Print Issue: September 26, 2002

Who Are We And What Do We Need?

Manuel Poblete holds his 2-year-old son Luis Manuel during the entertainment following the eucharistic celebration in honor of St. Juan Diego at St. Pius X High School, Atlanta, on July 31. (Photos by Michael Alexander)

By Priscilla Greear, Staff Writer

ATLANTA - The archdiocesan survey reports a conservative estimate of the number of Hispanics in North Georgia at 460,000. According to a study commissioned by the Latino Coalition reported in August by Zenit News Agency in Rome, 72.6 percent of U.S. Hispanics say they are Catholic. Hispanics are now the country's largest minority at 35 million and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops projects that the U.S. Catholic Church will by the second decade of this century "very likely be over 50 percent Hispanic."

Archbishop John F. Donoghue addressed this Hispanic explosion in a pastoral letter in December 2000. "Our responsibility of the church of Atlanta is, as it always was, to welcome our immigrant brothers and sisters with respect, reverence and generosity, providing them a hospitable and supportive environment and atmosphere where they are able to nourish, deepen and preserve their Catholic faith, while celebrating it in a culturally familiar environment," he wrote. "The future of the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Atlanta is profoundly related to our burgeoning immigrant population, particularly among our Hispanic brothers and sisters who are overwhelmingly baptized Roman Catholic."

But closing the gap between Spanish and English speaking populations may seem to be a formidable task, needing concerted planning and bridge building.

The needs are great within this community. There are at least "460,000 Hispanics in the archdiocese. That is a tremendous number of people...There has got to be a united effort," said Gonzalo Saldaña, director of the Hispanic Apostolate.

Saldaña hopes for the core group that planned the survey to continue meeting and to present the survey results to all archdiocesan departments. He encourages all priests to thoroughly read the survey and use it as a tool in examining how to better serve their communities. "It was done at the request of the priests to actually see what the Hispanic situation is in the archdiocese and not go by hearsay. I think everyone has a role to play in this effort and I think the assessment and the study present a black and white picture of what the situation is at individual parishes," he said. "It is the responsibility of all the priests working in Hispanic ministry to be able to convey this urgency to their pastor and the parish they've been assigned to so all the projects and needs are met and parishes sort of begin to respond with more accuracy to needs with Hispanics."

(L-r) Willy Wong and Maria de Jesus of Mexico and Regina and Roberto Rodriguez of the Dominican Republic attend the Mass in honor of St. Juan Diego. All four Hispanics are members of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Atlanta.

Father Fabio Sotelo Peña, assistant vocations director for the archdiocese, said that there is a lot of frustration among Hispanic priests because there isn't a lot of consistency or continuity in Hispanic ministries between parishes. Some parishes "are a great example of unity and collaboration," while in others the pastor and staff "don't understand or see the need or how to approach issues and Hispanic ministry is not their concern."

At his parish, Holy Trinity, Peachtree City, "the pastor is very open and we plan to work together and serve the community together. There are some differences, but we are working to create an example."

To create more continuity, he would like the Hispanic Apostolate and clergy, Religious and lay leaders in Hispanic ministry to begin meeting using the survey as a tool to explore how to more uniformly and comprehensively implement the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' pastoral plan on Hispanic ministry, which addresses integrating the communities while developing ministries.

Father Sotelo would like more emphasis and education on multiculturalism and working with other ethnic groups throughout the archdiocese. He stressed that more English-speaking pastors need to be pro-active evangelists and also build Hispanic ministries by learning Spanish, not waiting for Latinos to learn English. "I would encourage very definitely the Americans to learn Spanish and serve both communities as much as possible in order to put our efforts together and try to build a (united) community."

To foster more Hispanic vocations at home, he's trying to establish a Hispanic vocations group. He hopes to recruit more priests from throughout Latin America, particularly from Mexico. Currently there are only two archdiocesan priests from Mexico, but 75 percent of those who participated in the survey indicated that Mexico was their country of origin.

Father Joe Fahy of the Hispanic Apostolate agreed that "certainly the pastor will be instrumental in deepening understanding of the basic needs of Hispanic people." Regarding the survey, Father Fahy emphasized the need for more parishes to develop English classes, a good way to draw Hispanics to parishes initially (61 percent surveyed don't speak any English), and begin home visitations to invite them to church. He also encouraged churches to offer more space to the community on weekends to provide a healthy environment for recreation, particularly needed for single men. He also hopes the archdiocese will establish a "first class informational and catechetical center for Hispanics" with audio, video and other resources, run by people trained in catechetics and Hispanic liturgy and tradition, to train and assist catechists in parishes. All these and other needs stated in the survey must be addressed, he said. "For us as Catholics it's kind of like the future of the archdiocese."

These issues must be addressed, Saldaña continued, as "Hispanics are here and will continue to change (the church) and Masses will continue to be developed. This is going to continue snowballing whether we like it or not, so we might as well approach it (the report) as a way we can respond and make Hispanics feel part of the Catholic Church."

"I'm hoping to continue that process where we perhaps can get together and look at the (issue) based on the findings and to see what actually we need to do to respond. The church has a tremendous challenge ahead of them and the time is now," he said.

The Hispanic Apostolate can be reached at (404) 888-7839.