Raíces y Alas: Pensar y caminar con sus pastores

(Note: this is the Spanish version of yesterday’s posting “Raíces y Alas: Thinking and walking with their shepherds” by Mar Muñoz-Visoso)

Esta semana se realiza en Chicago el congreso nacional católico hispano “Raíces y Alas 2010” [http://www.ncchm.org/]. El congreso está organizado por el National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry (NCCHM), una organización nacional que aglutina a más de cincuenta estructuras, organizaciones y movimientos nacionales y regionales. La agenda de la reunión es ambiciosa: “recrear y reconstruir la visión nacional para el ministerio hispano”. El congreso ha sido convocado en colaboración con el Secretariado de Diversidad Cultural en la Iglesia de la Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de Estados Unidos (USCCB).

Aunque el congreso está dirigido principalmente a líderes en el ministerio hispano, también acudirán representantes de entidades educativas, universidades, congregaciones religiosas y otras instituciones católicas estadounidenses “en reconocimiento de que cualquier aspecto del ministerio de la Iglesia afecta a la población hispana…de la misma manera [que] cualquier actividad de la comunidad católica hispana se entiende como una actividad de la Iglesia Católica.”
En total, se espera a más de 500 participantes.

Los objetivos planeados para la reunión son la “celebración”, la “reflexión” teológica y pastoral “de la realidad actual del ministerio hispano en Estados Unidos” y “una mirada hacia el futuro con proyecciones concretas para acciones ministeriales”.

Ha de notarse que la agenda de la reunión — esta reflexión sobre la realidad de los hispanos católicos en Estados Unidos — estará basada en las cinco prioridades actuales de los obispos estadounidenses:

· Matrimonio (aunque, como era de esperar, los latinos han ampliado la reflexión a la “Familia”)
· Formación en la fe y práctica sacramental
· Los jóvenes y las vocaciones
· Vida y dignidad de la persona humana
· Diversidad cultural, con énfasis especial en los hispanos

Hasta donde sabemos, esta es la primera organización nacional católica con una representatividad tan amplia y diversa en ministerios e intereses profesionales, con o sin un enfoque étnico o cultural, que haya manifestado de forma tan pública y abierta su intención de caminar con los obispos y de hacer suyas las prioridades de éstos. De hecho, se están retando a sí mismos a reflexionar sobre cómo sus estructuras, ministerios y enfoque pastoral abordan o no dichas prioridades.

Los participantes, de seguro, también lanzarán un reto a las estructuras diocesanas, regionales y nacionales (incluyendo las de USCCB) y a otras asociaciones católicas para que promuevan el liderazgo hispano en todas esas áreas. Se trata de un esfuerzo sincero para pensar y caminar con sus pastores; para dar un paso al frente y ejercer el liderazgo a que están llamados por los pastores, por el pueblo, y simplemente por su proporción en número dentro de la Iglesia.

En contra de lo que algunos han visto, y despreciado, como un esfuerzo por parte de los obispos de ser “políticamente correctos” — por haber hecho del reconocimiento de la diversidad cultural en la Iglesia con énfasis especial en los hispanos una de sus actuales prioridades dentro de su plan quinquenal — los esfuerzos de los obispos estadounidenses por entender, afirmar, guiar y caminar con su diverso rebaño puede que estén empezando a dar fruto.

Decir que una convocatoria del liderazgo católico hispano a este nivel hacía falta desde hace mucho tiempo se queda corto. Los organizadores afirman su “deseo de revivir el espíritu de los Encuentros y de celebrar el décimo aniversario del Encuentro 2000”.

El proceso de los Encuentros guió y proporcionó una visión nacional para la pastoral hispana en el último cuarto del siglo XX. Fruto de ellos — hubo tres — fueron el Plan Pastoral Nacional para el Ministerio Hispano, la creación de numerosas estructuras parroquiales, diocesanas, regionales y nacionales, muchos planes pastorales locales y numerosas asociaciones para el avance del ministerio hispano.

