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CURRENT ISSUE: June 19, 2006 • VOL. 44, NO. 12 • Oakland, CA
Hispanic youth gather at Notre Dame
to explore their role in U.S. Church
NOTRE DAME,
Ind. (CNS) -- A Mexican American nun told Hispanic youths not to lose
their cultural identity as they become increasingly a part of the U.S.
Church and society.
Mercy Sister Maria Elena Gonzales, speaking to the National Encuentro
for Hispanic Youth and Young Adult Ministry at the University of Notre
Dame, said Hispanics must maintain their cultural heritage if they are
to achieve self-esteem and be leaders in a growing cross-cultural world.
Hispanics also must be ready to assume leadership roles in the U.S. Church
as their growing numbers soon could make them the majority, she said.
Sister Gonzalez is president of the Mexican American Cultural Center in
San Antonio, which trains people for Hispanic and multicultural ministry.
The aim of Hispanic Church leadership should be to “build unity
in our diversity,” she told the 2300 Encuentro participants. The
June 8-11 gathering was the first national meeting of its kind.
The eleven representatives from the Diocese of Oakland spent two years
in parish, diocesan and regional meetings to prepare for the encuentro.
They worked from a list of topics provided by conference organizers, incorporating
their own ideas and suggestions along the way.
In her address, Sister Gonzalez challenged the youth to “confront
the discrimination that so many of you experience in your schools, neighborhoods,
and yes -- even in your families.”
But racism is not overcome by abandoning your cultural heritage in an
effort to be accepted, she said.
“So many of our Hispanic young people try to fit into the dominant
culture by not only leaving their language and culture behind, but also
by rejecting it, ridiculing it and even by changing their appearance,”
she underscored.
She criticized young Hispanics “who try to lighten their skin, straighten
their hair and even wear blue contacts.”
Such efforts lead “to a profound loss of identity and ultimately
a loss of self,” she said.
Sister Gonzalez told the teens that as the daughter of immigrants she
went through the same rejection syndrome in trying to adapt to the United
States.
“I was even embarrassed of my own parents because they did not know
any English, were poor and had little education,” she said.
But “culture is the soul of a people,” she said.
“To be truly effective ministers in today’s Church, you must
become at least bilingual and more importantly become aware and sensitive
of your own cultural identity and that of others,” she said.
Avoid the temptation “to build a parallel church” just for
Hispanics, Sister Gonzalez said.
“It is easier to have two youth groups -- one for the English-speaking
and the other for the Spanish-speaking. It is safer to be a leader in
my own group,” she said. “But the call of the Gospel and our
bishops is not the easy way.”
San Antonio Archbishop Jose H. Gomez urged the youth to become “a
new generation of disciples.”
“We realize that many young people are losing faith. You know people
who should be here who are perhaps in a bad situation with drugs. We must
be apostles to the people around us,” the
archbishop said.
The keynote speeches by Church leaders served as inspirational springboards
for the delegates, according to Teresita Lopez of Immaculate Heart of
Mary Parish in Brentwood. “I expected to fall asleep,” she
laughed, ‘but their metaphors, their language, were so easy to understand.
They told real stories that I could relate to.”
Yvette Espinosa, diocesan resource specialist for youth ministry, said
the bishops’ encouragement to young adults “really opened
their eyes and gave them new energy.” She said some past attempts
to involve youth in faith formation and leadership haven’t been
very successful, but “now these young people are really ready to
take hold and make it happen.”
Lopez noted that evangelization
among young people is contagious. A college sophomore, she said her desire
to teach little children was renewed after hearing a talk by a young woman
who had passed up a business career to work with youth. Lopez wants to
organize a young adult group at her parish.
Lopez was so fired up by her contemporaries’ ideas and opinions,
she intends to keep in touch with them. “They came from all over
the nation. I met Hispanics from North Carolina who have the same heritage
we (in California) grew up in.”
Participants made several suggestions for ways to increase Hispanic youth
participation in the Church, including teaching teens and young adults
effective ways to understand the Bible and pray with it, developing programs
to help parents to be more effective guides to their children, increasing
resources for Hispanic youth ministries, providing equal opportunities
in education, and celebrating Hispanic traditions.
The bilingual event was organized by the National Catholic Network de
Pastoral Juvenil Hispana and co-sponsored by the U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops’ Committee on Hispanic Affairs, the USCCB Subcommittee on
Youth and Young Adults, and the University of Notre Dame.
Hispanic youth show their exuberance June 11 following
the closing liturgy at the first National Encuentro for Hispanic Youth
and Young Adult Ministry at the University of Notre Dame.
CNS PHOTO/KAREN CALLAWAY
East Bay attendees at the national Encuentro of Hispanic youth are, top row from left, Jessica Ochoa, St. Louis Bertrand, Oakland; Cristina Martinez, St. Elizabeth, Oakland; Edgar Lopez, St. Elizabeth; middle row, from left, Roxanna Alvarez, Immaculate Heart of Mary, Brentwood; Teresita Belen Alvarez Lopez, Immaculate Heart of Mary; Juan Jose Jauregui, All Saints, Hayward; Consta Martinez, St. Louis Bertrand; front row, Juan Carlos Amaya Torres, St. Peter Martyr, Pittsburg. Also attending were Yvette Espinoza, Jessy Lizarraga-Lira and Hector Medina of the diocesan staff.
Yvette Espinoza PHOTO
