Preparing Leaders to Encounter Christ in the Peripheries

The Congar Institute has been working with Mr. Jesus Abrego, Co-director of the Beaumont diocesan Office of Cultural Diversity to access the needs and resources as well as to identify opportunities in the diocese for lay leadership formation in the Hispanic community.  As the former director of the Office of Hispanic Ministry, Jesus has been a long-time advocate for the Hispanic immigrant community and his hope is to create an effective, integral, and sustainable formation process for Hispanic lay leaders and others whose ministry is with the Hispanic community.

We are most grateful to an anonymous donor committed to supporting lay leadership in the Hispanic Catholic community who made our services possible. We are also grateful for the collaboration with Jesus. It is in this collaboration that we witnessed the enduring and resilient faith of the people in the diocese. We heard from the pastoral lay leaders and pastors of their commitment to their ministry and the people they serve. They shared about their struggles with ministry to the growing Spanish speaking immigrants that now make up half of Catholics in the diocese. As the diocese transitions into a new chapter of ministry under the leadership of their recently appointed bishop, Most Rev. David Toups, there are new opportunities awaiting to form missionary disciples for leadership in the diocese. 

In the spirit of the National V Encuentro, Hispanic Ministry seeks new opportunities to identify and form Spanish speaking leaders who can go out to encounter Christ among the people in the peripheries of Church and society, to accompany and welcome them into the faith community to give them a sense of belonging. The Congar Institute is eager to continue partnering with dioceses to ensure that all baptized persons in the Catholic faith have access to pastoral leadership and faith formation.  As dioceses look forward to ministry after Covid, the Congar Institute is ready to help! It is our mission!