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By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer
EL PASO, Texas—An immigrant from just across the border in
the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, and 22-year member of Santa Lucia Church, food
coordinator Maria Delgado stirred a large pot of ground beef with potato and
onion and seasoned with cumin, pepper and garlic salt.
Around the corner in the parish hall, Atlanta seminarians Stephen
Andrews, a native of Ireland, and John Matejek kneaded and rolled dough into
corn patties under her supervision. Matejek, wearing a straw hat and red and
white striped apron, cheerfully chatted with Hispanic parishioners on the
kitchen crew in Spanish and English as needed about his over 20-year career in
Chicago politics, where he once represented a district nearly half Hispanic.
On the parish grounds, as a singer in a black mini skirt and
cowboy boots sang “tex-mex” music, three more archdiocesan
seminarians completed the cooking process in a booth run by a parish family who
owns the nearby Mexican Lunch Box restaurant.
Atlantan Neil Herlihy wielded the spatula, deep frying dozens of
dough patties, while Kenneth Uzowulu, a Nigerian, and Benny Kunnamcheril, a
native of India, helped stuff the thick, crusty fried dough with lettuce,
tomato, beef and salsa to complete the pièce de résistance of the
annual Santa Lucia summer festival: gorditas.
As they practiced their newly acquired Spanish skills and got a
taste of parish summer life in El Paso, the seminarians helped the July 14-15
festival to sell about 3,500 gorditas, a popular food of la frontera, the
border, between Texas and Mexico.
Breaking from the assembly line, Matejek said he has found
“when you have to interact with people and really talk, you pick (the
language) up. You begin to think in Spanish more than English and it comes a
lot faster.”
Delgado appreciated his openness.
“He wants to learn a lot of Spanish,” she said of
Matejek, a Polish-American. “He has a lot of interest in learning our
culture.”
The seminarians assisted at the Hispanic festival, similar to
those held at other churches throughout the summer, as part of an immersion
program in the Spanish language and the Mexican-American culture of El Paso.
Speaking little or no Spanish, eight seminarians began their sojourn in the
southwestern city June 7. The experience concluded Aug. 4 following a group
pilgrimage to Mexico.
Just as in seminary they study the universal language and
traditions of the Catholic Church, the summer school allows them to study the
language and culture of some of the church’s Hispanics. The program is
affirmation that it’s no longer enough to leave all of Hispanic ministry
in the Archdiocese of Atlanta to Hispanic priests.
Building on program basics, Matejek now hopes to keep acquiring
practical Spanish skills like being able to recite the eucharistic prayers and
celebrate Mass in Spanish. Being assigned to an internship at a Hispanic parish
would be a challenge for him, which he could partially overcome through
Latinos’ faith and love for priests.
“I know how to roll my R’s,” he said. “If they
were attending one of my Masses they could fully understand what I’m
saying and that’s important. My goal is to recite the Mass as perfectly as
I can and improve my vocabulary,” he said. “If I had the opportunity
to serve in a Hispanic parish, I would enjoy that very much because their
culture is so intertwined with faith that the two are one in essence.”
The El Paso Project was designed by former Atlanta vocations
director Msgr. David Talley and pastor Msgr. Frank Giusta and implemented in
1999 to provide an immersion experience and intensive Spanish instruction in
this predominantly Mexican-American and Catholic city of 600,000. Msgr. Giusta
was assigned by Archbishop John F. Donoghue, in cooperation with the Diocese of
El Paso, to be full-time pastor of Santa Lucia Church and host to the
seminarians, who are sent in groups each summer. Father Paul Williams, former
pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Griffin, moved to El Paso in June to serve for
four years. After receiving training from Msgr. Giusta for the first year, he
will take over the leadership of the program at Santa Lucia.
The city, originally El Paso del Norte, or The Passage of the
North, was named by Spanish conquistadors who came up from Mexico in the late
1500s to explore the region in the Franklin Mountains at the end of the
Rockies. It borders Ciudad Juaréz in Chihuahua, Mexico. The Rio Grande,
surprisingly less grand than it sounds and not quickly noticeable, runs between
them.
