Detroit — Auxiliary Bishop Arturo Cepeda shared the numbers that paint the future of the Church: Hispanics make up 60 percent of Catholics under the age of 18 in the United States. And of those 60 percent, 93 percent of them are born in the United States.

If demographics are destiny, the future of the Catholic Church will be considerably more Hispanic. That’s why pastors and parishioners gathered at Sacred Heart Major Seminary on Dec. 9 for V Encuentro, (the Fifth Encounter) an archdiocesan gathering of Hispanic ministry leaders to discuss the needs of the Hispanic community in the archdiocese.

In a setting reflective of the archdiocesan Synod 16 held 13 months prior, about 300 members from 16 predominantly Hispanic parishes and parishes with prominent Hispanic populations met to discuss the current state of affairs for the Hispanic Catholic community in southeast Michigan.

The initiative is part of the national V Encuentro process, which is being repeated in dioceses across the country. Next year, neighboring dioceses will gather for regional meetings before the national Encuentro in Grapevine, Texas, from Sept. 20-23, 2018.

Four previous Encuentros took place in 1972, 1977, 1985 and 2000.

“This process allows us to listen to one another, taking the voice from the grassroots, the parish life, and move it toward diocesan life, then to the regional life of the Church, then the national level,” Bishop Cepeda told The Michigan Catholic. “This process began last year, when we asked parishioners what areas they’re concerned about, and now we are discerning those areas and seeing where we can concentrate our resources.”

Topics discussed during the archdiocesan Encuentro included evangelization, family, youth and young adults, parish life, diversity, spirituality and immigration.

Encuentro participants were gathered into tables with representatives from different parishes to discuss each topic and proposals in each category and rank their importance.

“They are all important, but going through the process, family and parish life are at the top for me, but that’s me,” Bishop Cepeda said. “But that is the process of discernment. Once we do the tabulations, going through each one of them, we will begin to discern as an archdiocese. Once we finish the process, we’ll take these recommendations to the regional meeting, where two more areas will be identified, but it might not be the same in the region as it is in the archdiocese.”

The Archdiocese of Detroit will host the regional Encuentro in June, a sign of the importance of the Hispanic community in southeast Michigan.

A voice at the table

Antonio Guzman, recently named a part-time coordinator for Hispanic ministry in the Archdiocese of Detroit, shared with the conference what it means to accompany someone while evangelizing, a topic that relates to all Catholics, but resonates especially with young Hispanic Catholics, who were born in the United States but are immersed in Mexican culture.

“Today’s young adult Hispanics are bilingual and are able to build community with everyone,” Guzman said. “They’re outgoing people who’d like to learn more about their Church, the Catholic faith.”

Guzman said the archdiocese could assist young Hispanic Catholics in accompanying one other on the Christian journey by offering more resources geared toward young Hispanic Catholics, particularly in the young adult community.



“One of the challenges among the Hispanic community is we don’t have something to offer them, a program to gather,” Guzman said. “I think (young Hispanics) are willing to learn about their faith, open to experiencing new stuff. But most of the time, they don’t receive the information.”

Guzman added he and other young Hispanic Catholics feel a sense of hope that they have a voice at Encuentro a sign the Church wants hear them.

“The youth and young adults feel like they are being listened to, their hopes and opinions, and this is exciting because they count,” Guzman said.

Many of the issues shared by the Hispanic community reflect the issues and concerns of their English-speaking counterparts: building a strong parish life, ministry focused on strengthening the family and clergy in tune with the social needs of the community.

Salvador “Chavo” Aguinago, of St. Gabriel Parish in Detroit, said having many priests, along with Bishop Cepeda and Auxiliary Bishop Donald Hanchon, who celebrated the opening Mass, at the Encuentro was a sign to the Hispanic community the archdiocese is honest in its intention to connect with them.

“Today, seeing two bishops and some priests with us, there is a connection between the laity and the ordained, celebrating together,” Aguinago said. “There is a concern about how the bishops and the archdiocese can help us.”

Aguinago noted that many of the topics discussed at the Encuentro were discussed at Synod 16.

“This Encuentro relates to the synod because the archdiocese and the bishops have told us we’re not alone in evangelizing,” Aguinago said. “We’re facing the same issues many English-speaking parishes are facing.”

Building bridges

Aguinago said Hispanic Catholics in the Archdiocese of Detroit want greater solidarity with the English-speaking archdiocese, which is why he was excited Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron was concluding the Encuentro with a Mass on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament on Nov. 11.

“In Mexico, we are attached to some devotions, and to that point it means a lot to us the archbishop is celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” Aguinago said. “When we see the priests and the archbishop involving us in the community like this, it means a lot to us. We Catholics all have different devotions. For Polish Catholics, they have certain devotions, for the Irish they have others, for the Mexicans we have our own. But those can be bridges; the priests can be bridges to different cultures in the community.”

Karla Flores, coordinator of Hispanic ministries for the Archdiocese of Detroit, said the Encuentro was a three-fold event of evangelization, discernment and data-gathering.

“The Holy Spirit was there, gathering delegates to discern, and that was a success,” Flores said. “I think we were blessed with the delegates we had; many important things were discerned.”

The results from the voting are still being analyzed — and will eventually be presented to Archbishop Vigneron — but Flores said preliminary results show there is a real concern in the areas regarding family evangelization, more participation at the parish level, and immigration, a hot-button issue that overshadows much of Hispanic life in the United States.

“One of the main challenges we face in ministry is to make non-Hispanic communities aware of the Hispanic presence in the archdiocese,” Flores said. “One of the big challenges we have with that is the immigration situation. Many of our Hispanic Catholics don’t register at their parish. But they are there, they go to Sunday Mass and catechism. But because they aren’t registered, we don’t count them.”



Seeking solidarity

Not having all church-going families registered on the parish rolls, from fear of deportation or other reprisals from the legal system, means many Hispanic parishes could be underrepresented when it comes to sharing archdioceses resources.

But even more than resources, Flores said Hispanic Catholic want this Encuentro and the upcoming regional meeting to be a chance for Hispanic Catholics to tell their story in the Archdiocese of Detroit, and have their fellow Catholics empathize with a people who share the same faith.

“From the people I met at Encuentro, there seem to be two requests that come up,” Flores said. “One is that they can have some sympathy and empathy for the whole community for the situation they are going through. The other thing, the Archdiocese of Detroit can’t change immigration policy, but it can offer spiritual counseling and mental counseling because of the anxiety, depression and fear families are going through.

“We can’t change the law. But we can be in solidarity,” Flores said. “Family evangelization, strong parish life and priests who understand the culture — that is something everyone, English and Spanish speakers, can understand as we move forward, as we become that band of joyful, missionary disciples.”

A previous version of this story identified Antonio Guzman as the Associate Director of Hispanic Ministry for the Archdiocese of Detroit. Guzman is the part-time coordinator for Hispanic Ministry. The Michigan Catholic apologizes for the mistake.