Cuando los católicos hispanos se preparaban para convocar el que sería su “Cuarto Encuentro” en el año 2000, se les pidió que sacrificaran — por esta vez — el enfoque ad intra étnico/cultural de su proceso de Encuentro y que lo compartieran y lo transformaran en una celebración multicultural del Jubileo 2000. Hubo sus más y sus menos pero, al final, el Encuentro 2000 resultó ser una expresión magnífica y multitudinaria de la catolicidad de la Iglesia, de su unidad en la diversidad en la diversidad. Es justo, pues, celebrar con gozo su décimo aniversario.

Pero los católicos hispanos y el ministerio hispano también necesitan atención y enfoque. Las realidades pastorales de hoy no son las mismas que hace 30 o 40 años. Tampoco los protagonistas son los mismos — tanto los ministros como la gente — ni sus necesidades. Por lo tanto, las estructuras que les sirven, así como su participación y liderazgo en la Iglesia en general, necesitan ser reexaminados a esa luz.

El último Encuentro Nacional de Pastoral Hispana sucedió hace 25 años. Tras el 2000, percibiendo la urgencia de abordar las necesidades particulares del desarrollo del ministerio hispano, los obispos realizaron una consulta al liderazgo. El fruto de este “Simposio 2001” en Colorado Springs, Colorado, fue el documento “Encuentro y misión: Un marco pastoral renovado para el ministerio hispano”, que los obispos ofrecieron como anexo y actualización del Plan Pastoral Nacional para el Ministerio Hispano de 1987.

Raíces y Alas 2010 promete ser un paso serio en la dirección adecuada; ambicioso, sin duda, pero también necesario.

*****
El Cardenal Francis George de Chicago, presidente de USCCB, dará la bienvenida y liderará a los participantes en oración el viernes por la mañana. Representarán a los obispos estadounidenses en el diálogo el Monseñor Jaime Soto, obispo de Sacramento, presidente del Comité de Obispos sobre Diversidad Cultural; Mons. José Gómez, Arzobispo Coadjutor de Los Ángeles; Mons. Jerry Barnes, obispo de San Bernardino, CA; Mons. Francisco González, obispos auxiliar de Washington; Mons. Gustavo García Siller, obispo auxiliar de Chicago; y Mons. Felipe Estévez de Miami. Representando a los obispos de Puerto Rico estará Mons. Félix Lázaro, obispo de Ponce.

Otros obispos benefactores y que han dado su apoyo incluyen a: Mons. Timothy Broglio, arzobispo de los Servicios Miliares, USA; Mons. Robert J. Carlson, arzobispo de Saint Louis; Mons. Charles J. Chaput, arzobispo de Denver; Mons. Walter A. Hurley, obispo de Grand Rapids, Michigan; Mons. Edward U. Kmiec, Obispo de Buffalo, Nueva York; Mons. Roger P. Morin, obispo de Biloxi, Mississippi; Mons. Richard E. Pates, obispo de Des Moines, Iowa; Mons. Joseph A. Pepe, obispo de Las Vegas, Nevada; y Mons. Joe S. Vazquez, obispo de Austin, Texas.

Raíces y Alas: Thinking and Walking with Their Shepherds

This week the Hispanic national congress “Raíces y Alas 2010” will be held in Chicago. The organizers are the National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry (NCCHM), an umbrella organization of more than fifty Hispanic Catholic national and regional structures and movements, with an ambitious agenda: “to recreate and reconstruct the vision for national Hispanic ministry.” The congress was convened in collaboration with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church.

Although this Congress is directed toward leaders in Hispanic ministry, there will be representatives from colleges, universities, religious congregations and U.S. Catholic institutions and movements “recognizing that any aspect of the Church’s ministry affects the Hispanic population. In the same manner, [that] any activity of the Hispanic Catholic community is understood as an activity of the Catholic Church.”

Overall more than 500 participants are expected.

The gathering has been planned as one of “celebration,” theological and pastoral “reflection on the current reality of Hispanic Ministry in the United States,” and “a look toward the future with concrete projections for ministerial actions.”