The program in El Paso is 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. Over 435,000 Hispanics now live in
Georgia.
In addition, Mexican seminarians preparing to serve the
Archdiocese of Atlanta spend about a year living in and participating in
spiritual formation at the small St. Charles Borromeo Seminary while studying
English in El Paso before entering major seminary in the United States.
El Paso Bishop Armando Ochoa called the arrangement a
“win-win situation” as it helps him overcome the priest shortage he
has, providing a pastor at Santa Lucia, and strengthens the collegiate seminary
formation program at St. Charles Borromeo, which only has a few seminarians
from his diocese. Santa Lucia members, he said, also get to experience the rich
cultural traditions of the seminarians.
Regarding a papal document on evangelization by the North American
church, he asked, “Why not begin in-house? When the project was proposed,
I really felt very favorable because it would afford us (the) opportunity of
twinning in one sense with a large archdiocese and a large archdiocese to twin
with us.”
“Hopefully this will become a model for other dioceses to
really look for creative ways to address the changing faces in God’s
house,” said the bishop, whose Mexican father immigrated to the United
States through El Paso. “The fact that your seminarians are coming over
here from different cultures and ethnicities being exposed to a bicultural,
bilingual reality of the Diocese of El Paso affords them an opportunity to see
there is the changing face in the North American Church and for them to feel
comfortable in a very non-threatening situation here. (It will just) really go
a long way in preparing the young men for the priesthood in the
archdiocese,” he said. “It’s a wonderful vision for the changing
demographics in parts of Atlanta.”
Learning Spanish Proves Essential To Ministry
Msgr. Giusta said that except for the shortage of one car, this
year’s program ran smoothly. “I’m very grateful to the
seminarians here, they’ve been extremely cooperative . . . The routine is
tough. Language school every day is not easy,” he said. “This year
I’ve found all of them very cooperative and easy to deal with and all
eager to learn.”
But how much Spanish can you really learn in six weeks?
“It’s remarkable progress they have made in Spanish.
Some of them didn’t know a word, but now they can carry on a conversation.
They still make mistakes, of course, but the other person understands very well
what they’re trying to say,” Msgr. Giusta said. “Most of the
guys, if they would come back next year and go through the second-year
experience, they would be able to do ministry in any kind of Spanish-speaking
congregation. By the end of next summer they will be able to preach in
Spanish.”
Seminarians spending their first summer in El Paso lived at St.
Charles Borromeo, where they rose for morning prayer and bilingual Mass
celebrated by Msgr. Giusta, following along in bilingual missals, and then
headed off to Language Plus language institute on Rio Bravo Street Monday
through Friday. No summer afternoon siestas for these men, as classes ran from
9 until 4. Last summer, classes were held at a community college before Msgr.
Giusta decided the men needed a less academic program that focused more on
practical speaking skills.
Seminarians Build Community
Nigerian seminarian John Paul Ezeonyido, who returned for his
second summer, lived in Juaréz and assisted with pastoral work at Sts.
Peter and Paul Parish, taking weekday Spanish classes led by a parishioner.
The program opened when the group spent a weekend in New Mexico on
a retreat about Christian community. The focus was also on building community
during a three-day trip to Albuquerque and Santa Fe, N.M.
“The seminarians come from all over the world and they go to
different seminaries because Atlanta doesn’t have its own seminary.
They’re kind of strangers to each other very often . . . One of the
reasons to come here is to come together, know each other and form
community,” Msgr. Giusta said.
Guest speakers included Msgr. Arturo Bañuelas, pastor of
St. Pius X Church, El Paso, who spoke on evangelizing Latinos; Gonzalo
Saldaña, director of the archdiocesan Hispanic Apostolate, who spoke on
Hispanic ministry in North Georgia; and a Juaréz sociologist, who talked
about immigration in biblical times, throughout history, and in the United
States today.
