Hi. The cold is coming! It has been in the 20s these past mornings in the mountains. The leaves are changing colors and falling. Green is turning to yellow, orange, red and brown. And the sun is out: it is crisp and beautiful. October is such an energizing month. Summer is definitely over! And winter is just around the corner and it is a beautiful time to be alive!
Now let me share some of the things that I have been doing this month. One of my main activities has been to help “jump start” the Hispanic community in those parishes where either they didn’t exist or where it needed to grow more. I have been working especially in two parishes: St. Barnabas (San Bernabe) in Arden and St. Joan of Arc in Candor.
St. Barnabas didn’t have an Hispanic community. So from the very beginning I began to work in a team together with the Pastor, Fr. Dean Cesa, a Diocesan priest, Antonio Garcia, the Vicariate Coordinator for Hispanic Ministry and a small “welcoming committee”
of mostly English speaking “Anglo” parishioners. The first goal was to start with a weekly Sunday Spanish Mass. The welcoming committee made fliers and put them up in the key areas of the parish. Antonio helped them to get together with some Hispanics to organize the different ministries for the new Mass, including a choir. Fr. Dean has limited use of Spanish; he can “read” the Mass, but he can’t speak the language yet. So I was asked to celebrate 3 out of the 4 monthly Masses. This would give the pastor time to get accustomed to dealing with the Hispanic community little by little. We agreed to evaluate all this after 6 months. At that time he will probably take 2 of the 4 Masses for the following 6 months. My job description is not to become a “pastor” for the Hispanics, but to help the existing pastors to reach out to their own Hispanics. We started the Mass round the middle of August, and at last Sunday’s Mass we had over 180 people present. This is a very good beginning. The next step is to reach out to more people and invite them to be part of the community. Two activities will certainly help for this: (1) Start a bilingual faith formation program before the Spanish Mass and (2) start preparing for the celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
St. Joan of Arc is different. This was probably the first parish to have a Spanish Mass. A new church building was just constructed quite a distance from the old one, and very few Hispanics were coming back. The Pastor, Fr. John Pagel, a Diocesan priest, asked me to help him out. His Spanish is really pretty good, but he has someone read his homilies. So I help celebrate the Mass every other Saturday night; he celebrates when I don’t. I have started out the training of catechists with my bilingual catechism (“Catecismo en Comunidad”) and many new families have come to church. Practically everyone - except the choir- is new to the parish. They have a lot of enthusiasm, And having catechism before Mass is helping to make the community a “family-orientated” one. I train their 4 catechists every 2 weeks.
This photo shows some catechists from St. Joan of Arc and from St. Eugene. (This latter parish pioneered the bilingual catechism and they are now working in trailer parks and with childrens’ communities.)From October 7 till October 11 I directed a retreat for the Hispanic Coordinators of the Diocese at a Franciscan Retreat Center above Winston-Salem along the Virginia border. It was a wonderful time to renew ourselves in the Spirit. I was surprised to see that the majority of them have had some contact with Ignatian Spirituality and that they very much like it. While I was at the retreat, Antonio went to a meeting with the sheriff that we had very much promoted together with some of the local Hispanic organizations. Over 500 people attended, but the Sheriff of Bucombe County (where Asheville is) nevertheless signed a law where his police would now work as immigration agents. This has sent fear throughout the communities.
This is a sad time for the Hispanics in North Carolina. At the priests’ Vicariate meeting, we agreed to go to a meeting with all the clergy of the city to see what can be done. We are also planning a November workshop (both in English and Spanish) in each parish. We will be training the ones who will give this workshop in early November.
I have to say that having Ricardo Greeley SJ here in the diocese has been a double blessing for me: besides being a good friend and support, he brings a lot of experience with organizing. He has a passion for social justice and all the immigration issues, and his presence has helped all the Hispanic coordinators out.
Some other things that I have been up to: I now have had 2 meetings with the “core group” of Campus Ministry at UNC at Asheville. We began the journey of the Spiritual Exercices (19th Annotation). I am very impressed by them and by their director. I went to Maggie Valley in the Smoky Mountains Vicariate to celebrate a Mass for a Diocesan organized Gay and Lesbian Retreat. It was a very moving experience, and I was very privileged to be with them. I would do it anytime again. I am finishing up the Confirmation program for Hispanic youth at St. Eugene. Next Sunday they will be confirmed by the bishop. There are only 11 of them, but I am so happy that practically all of them are now in youth groups and participate in parish ministries. I have also helped out in the other parishes of the Vicariate.
But my main work -and passion- has been to write another book (which is in process). After the Ignatian Spirituality Conference at Fairfield University this past June, 3 “Ignatian Companions” of St. Peter’s (our Jesuit parish downtown Charlotte) and myself have gotten together each month to write a “booklet” on how to adapt Ignatian Spirituality to concrete and diverse needs. I am quite excited about this, and I will share our work with you next month. Until then, God bless.
Fr. Bill Ameche, SJ wameche@earthlink.net
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