesus,
whose heart is always open and waiting to welcome, embrace and guide them, and
who inspires them to love.
“Christ, our best friend, present to us in the Blessed
Sacrament, welcomes and invites us to ‘come to me’ and receive his
grace and love,” he said.
Mexican immigrant Angel Ramos, a member of St. Michael’s
Church, Gainesville, was ready to receive Christ’s healing love. The
conference brought him closer to God, he said, as it encouraged him to forgive
himself. He returned to the church four years ago, leaving behind drug and
alcohol abuse, which he had turned to in “loneliness and desperation”
after leaving the Mexican army and coming to the U.S. in 1993.
The conference “gave me another opportunity to live healthy
without drugs. It brought me reconciliation in my heart for destroying my
body,” he said. “The church is teaching me to love and forgive.”
While some are reluctant to take the first step back, Bishop
Tamayo encouraged people to repent of any sin and turn toward God, who conquers
egotism, hatred and misfortune, to receive his love and forgiveness, and live
in the purity, freedom and “new possibility” of the Christian life.
The same Christ present in the Eucharist comes in the sacrament of
reconciliation, he said, bringing God’s grace and forgiveness leading to
peace. He added that parents who come to confession set a good example for
children.
“Jesus is present too in the sacrament of reconciliation
where he lovingly offers us his forgiveness and renews our full participation
in the church,” Bishop Tamayo said.
While they ask God’s forgiveness, he reminded them to forgive
their brothers and sisters also and allow God’s love to heal
relationships.
“As we pray in the ‘Our Father,’ we, too, are
called to pardon the faults of our brothers and sisters in society. Being a
follower of Christ is to be reconciled with God and our neighbor. Let us be
instruments of God’s love and reconciliation by following his teachings
and welcoming all to the family of God.”
The bishop acknowledged struggles facing Hispanic families,
including discrimination and rejection and adapting to a new language and
culture. Some families experience domestic violence and divorce. The graces of
the sacraments heal wounds and sustain and support families and individuals in
daily life. They provide the strength to spread the Good News.
“Christ conquers the world and sends us his Holy Spirit so
we’ll be able to do new things,” Bishop Tamayo said. “For this
he calls us, invites us to his home. The sacraments guide us. The presence of
Christ heals us.”
Father Sotelo-Peña, from Colombia, also acknowledged that
many Hispanics come to Christ heavy-laden, with immigration problems, a lack of
friends and family in the United States, seeking a better life, but not finding
work, job exploitation, and mental, spiritual and physical illness.
These burdens should be brought to God, he said.
“For all this we come before God tired and weary of life. We
come to the Eucharist and say, ‘accept me, renew me, bless me, comfort
me.’ We are tired to have looked for God and to have not felt his presence
anywhere. And Jesus makes himself present in the hearts of people and says,
‘Here I am, in your presence, to bless you, to free you, to guide
you.’”
He called the Eucharist “food of liberation” which
unites those who receive the sacrament with Christ. More and more people are
coming to adore Christ in the perpetual adoration chapel at the Cathedral of
Christ the King, where they find peace and recognize the sovereignty of God, he
said. “The Blessed Sacrament chapel is like a clinic of life.”
Referring to the pope’s call for a new evangelization, Father
Sotelo-Peña called the faithful to new ardor in embracing Christ in the
Eucharist, the most profound sacrament of love. He asked them to consider how
actively they participate in the Mass, if they come on time and what sacrifices
they bring.
He said the sacrament is the best way to evangelize, as it is the
most profound expression of the faith community. He spoke of Old Testament
sacrifices that prefigured the final sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God,
recalling how the first priest, Melchizedek, offered bread and wine, and
Abraham, like God, offered his only son. The lamb was associated with sacrifice
in ancient Israel, he noted.
Conformed to Christ in Communion, Christians are called to be
disciples. He invited all separated from the church in some way, including
unmarried couples unable to participate in the sacraments, married couples who
have put their relationship ahead of their relationship to God, the hopeless,
and those alienated through sin, to come to Christ.
“The bread that we eat, the wine that we drink, are the
reality of the risen Jesus. And participation in the Eucharist should lead us
to a life of abundance and of service,” he said. “Each time that we
eat (his body) and drink his blood, we are carried more intimately into the
life of Jesus.”
Ramos’ homecoming came after he was invited to a retreat,
which he attended reluctantly with fear. After the retreat, he began attending
St. Michael’s Church and participating in the Neocatechumenal Way, a
spiritual movement founded in Spain to help Catholics rediscover the roots of
their faith.