Seminarians worked hard to break that language barrier. On July 12
at Language Plus the verb was conocer, to know, and the discussion,
theological.
“Do you know God?” the Mexican-American teacher asked
Kunnamcheril as part of a drill. “Si, conozco a Dios. Lo conozco.”
But why wouldn’t it be the plural pronoun, “los,”
when God is everywhere, inquired Stephen Andrews, or Estephan. “Yes, but
there’s only one God,” she responded.
Seminarian Benjamin Serna, Ph.D., who is Mexican and a
psychotherapist, has spent the summer in El Paso practicing psychotherapy at a
parish, working on a radio show, and assisting the El Paso Program and the
other seminarians learning Spanish. Serna, who has lived in the United States
for three years, spoke on Mexico. He is writing a book exploring the
psychological and other challenges facing undocumented Mexicans who come here
for a better life. He writes of the “acute alienation they experience from
home, church, culture and themselves” through the language barrier,
cultural displacement and other factors, compounded by little education, in a
country where surveys indicate many oppose immigration.
Cultural Exchange Includes Exploring Our Lady Of Guadalupe
Afternoon culture class led by Mexican-American Margarita
Gibler-González began with recitation of Eucharistic Prayer II in
Spanish. She spoke that day of how the Virgin of Guadalupe, who appeared to
Juan Diego in the 1500s, is engrained in Mexican culture and of the depth of
respect and veneration toward her, even among non-Catholics and non-practicing
Catholics. “She appeared like them. That changed the entire ambience of
the country. It just made them feel better,” she said.
Students ended class singing “He Who Sings Prays Twice”
and saying “God loves you” in Spanish.
In his talk Msgr. Bañuelas, who helped design the program,
traced the religious development of Mexico after the arrival of the
conquistadors and birth of the mestizo people. He talked about how
understanding Our Lady of Guadalupe affirms Mexican faith, discussing its
centrality in Mexican history and how Mexicans feel at home when they find her
image present. He spoke of the necessity of understanding a people’s
culture to effectively preach the Gospel, noting that Mexicans traditionally
stay close to their cultural roots after immigrating to the United States.
“You have to be in touch with people’s history, their
symbols of faith, with their music and their mystical ways of touching the
mystery of what God is. And a good minister will immerse himself in this
reality so that from within that reality he can credibly preach the Gospel not
as a stranger but as a ‘co-journer’ and in this way the minister also
learns from people’s faith about being a minister,” he said in the
office of the large Mexican-style church. “If the preacher is going to be
credible he needs to be totally immersed in the history and struggles and joys,
dreams and symbols, like Guadalupe, so that from within their journey of faith
he’ll be able to help people grow in their faith or challenge them. But
it’s got to speak from within their reality. That’s why it’s
important for them to learn the language. It’s very important that they
learn Spanish. I think that Father Frank and Father Talley understand that very
well and it’s why they do this program.”
He praised the Atlanta seminarians. “It is essential they
learn the language because in learning the language they’re able to
penetrate the very soul of the people . . . I think the young men should be
congratulated for struggling to learn another language and another
people’s culture so they can respond effectively. They want to be enriched
by another people—it’s not an easy task for these seminarians, but to
make it part of their formation is very important for them and the church of
Atlanta . . . This is the type of formation you don’t always get in
seminary.”
His message applies to every culture. “The point is not to
promote culture but effective evangelization in every culture. It’s not so
they can become more Mexican, but that they can become better evangelists. Once
you can immerse yourself in people’s lives in any culture you begin to
discover how to better preach the Gospel,” he continued. “Hispanics
are one of the largest minorities and fastest growing presence in the United
States and the majority are Roman Catholic
. . . It is a very young population.”
