By Ricardo Izquierdo
Director, Office of Hispanic Ministry
I was born in Colombia, and I am now an American citizen. I am proud of both of those facts, but my primary identity does not come from either of these countries. It comes from my baptism, from my belonging to the family of God, “who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20)
It is through that lens that I look at the efforts of our diocese to spiritually minister to the immigrants in its territory. There are human issues of policies and laws that matter, and about which faithful Catholics can disagree, but we must agree on our call to evangelize non-believers and provide for the spiritual nourishment of believers. In our diocese, Hispanics make up the largest group of Catholic immigrants, followed by the Vietnamese and people from other nations.
That is why the Diocese of Lincoln invests much of its most precious resource – its priests – into Hispanic ministry. As the stewards of the sacraments, they are the connection between the people, and the principal vehicles for grace that God has given us. We have 12 priests actively involved in Spanish work, and our seminarians have the expectation to at least be able to celebrate the Mass in Spanish by the time of their priestly ordination. Even if priests are not in a parish with specific Hispanic ministry, they can be of great assistance in coverage for the priests who are.
I don’t fail to see the irony in American priests having to go out of their way to learn a foreign language to minister in their own country. It is going above and beyond, in my opinion, but it shows the missionary charity that is present in the priests, seminarians, and in the hierarchy of the diocese.
Perhaps the second key resource we have is our Catholic schools. Both I and my brother, who is set to be ordained a transitional deacon in May, give a lot of the credit for our spiritual lives and discernment to our experiences in the Catholic schools of this diocese. The orthodoxy, affordability, and the involvement of clergy and religious make our schools special.
So I have been meeting with members of the diocesan education office, as well as with Katie Ostgren, our diocesan director of development who has spearheaded the recent rebranding of our Catholic schools, to engage a couple of issues that could help make our schools more ready and welcoming to Hispanics, although solutions to these problems could be used to facilitate enrollment of immigrant children of any culture.
The first and perhaps the most obvious is the language barrier. After surveying our principals, we find that about half of the Catholic schools have a Spanish liaison, and about half are full-time employees. Could it be better? Sure, but it’s a process of discernment considering Catholic schools don’t have the same resources as public schools. It’s also up to Hispanic families to let their own Catholic identity inform their choice of sending their children to Catholic schools: if it matters to them, they should also put forth the effort. That would show parishes and school administrators that having language and cultural resources is worth it.
We are also working on making it easier for families to apply for the Good Shepherd Scholarship, which is designed to ease the financial burden for families to attend our schools. Some Hispanic parents aren’t comfortable with technology, or with sharing personal information, so we will have registration nights at schools and parishes to help solve that problem.
But any human efforts can achieve very little compared to those blessed by supernatural grace, so I ask that you pray for our clergy, seminarians, religious, school administrators, and families who are discerning whether to make the sacrifice to send their children to Catholic schools.