Notable is that the agenda for the meeting — the reflections on the reality of Hispanics Catholics in the U.S. — will be based on the five priorities of the U.S. Catholic Bishops:

• Marriage (though in pure Latino fashion, they’ve broaden it up to “Family”)
• Faith formation and sacramental practice
• Young people and vocations
• Life and dignity of the human person
• Diversity with special emphasis on Hispanics

To our knowledge, this is the first national Catholic organization representing such diversity and scope in ministries and professional interests, with or without an ethnic or cultural focus, that has so plainly and openly stated that it intends to walk with the bishops and make the bishops’ priorities theirs. In fact, they are challenging themselves to reflect on how the structures, ministries, pastoral focus do or do not address those priorities.

Participants will also challenge the diocesan, regional and national structures (including those of the USCCB) and other Catholic associations on how to promote and empower Hispanic leadership on all those areas. This is a sincere effort to think and walk with their shepherds; to step up to the plate and exercise the leadership called by their pastores, el pueblo, and just the sheer numbers.

Against what some viewed, and derided, as “political correctness” on the part of the U.S. bishops —who set cultural diversity with an emphasis on Hispanics as one of their five priorities in their current five-year plan—, the bishops’ efforts to understand, affirm, guide and walk with their diverse flock may just be paying off.

To say that a convening of the Hispanic Catholic leadership at this level is overdue is an understatement. Organizers affirm their “desire to revive the spirit of the Encuentros and celebrate the 10th anniversary of Encuentro 2000.”

The process of the Encuentros guided and provided a national vision for Hispanic pastoral ministry in the last quarter of the 20th century. Fruits of them — there were three— were the National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Ministry and the creation of numerous, parish, diocesan, regional and national structures, many local pastoral plans, and associations for the advancement of Hispanic ministry.

As Hispanic Catholics were readying themselves to convene their would-be ‘fourth Encuentro’ in 2000, they were asked to sacrifice — for this one time — the inward cultural/ethnic focus of their Encuentro process and to share it and to transform the Encuentro into a multicultural celebration of the Jubilee. In the end, Encuentro 2000 was a magnificent, massive expression of the Church’s catholicity, of its unity in diversity. It is right, then to celebrate its tenth anniversary.

But Hispanic Catholics and Hispanic ministry also need nurturing and focus. Today’s pastoral realities are not the same as they were 30 and 40 years ago. Neither are the actors — ministers and people alike — or their needs. Thus the structures that serve them, as well as their participation and leadership in the wider Church, need to be reexamined in that light.

The last Encuentro de Pastoral Hispana happened 25 years ago. After 2000, sensing the urgency to address the need to further develop ministry among Hispanics, a leadership consultation was held by the U.S. bishops. This “2001 Symposium” in Colorado Springs, Colorado, led to “Encuentro and Mission: A Renewed Pastoral Framework for Hispanic Ministry,” issued by the U.S. Catholic Bishops as an addendum to the 1987 National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Ministry.

Raíces y Alas 2010 promises to be a serious step in the right direction; ambitious indeed but so necessary.

*****
Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, USCCB president will be leading participants in prayer on Friday morning. Representing the U.S. bishops in the dialogue will be Bishop Jaime Soto of Sacramento, president of the bishops’ Committee on Cultural Diversity; Coadjutor Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles; Bishop Jerry Barnes of San Bernardino; Auxiliary Bishop Francisco González of Washington; Auxiliary Bishop Gustavo García Siller of Chicago, and Auxiliary Bishop Felipe Estevez of Miami. Also, representing the bishops of Puerto Rico will be Bishop Félix Lázaro of Ponce.

Other benefactors and supporters include Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, Archdiocese of Military Services, USA; Archbishop Robert J. Carlson of St. Louis; Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Denver; Bishop Walter A. Hurley of Grand Rapids, Michigan; Bishop Edward U. Kmiec of Buffalo; Bishop Roger P. Morin of Biloxi, Mississippi; Bishop Richard E. Pates of Des Moines, Iowa; Bishop Joseph A. Pepe of Las Vegas, Nevada; and Bishop Joe S. Vazquez of Austin, Texas.

About Time We Crunched Some Numbers

This morning's double appointment in Florida and Illinois, along with the progression of time et al, has left the state of vacant U.S. dioceses and bishops serving past retirement age looking rather different. As this is an issue we've neglected on this blog lately, it can't hurt to take a quick tally of where the numbers stand.