He said the fact that Archbishop Donoghue has sent priests here to
run the program shows that it’s a priority. “The Archdiocese of
Atlanta, instead of seeing the emergence of a Hispanic presence as a problem,
sees it as an opportunity to further strengthen the church in the
archdiocese—at least that’s what Father Frank says. Not many dioceses
are doing this. Many are now making the effort, but the archdiocese, I think,
is visionary and ahead,” he said. “Because of the emergence, the rise
in Hispanic presence in the Catholic Church in the United States, this type of
formation should not be considered optional but integral to young men who want
to serve the church in the United States.”
He added El Paso is an ideal program setting, as Hispanics in the
Atlanta area are predominantly Mexican, as in El Paso, and the city has the
full gamut of Latinos, ranging from bilingual university professors to
immigrant dish washers from Juaréz “who can live in a multicultural
society in peace and harmony.”
“The task of the church is not to assimilate Mexicans into a
melting pot, but like the border, to raise up differences as gifts that can
enrich everybody . . . and that you see on the border.”
Going From The Classroom Into The Pews
In Juaréz, which like El Paso is bicultural, Ezeonyido sat
beneath a wobbly ceiling fan in a sea of Spanish in the rectory of Sts. Peter
and Paul filled with pictures of Mary, Jesus, and other religious figures.
Beyond him were several cages of chirping birds given by parishioners to the
pastor of the church of over 6,000 families, which, he confessed with a
chuckle, he didn’t particularly like. The parish is in a rundown
neighborhood of one-story buildings painted in pastels and other colors near
the border with a clear view of El Paso. Driving across border bridges, one
sees pedestrians crossing on sidewalks carrying shopping bags and holding
umbrellas for sun protection while making the gentle cultural transition from
El Paso to Juaréz, where you can still hear El Paso radio. Traffic is
light to Mexico but can back up an hour to the United States, Serna said.
Ezeonyido, who is from Nigeria where English is spoken, expressed
deep satisfaction with the second summer immersion. For him, watching TV and
singing in Spanish have been very useful, as have the Spanish-only instruction.
He has found Hispanics very community-oriented like Nigerians, where you
don’t have to call someone before visiting. “It’s not just
sitting down in a classroom and reading about language and people’s
culture. It’s more practical and offers more opportunity to speak Spanish
because you speak Spanish with them, do what they do with them, eat with them.
Everything is just practicing. It involves both language and culture and
language is inseparable from culture,” he said. And his Spanish is “a
lot better.”
He recalled an internship at St. Joseph Church, Dalton, where he
interacted little with Hispanics simply because he didn’t know Spanish.
“To be an effective priest in Atlanta, Spanish is very
necessary,” he said. “It’s contributing to my whole formation.
This is not a vacation. It’s hard and draining, too, but I’m happy
doing it because it’s good for me and good for the church too.”
He hasn’t toured Juaréz much except with the pastor,
unsure of the area where many are involved in drugs and violence. The pastor,
Padre Francisco Galo, a bearded and jovial Mexican with wide, expressive eyes,
leaned close and deliberately spoke slowly in Spanish for gringos, explaining
that Juaréz faces many problems with drug smuggling, violence, gangs,
and kidnapping of women, creating an atmosphere of fear the parish must work to
ease.
It’s a transitional city for many with plans to move to the
United States, where they have family who send them money, and for those
who’ve been deported. Many parishioners are lower class and work in
maquiladoras, or assembly plants, which are largely American and can pay as
little as $5 a day. He added that Mexicans generally hug and make physical
contact more, stroll the streets often, and that it’s important to
increase understanding between Mexicans and Americans.
The first-summer seminarians enjoyed practicing their Spanish in
Juaréz on an evening outing to a Salesian youth center where teens from
the Cathedral of Christ the King, Atlanta, were working on a mission trip.
Center director Gerardo Gomez, SDB, expressed gratitude to see Americans. He
hoped they would see that Mexicans don’t really take siestas under the
trees all day, adding that he also hoped Mexicans would lose the stereotype
that Americans think they’re superior. The center is helping reduce the
number of gangs citywide, he said.
