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October 16, 2020Learn About Our Ministry
Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston – This project brings our work with the bilingual Office of Evangelization and Catechesis full circle. Our first project was working with the Spanish-language Office directed by Gerardo Salazar to help them develop an advanced level curriculum of formation in Spanish for Parish Catechetical Leaders in the Archdiocese. He called it Instituto Mater Dei. This curriculum builds on the basic-level formation that had been developed earlier. A key aspect of this project, in addition to the need to make it responsive to ministry in the Hispanic context, was that it meets the requirements of the USCCB Subcommittee on Certification for Ecclesial Ministry and Service. In fact, our work was highly commended by the Bishops on the Subcommittee.
Based on that success, the Director of the Office, Julie Blevins and her associate director Deborah Jones requested our assistance with reviewing and revising the English-language curriculum at both the basic and the advanced levels. We did a thorough analysis of their reality and helped to revise the curriculum based on what we saw and heard.
After completing that project last year as well as assisting the Office to evaluate the success of the first three years of implementation of the Instituto Mater Dei, Gerardo returned to us to ask for our help in revising the basic curriculum to align it with the work we had done on the parallel English program. This was not a simple translation project (Gerardo was certainly capable of doing that on his own), but a careful consideration of the unique needs of Parish Catechetical Leaders in the Hispanic context as well as a clear understanding of the implications of the National V Encuentro process that had just been completed among Hispanic Catholics in the United States.
Congar Team member Anna A. Chavez brought her many years of parish catechetical leadership in the Hispanic context to bear on the project. Also, through the previous work of our Team member Alejandro Siller on the planning committee of the V Encuentro, the Congar Institute was closely involved with the process and understood its implications for this work.
We are deeply grateful for the trust placed in us by the members of the Archdiocesan Office of Evangelization and Catechesis and we have been honored to accompany them in curriculum revision and building over these last few years. We look forward to continuing to accompany them and to be a resource for their ongoing service to excellent formation of lay pastoral leaders in the Archdiocese.
Diocese of Victoria – “We were like a sailboat on the open sea. We had sails but there was no wind blowing, so we were not going anywhere. You came along like a breeze to help get us moving, and now we are sailing!” That is how Bishop Cahill described the service we provided to the Diocese of Victoria that we also completed last year. I called to check in with him to see how things were going and if our services had been helpful to them. He had originally contacted us after two significant events.
The most recent was the occasion of the V Encuentro, where he met our staff person, Lizett Farias. Bishop Cahill knew that with the conclusion of the V Encuentro, the time was right to act on an earlier event that had happened when the Hispanic community had sent a formal delegation to his office to request that the Diocese provide adult faith and ministry leadership formation accessible to the growing Spanish-speaking community in the Diocese. The wheels had been oiled by the advent of the V Encuentro process in the Victoria Diocese and those who acted as leaders of that process as well as the other participants were ready for something more.
Bishop Cahill asked us to help him to organize and offer it. We met with those leaders along with some of the priests in the Diocese to organize a series of adult faith formation sessions. We provided them with the curriculum and facilitator guides. When we were ready to discuss who would serve as facilitators, the group felt empowered to act and they took responsibility for it. They would not need to import those resources. This was an incredibly gratifying moment for us. As I have often said, our unofficial motto borrowed from Home Depot© is “You can do it. We can help!” This 6-part curriculum would be implemented over the next 6 months.
Meanwhile, the Congar Institute continued with a second phase of our work with the Diocese and carried out a ministry and formation Inventory of the Diocese, analyzing the context and identifying resources the Diocese could draw on to develop an ongoing process of formation for the members of the Hispanic community. We completed this project and turned over our findings to the group of leaders the Bishop had originally called together to meet with us.
On the day before I phoned Bishop Cahill, he told me the leader of the group had met with the Diocesan Presbyteral Council to present to them the plan that they had created with our assistance to provide an ongoing process of leadership formation in the Hispanic community. Although this means that our initial work with the Diocese is completed, we continue to be available to the members of that leadership group to accompany them and to provide additional resources should they need them.
Other work that we continue to collaborate in via Zoom include the Fifth Encuentro Young Adult Hispanic Leadership Initiative (renamed and refocused from Fifth Encuentro Youth and Young Adult Leadership Initiative (VEYYALI à VEYAHLI) from the USCCB. This initiative hopes to promote leadership skills formation among Hispanic Young Adults, a project given high priority based on the outcomes from the National Fifth Encuentro process. Many formation institutes are working together to develop and provide a means to offer this formation on the national level with numerous local on-ramps. This formation is intended to complement theological studies to increase the number of Hispanic Catholic young adults competent in ministry throughout the US.
The USCCB Subcommittee for Certification of Ecclesial Ministry and Service moved its meetings online beginning in March. We continue to meet with them semi-annually, serving as consultants to the bishops who comprise the Subcommittee, reviewing several programs for certification of lay pastoral leaders and offering them guidance and accompaniment.
The Pandemic has also made us move our formation efforts online. We are currently doing a formation inventory for the Hispanic Catholic community in the Diocese of Beaumont. Although there are aspects of our formation inventory that require an on-site visit, much of the listening and gathering of data that comprises the bulk of the work can be accomplished online.
The same can be said of the formation work we are currently doing to accompany the diocesan Lay Ecclesial Formation program in Salt Lake City. Already, three of our Resource Persons have made presentations via Zoom, and with needed adjustments to length and process, this has been effective. A greater challenge, given the need to be present in the parishes to truly get a sense of what is going on and given the disruption that the Pandemic has been to progress on goals, accompanying the diocese in its pastoral plan implementation is still a work in progress. We intend to be a resource to the Bishop and the diocese with its continued efforts to strengthen pastoral ministry in Utah in a way that is responsive to the new reality created by the Pandemic.
While completing and continuing these projects, our restructured Board has come together and is now meeting monthly online to offer support to our overall efforts. Simultaneously, they are giving several hours of three Saturdays over three months to work out a strategic plan for the Institute. Their commitment and adaptability are impressive, and their leadership in this challenging time is priceless.
Finally, we are pleased to be in conversation with another diocese that has contacted us about pastoral planning. As in many places, the Pandemic has forced them to face some realities that are difficult, and they are looking for accompaniment as they work through these challenges.
I learned a long time ago when I worked for Glenmary: The mission continues no matter the circumstances. Even in the face of the extraordinary reality created by the Pandemic, we must do whatever it takes to continue the mission. This brings out creativity and novel ways of doing things. Surely, this is a sign of the Spirit’s presence.