This morning, Pope Benedict accepted the resignation/retirement of Archbishop John Favalora of Miami and appointed Bishop Thomas Wenski of Orlando as his successor. The pope also named Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Paprocki the new bishop of Springfield in Illinois, a diocese that has been vacant (i.e. without a bishop) since now-Archbishop George Lucas was appointed Archbishop of Omaha last June.

Taking into account these appointments, as well as that of Archbishop Jose Gomez as Coadjutor Archbishop of Los Angeles earlier this month, and the U.S. Church currently has four vacant dioceses:

-- Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, vacant since November 14, 2009, when Bishop Kevin Rhoades was sent to Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana
-- La Crosse, Wisconsin, vacant since November 14, 2009, when then-Bishop Jerome Listecki was appointed Archbishop of Milwaukee
-- San Antonio, Texas, vacant since April 6, when Archbishop Gomez went to Los Angeles
-- Orlando, Florida, vacant since 6 a.m. today, with Archbishop-designate Wenski going to Miami

Strangely enough, both the Los Angeles and Orlando appointments involve the pending retirments of bishops who have not yet reached the retirement age of 75. So that list has not only remained the same, but has grown to five:

-- Bishop William Higi of Lafayette, Indiana, age 76
-- Archbishop Alexander Brunett of Seattle, age 76
-- Bishop William Skylstad of Spokane, Washington, age 76
-- Archbishop Eusebius Beltran of Oklahoma City, age 75
-- Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia, who turned 75 yesterday

(Bishop Kevin Boland of Savannah, Georgia, will turn 75 this Sunday.)

So, congrats to Miami and Springfield on their new bishops! And as always, many prayers for the rest of the Church too.

Hat tip to David Cheney.

He Was Pope And He Knew It

This October 1-7 marks the 30th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s papal tour of the United States. The occasions was historic – since no pope before him had undertaken such a trip. John Paul took the United States by storm. I had barely been a reporter when I saw the chance of a lifetime and set out to cover the papal visit -- by hook or by crook. Being inexperienced helped. I didn’t know that I was setting out to do what would seem impossible to an experienced journalist.

Step one involved getting on board the plane that travelled with the pope around the country. I offered my services to the Religious News Service, then a branch of the Association of Christians and Jews. I convinced my editor at The Evangelist newspaper in Albany, New York, to pay for it. I filed for both the home town paper that took pride in having the only diocesan reporter in the country on the plane, and for RNS, a poverty stricken wire service that liked having a rep on the plane even if they had no money. I got a coveted seat on Shepherd 2.

Just like that, I became a wire service. With the pluck of a desperate novice I demanded equal treatment to the bishops’ well-staffed, well-funded National Catholic News Service (for which I later went to work), now known as Catholic News Service. Just being on the plane, however, did not get me into events. For that you needed media tickets. They were scarce. At first I wasn’t getting any but I guess the story can be told now. Someone at the bishops’ conference took pity on me and accepted my argument “I am a wire service.” We made an arrangement: Early each morning and wearing a raincoat, I would stand reading a newspaper in the media hotel lobby. A hand would slip into my pocket. I would continue reading and a few minutes later I would reach in and find the tickets I needed for the day.

Events in each city had their own character. Boston was welcoming – even with a downpour, but no rain could dampen spirits at the Mass on the Boston Common.

Diocesan newspaper reporters multitask. So I was photographer as well as reporter. I remember reporting that it was a day to own Kodak stock. As a “photographer” I got to stand on a platform with a bird’s eye view of this historic event. Boston police were charming. We’d been warned not to move out of media areas and threatened with loss of credentials if we did. I wandered a bit and thought it was all over when a policeman reached out his hand to me. Then I realized he was also stepping on a rope to help me navigate over it.

The next day was New York City, and the pope’s visit to the United Nations and then to Yankee Stadium. I couldn’t believe I was actually walking on the field in this baseball shrine. Catholics from all over the state were on hand. Toward the end of Mass, to get a little color for my stories I wandered out of the media area and soon saw one of New York’s finest coming toward me.