Back in El Paso another field trip with Gibler-González
took the men to Carlos & Mickey’s Mexican restaurant with pictures of
people in Mexican history, such as 1860s President Benito Juaréz, who
students recognized from a class discussion on civic holidays. They only spoke
Spanish—even ordering. After visiting a couple of churches, they drove to
the place where Mexico, Texas and New Mexico meet and saw the statue of Cristo
Rey in New Mexico. Matejek gave Language Plus high marks, although admitting
he’ll be relieved when class ends. The oldest in the group at 53, Matejek
enjoyed getting to know and learn from the younger seminarians.
He also enjoyed learning from the Mexican-Americans. Through his
work with Hispanics in politics, he knows their economic situation needs
improvement but admires their dedication to work and family.
“The more people have respect for other people’s culture
that respect becomes love and that love is what Christ was talking about, to
love one another regardless of where they live and their ethnicity,” he
said. “I respect the culture and who they are. That’s important for
any public official and for priests because you always want to make people feel
a part of the church and society.”
A history buff, Matejek loved the previous night’s outing to
see the musical “Viva El Paso!” which depicts the history of the
region in an outdoor amphitheater with a mountain backdrop of the McKelligon
Canyon Park.
During free time Saturday two seminarians drove to Juaréz
where they passed through a commercial district with both “Scooters”
sports bar and the “Pueblito Mexicano” restaurant.
That night at Santa Lucia was the parish kermess or festival. In
addition to making gorditas, seminarians collected tickets and ran game booths
for children.
Enjoying mingling at the festival with parishioners, Uzowulu, who
studied in Rome where he learned Italian, shared his enthusiasm for Spanish.
“I love foreign languages. It’s my hobby. Tengo las ganas hablar
español perfectamente (I want to speak Spanish perfectly).”
Uzowulu, 28, feels the program has enriched him but only wishes
he’d had more time to practice Spanish working in the parish, which is
very helpful. “Anytime we go to Juaréz and to be with people here I
always try to speak Spanish. They help me to correct my mistakes.” He
recalled a professor in Rome who spoke many languages and inspired him to learn
more to help those from various nations to know God.
Kunnamcheril, also 28, never had any Spanish instruction when
growing up in India speaking Hindi and Malayalam. He first had to learn English
when coming to America and wants to speak “perfect English and
Spanish,” as ministry to Hispanics is just as relevant as to Anglos.
Calling himself an open person who adjusts well to new environments, he plans
to go to Nicaragua this December and study more Spanish in seminary.
“I’m very happy because I’m able to speak a little, not too much
... I can’t believe in four weeks I learned this much. It’s very
intense,” he said. He also has a better understanding of the important
role the church plays in supporting undocumented immigrants here.
The sun set on the seminarians’ sojourn with their pilgrimage
July 25-Aug. 4. “I have a lot of respect for Archbishop Donoghue, for his
leadership in this area, knowing the archdiocese needs to have more ministry to
Hispanics, and the opportunity the archbishop has given us to learn Hispanic
language and culture and to go on a pilgrimage to Mexico City,” Matejek
said. “A seminarian couldn’t ask for anything more.”
Stopping at historic churches, monasteries and towns, they also
traveled to Morelia, a city with 17th and 18th century Spanish colonial style
and pink stone buildings, and visited Mexican seminarians studying for Atlanta,
who now all come from this area. “They are going there not only to get a
feel for the area they come from, but we want the seminarians from Atlanta here
in the summer to meet them,” said Msgr. Giusta, “to form some kind of
a community bond and to show these guys that are from Mexico that because we
are going to their house to visit them that they’re not just somebody that
we want to get out of there and bring here, (but that) we’re interested in
their homes and families.”
He hopes the program will encourage future priests to show more of
such interest in the homeland and heritage of all Hispanics and people of other
backgrounds in the increasingly ethnically diverse church of North Georgia.
“I think the program is providing a big difference in the lives of the
seminarians, in the way they think of themselves, other people, different
people than they’re accustomed to. I think it’s giving them an
important tool to be very open-minded, very good (priests) and very loving in
their parishes.” |
