After webinar series success, groups focus on collaboration to serve Catholics in US, Latin America

(OSV News) -- After a successful international webinar series on Hispanic ministry leadership and formation in the United States and Latin America, organizers said they are looking forward to continuing such collaborations for the good of all Latino Catholics -- and for the good of the church.

In all, there were 10 international webinar sessions that ran from March to June -- headed by the National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry, in alliance with the Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council, or CELAM and its formation center CEBITEPAL, both based in Colombia. In all, about 1,000 people participated in these virtual gatherings.

Organizers said the dialogue with the Latin American groups was formed in 2022, in part in response to the growing Hispanic immigrant influx into the United States, and also in answering the call for synodality from Pope Francis.

"This collaborative relationship is very important because the roots of Latino Catholics here in the United States are in Latin America," Elisabeth Román, president of NCCHM, told OSV News. "Today, we are seeing in the news a crisis of immigration; they are coming from Latin America, where our (faith and cultural) roots are."

"If we, as Hispanic leaders in the United States, don’t connect ourselves with the reality of Latin America, we cannot serve them pastorally -- we wouldn’t know their realities; we wouldn’t know their needs," she added.

The webinars focused on themes such as Youth Ministry: Prophetic Voices, Protagonists of Hope; Family: Domestic Church, Family, Live Your Mission!; Social Justice: Integral Human Leadership and Development; and Pastoral Formation: Pastoral Care – Integral and Permanent Formation.

Collectively, the topics of Hispanic youth/young adult ministry (known as pastoral juvenil hispana), family, social justice and pastoral formation are called the four pillars of pastoral action, developed at the latest Raíces y Alas (Roots and Wings) congress that took place in 2022 in Arlington, Virginia. This bilingual event took place after the dialogue during the V Encuentro multi-year process for Hispanic Catholic ministry in the U.S.

Talking to OSV News from Chicago, Román said that by connecting with Latin America, her organization connects with the root causes of immigration. She said this helps to better pastorally serve immigrants, adding that the international formation sessions created bridges, a means of sharing.

Román told OSV News that Hispanic ministry leaders in Latin America have been trying to offer support to immigrants who face the need to travel north -- and in turn their counterparts here in the U.S. have been working to be better prepared to serve the newcomers. "They prepare them over there so that they can know what awaits them here; to know what they will be facing," Román added. She also noted that through the webinars, ministry leaders shared "the pastoral and social realities of the North and the South."

By listening to the migrants and walking with them, she continued, "we can create the formation, the processes, the pastoral services that they need." The webinar in May focused on the dignity of the human person and on the pastoral response to the needs of migrants, but migrants' experiences were discussed in nearly all the gatherings.

Román recalled the beginnings of the collaborations when leaders from CEBITEPAL and CELAM attended the Raíces y Alas gathering in 2022. "We realized that we need to walk together; we had entered a synodal process as called by Pope Francis, of listening, of walking together," she said.

"From there we reached an agreement -- North and South -- of formation for our people. … These webinars helped us to connect with these themes of the four pillars here in the United States and with the realities of Latin America," she said. "It awakened a conscience that we are connected by many of the same realities."

The virtual evening gatherings entailed Hispanic ministry leaders in the U.S. and Latin America sharing what their ministries are doing or have done to minister to Latino families, teens, young adults, and social justice advocates -- especially efforts to help them develop leadership skills designed for them to engage in outreach and evangelization.

A significant consensus was: reminding the faithful of the importance of faith, family, education, work and community. Organizers said the community aspect includes social justice efforts, but without losing sight of the spiritual foundations of church outreach. Also, spiritual retreats, service projects, accompaniment and faith-based use of social media bring important positive outcomes.

Father Fabio Antunes do Nascimento, director of CEBITEPAL and one of the panelists at the meetings, said that the formation center wants to be of service to the church of Latin America and the Caribbean.

"Considering the expressive presence of Latinos and Caribbeans in the United States, an alliance like this is very important to guarantee that wherever brothers and sisters migrate, they will continue to be accompanied," Father Antunes told OSV News recently via email.

The priest added that the recent webinars are a recent opportunity that allows the groups to bring together people from different areas who have diverse backgrounds. "So, we must take advantage of that opportunity. We are very happy to join hands in ecclesial service," he said.

"Pope Francis asks us to create networks -- we are answering that call."

During the youth ministry webinar in April, Father Antunes spoke of "the beauty" of all the coordinated efforts in recent years among youth ministry leaders throughout the U.S., Latin America and the Caribbean, "by putting our hearts in the service that we do. … We have beautiful experiences in the Latin American Church, where a young person can make his path; this makes me very joyful -- young people evangelizing young people."

The collaboration between NCCHM and CELAM continues, with other webinars focused on pastoral formation, including a recent webinar on the Synod of Bishops on Synodality and how to be a missionary synodal church.

"We hope to continue walking together in synodality, here in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean," Román said.