Diocesan minister attends National Encuentro for Hispanic youth, young adults

By RENEE WEBB, Globe editor
June 15, 2006

A representative from the Diocese of Sioux City was among the some 2,000 Hispanic youths, young adults and diocesan and parish leaders to attend a national Catholic event for Hispanic young people.

Juan Garcia, the assistant director of Hispanic ministry for the diocese, participated in the National Encuentro for Hispanic Youth and Young Adult Ministry that was held June 8-11 at the University of Notre Dame.

He pointed out that the word encuentro is Spanish for gathering or encounter.

"I went because I love to serve the church," noted Garcia. "My faith started in the youth group. I have the conviction that youth are the present of the church in the United States and they need to plan for the future of the church here in the United States. I want to help the youth of this diocese plan for the future."

While the encuentro was intended for both high school age and young adults, he pointed out that the bulk of the participants were young adults in post high school years who ranged in age from 18 to 30s.

The encuentro was described as the first national event of its kind. The theme of the gathering was Weaving the Future Together - Tejiendo el Futuro Juntos.

Garcia pointed out that the image of weaving separate strands together is very fitting as they are not trying to take away the identities of the cultures so that everything is the same. Rather, they are weaving the two together so that the faith and community of faithful may become stronger and richer.

"We always feel comfortable with ourselves. We need to open ourselves to another people so that we see the richness of other cultures," he said.

At the encuentro, they looked at the talents, expectations, needs and wants of the Hispanic people. From there, the goal was to try to develop a common vision and pastoral principles that will be presented to the U.S. bishops.

Garcia mentioned that the encuentro was the culmination of a process. Over the last 18 months, they have been discussing these things at the diocesan and then regional levels. Various concepts and ideas were addressed at this gathering.

By attending the encuentro, one of Garcia's goals was to bring back some practical ideas that could be implemented in the Diocese of Sioux City.

"Now I have more information about youth formation," he said. "For example, we have different methods of formation for youth. All of the Catholic youth in the United States have the same faith, but we as Hispanics express our faith from a different perspective."

Ideally, Garcia noted, it would be best if he could pull out the strengths from both - Anglo and Hispanic programs. With that in mind, he would love to send eight youth to CLI (Christian Leadership Institute). This program, sponsored by the Iowa Catholic Conference and the four Iowa dioceses, helps high school age youth develop leadership skills that can be used in their youth groups and parishes.

Garcia is also looking for others ways to strengthen youth ministry formation.

"We have come up with the idea to start a bilingual Hispanic youth group in my parish, St. Boniface," noted Garcia. "In the past, Sioux City had just one Hispanic youth group. Now that I have a broader perspective, with the help adults and youth, I will start this bilingual group."

The bilingual group will consist of Hispanic youth. In this group, the youth will be able to keep their Hispanic traditions and identity, but is expected to come together with the Anglo group on several occasions throughout the year.

He pointed out that many Hispanic youth of today have an advantage over those in the past of being able to communicate just as easily in English as they do in Spanish. These youth are also connected with many Anglo students in school and other organizations.

At the encuentro, the speakers stressed the need for bilingual youth ministers in the dioceses. They estimated that half of the youth and young adults in the Catholic Church are Hispanic. It makes no difference whether these bilingual ministers are Anglo or Hispanic.

"I would like to invite them to think about what to do with this reality," said Garcia.

Oftentimes Anglo youth ministers may have a desire to reach out to Hispanic youth but language can provide a barrier.

"Language can be a barrier, but they also need to know the culture," stressed Garcia. "There are a lot of materials and resources made for Hispanics that are addressing this reality in the United States."

If parishes have Hispanic parishioners, Garcia mentioned that they can contact him and he would give them materials that could help them in their ministries.

"They don't always need to speak the Spanish language, but they do need to be sensitive to the Hispanic culture," he said. "We are one church. We need to share the talents that we all have in order to make a better church."