March 22, 2002
The Catholic News & Herald 7
From the
New Hispanic pastoral plan in the
By KEVIN E. MURRAY Associate Editor HICKORY — Before one can minister to a community, one must understand the needs of that community. Approximately 30 Hispanic community members from the Hickory, Asheville and Hendersonville areas and diocesan leaders met to offer input on a new Diocese of Charlotte Hispanic pastoral plan at St. Aloysius Church March 14. It was the first of five area meetings over the next two months to help shape the plan to be implemented within the next three years. “We met to prioritize the ideas brought up in the meeting on January 30,” said Sister Andrea Inkrott, O.S.F., director of Hispanic ministry, who is coordinating the meetings. The January meeting, held at the Catholic Conference Center in Hickory, was arranged for coordinators of Hispanic ministry, social service personnel and vicars forane to discuss pastoral, health and human services to the growing number of Spanish-speaking persons in the Diocese of Charlotte. The plan will be an updated and diocese-focused version of three previous national Hispanic pastoral plans — “The Hispanic Presence: Challenge and Commitment” (1983); “Prophetic Voices” (1986); and “The National Pastoral Plan” (1988) — developed by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Photo by Kevin E. Murray
Sister Andrea Inkrott, O.S.F., director of Hispanic ministry for the Diocese of Charlotte, works with Hispanic community members during the first of five meetings to critique and develop a new Hispanic pastoral plan for the diocese at St. Aloysius Church March 14. “We came up with a lot of ideas,” said Sister Andrea. “We had a small task force of volunteers that worked hard to put those ideas into four categories. We worked on those categories tonight.” “They (the task force) did a good job of bringing the info to us tonight,” said Jesuit Father Frank Reeves of Sacred Heart Mission in Burnsville, who had participated in the original January meeting. “They didn’t lose what we did there in Hickory.”
The four categories were evangelization, missionary option, team ministry and formation. Each had numerous subcategories such as: offering liturgies in Spanish where there are none; offering diaconate formation programs in Spanish; and raising the awareness of the Hispanic communities’ needs. “It’s been a hard and tiring process, but it is very important what we’re doing here tonight,” said Eduardo Bernal, Hispanic coordinator for the western vicariates. “If we don’t know where we’re going, we’ll end up where we don’t want to go.” The meeting’s participants broke off into groups and rated the subcategories in order of importance to each individual. Then the groups tallied and reported the results to Sister Andrea and Bernal. “Everyone was participating,” said Sister Andrea. “People said it was a productive meeting. That’s what I was hoping for.” Sister Andrea noted that the differences in the category ratings given by
the groups were minor. “What was important to one was important to others,” said Sister Andrea. “And by and large, the priorities of the Hispanics were the same as those of the Anglos at the meeting,” said Sister Andrea. “One of the objectives of the meeting was to see if everyone was in the same mindset,” said Bernal. “We saw that — everyone was voting the same way.” Once all of the meetings are finished in April, the task force will review the responses and formulate a preliminary plan, which will be critiqued again in another series of community meetings. Once the final information is collected, it will go before the bishop for approval of the new Hispanic pastoral plan. “I think this is an excellent methodology,” said Father Reeves. “We’ve taken a firm second step in the process,” said Paul Kotlowski, diocesan director of youth ministry. “We’ve got good footing.” Contact Associate Editor Kevin E. Murray by calling (704) 370-3334 or e-mail kemurray@charlottediocese.org.