“Officer, I’m lost,” I said. “Could you show me the way out?” “Happy to,” he said, and escorted me on a kind of perp walk past of the stands of the Albany Diocesan pilgrims, where a few who recognized what was going on laughed.

Philadelphia was next on the itinerary, and the mayor welcomed the pope but not the media who accompanied him. When Mayor Frank Rizzo knelt to kiss the pope’s ring at the airport media said it was good to see him on his knees. There was no love lost between the mayor and the media. His revenge this time? He admitted media to events only after what seemed like half of Philadelphia had been led to their seats.

This trip was a first for everyone. Secret Service established a timetable, called a bible, and said we would follow it no matter what. The only problem was that the pope wasn’t reading this bible. For a brief stop in a ravaged part of the Bronx, media were told not to get off the buses. Reporters complained: “There’s no air in here. We can’t breathe. Open the doors.” The bus driver did and we escaped, like caged animals in quest of freedom, or in this case, a story.

My first lead, shortly after covering the pope up close, was “He’s pope and he knows it.” For the power of his personality shone forth from the moment he kissed the ground upon arrival at Logan Airport to his departure from Andrews Air Force Base seven days later.
Several moments still stand out in my memory.

The meeting with youth at Madison Square Garden is one. The rapport between the pope and the youth stunned everyone. People hadn’t seen anything like it since the days of the charismatic President John F. Kennedy two decades before. John Paul liked the young people who came from the area’s 200 public and parochial schools and they knew it. The Polish pontiff started a kind of banter that overcame any language barrier. The youth began to chant and the pope chanted with them. It was a wonderful welcome to the Big Apple.

The unpredictability of the pope kept media on their toes. In Chicago, the second stop after Philadelphia, the pope was supposedly settled in for the night. But instinct told me to go to the residence of Cardinal Cody, where the pope was staying. Sure enough, the pope appeared at the window to kibitz with the teens and collegians who were crowding around -- and to tell them to go to bed. He’d been in three cities that day -- Philadelphia, Des Moines and Chicago.

The pope went to Des Moines to be with the heartland of America. Other cities had hosted Mass in elaborate stadia or public squares. This time Mass was in a field on a complex of three working farms with barns and silos as backdrop. It was a wonderfully unique moment, even for this city girl.

By the end of the trip, in Washington, DC, media were tired. Saturday night in the lobby of the media hotel, some photographers, ever irreverent, called out, “Hey, is there any point of our going to cover the meeting with the nuns at the Shrine tomorrow?”

“Ah, you can never tell with nuns,” I commented. “It’s worth going, just in case.”

For those who don’t recall that meeting, it was when Sister Theresa Kane asked the pope to open all ministries to women, a way of asking for women’s ordination. It became the story of the trip.

An aside: Sister Theresa and I are both Sisters of Mercy, both of us wore blue suits with the Mercy cross on the left lapel. Both of us have round faces and gray hair, mine prematurely so. After her encounter, people kept asking me about “my speech.” It was a challenge to get away just to write a news story on an event which stunned me as much as everyone else in the press corps.

The trip was a blessed experience. I was privileged to see history up close, never imagining that after that I would myself become a member of the Vatican press corps in Rome, moving from Shepherd 2 to the actual plane on which John Paul himself flew. After I left the press corps my work had me organizing some other papal visits.

These trips are grueling for media, who quickly get out of sorts. In 1993, in Denver, loud reporters were demanding tickets from me faster than I could distribute them. One observer praised my patience with a particularly energetic journalist. “It wasn’t a problem,” I said, “I once was a screamer.”

Covering that first trip in 1979, with hundreds of thousands of people turning out was a journalistic high and remains so. Yet it did not even compare with the privilege I had working with media 25 years later in Rome, when the pope died. The millions who turned out to pay their respects especially the young, testified to the fact that they knew John Paul was the Vicar of Christ on earth. He had a special affinity for the young and they knew that too. And they showed up to say goodbye. This time I was not covering the story but helping others cover it. I found myself thanking God -- and John Paul II --for the privilege they had given me.