“In church I feel the strength to practice my faith,”
Ramos said. “I took this reality of being involved with the community as a
practice, like when I was involved in the military, because it’s like
going to war (for God) and having the opportunity to serve with my body and
soul.”
Confession helps him to find himself, he said, and the church
group has given him a spiritual family, acceptance, commitment to God, respect
for the law and the desire for a Christian marriage instead of seeing women as
objects. He now ministers to friends with drug problems.
Church “is the opportunity to put myself clean in front of
others and tell them what I have inside and hear others,” said Ramos, 36.
“Here they’re telling me what it means to defend the dignity of my
family and myself. They accept me as I am. It’s not discrimination. They
look at me as a human being ... I’m looking for the wisdom to be able to
continue on a straight path, not a path of fear.”
Venezuelan immigrant William Santeli, a leader of the
Neocatechumenal Way for several months, said the catechetical program is an
effective instrument to call back those who are away from the church. It
focuses on community, Christ’s real presence in others as well as the
Eucharist, God’s love for each individual, courage and Scripture, he said.
God “is the only one who loves us unconditionally and we, as
members of the Catholic Church, discover that in our communities and in the
Eucharist,” said Santeli, whose love of the Eucharist increased his desire
to serve the church.
He said the June 16 conference was a “deep act of faith, to
be present and to say, not only with words, but with my entire being, that
really I believe and I love the one we adore in the Eucharist.”
For Pilar Fierro, a Mexican immigrant, the conference was another
opportunity to hear the word of God. She began attending the Hispanic outreach
of Holy Spirit Church, Atlanta, in February. About 125 people from the outreach
came June 16.
One of many wearing T-shirts reading “Solidarity Mission
Village,” indicating they were part of a door-to-door Hispanic
evangelization team, Fierro said she left the Catholic Church years ago, angry
and bitter, after a priest told her she couldn’t receive Communion because
he thought she wasn’t dressed properly.
When she moved to Atlanta, a relative invited her to the outreach
of Holy Spirit where she gradually has begun to experience “love so great
that at times I cry.”
She’s given over those bitter feelings to God, realizing
priests too can make mistakes. She feels God’s love in prayer, the
Eucharist brings her peace and “means to me that God forgives my
sins.”
“Even though I fall, I feel God again within me,” she
said. “The love of God is marvelous.”
José Orellana said that he has been making home visits to
inactive Hispanic Catholics over the past year with others from his prayer
group at St. Mary’s Church, Rome. He’s found that the majority,
usually workers in the carpet industry, can’t come to church because of
work schedules, but are very appreciative that the missionaries show “we
are interested and we show them Jesus’ love.”
Among about 30 Hispanics from St. Mary’s who came for the
event, Orellana who is from Guatemala, said he is studying in the diaconate
program.
“I’m happy for this (event) . . . I love Jesus. I love
my church,” he said.
Father Sergio Calle-Perez, parochial vicar at Prince of Peace
Church, Buford, was glad some of the rising number of Hispanics served by the
parish could come. Hispanic families there have increased in the past year by
about 200, as the parish has worked to develop programs, including a family
night. The priest has a radio show where he speaks on Catholicism and invites
people to church.
The conference “renewed my spirit,” he said. “The
Eucharist is the center point of our life that changes our entire life and
renews our spirit . . . Seeing the Holy Eucharist, the body and blood of Jesus,
we realize that the Lord is a person that touches our lives. In that we can
realize Jesus lives deeply in everyone in the bottom of their heart.”
Father Barona, who brought five vans, two buses and 10 carpools of
Cedartown parishioners, was “in awe” of the event he called
“fantastic” for everyone.
For Hispanics he feels the opening procession with adoration was
particularly powerful where all united in prayer.
“We were expecting 7,000 people. Everyone estimates it at
12,000. I was expecting about 1,000 Hispanics. I think it just doubled. They
came from every parish,” he said.
Father Barona said evangelization materials were printed in
Spanish, Spanish media outlets were used to advertise the initiative and
Hispanic priests did a “wonderful job” in disseminating information
to parishes. The new Siglo Católico newspaper was a vital vein to
publicize the conference, he added.
He believes the event “fired up” Hispanics for God and
for their role in the church of North Georgia.
“They’re feeling they belong to this archdiocese. A lot
of people are talking about how important it was for Hispanic people to be
present in this,” he said. “I heard hundreds of comments that
Hispanics were just on fire. It’s important to claim ownership being here.
This is what we are, a big part of the church. It’s a very exciting time
to live (in the archdiocese) for Hispanics.” |
