Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta.
About The Georgia bulletin (Atlanta) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 4, 1990)
PAGE 7 — The Georgia Bulletin, Janaury 4, 1990 Hispanic Presence is Gift And Challenge (Continued from page 1) counties of the archdiocese also have their Spanish speaking communities. Various factors continue to generate this constant exodus from Latin America. Among them are grinding poverty on a massive scale; galloping inflation which lessens the value of already meager wages and raises the cost of living; an ongoing process of urbanization drawing large numbers of rural people to overcrowded cities with millions living in in adequate housing and a high incidence of illiteracy in some nations because of an insufficient number of teachers and schools. Immense numbers of Latin American people suffer from malnutrition with a correspondingly high rate of infant mortality. In some areas escalating violence has taken thousands of lives. Many countries have double-digit unemployment and underemployment figures: the continu ing flight out of Latin America of capital investment and of professional people, both drastically needed, has resulted in a tragic slowdown in the construction of the industrial in frastructure indispensable for broad-based economic development. Fleeing the misery and hardship of these conditions in their native lands, many Central and South Americans come to this country with the same hope for a better life for themselves and their families that brought people here from all parts of Europe and Asia for centuries. The adequate pastoral care and service of this rapidly growing Hispanic population in Atlanta and north Georgia constitutes a great challenge to the archdiocese, and calls for the renewed commitment of its priests, Religious and laity to serve selflessly, courageously and creatively these brothers and sisters flocking to our cities, towns and com munities, Pastoral resources for service of and outreach to our Spanish-speaking sisters and brothers are extremely limited, as are most pastoral resources in our archdiocese, and the demands are enormous. In spite of this, vibrant pastoral programs in Spanish flourish in some of our w metropolitan parishes and in several rural parishes, w Pastoral outreach to a scattered Hispanic presence in some g rural areas where there is no resident Catholic priest or ” church is often limited and infrequent. It is my hope to ad- ® dress this growing need, and the entire Hispanic Apostolate 3 in several ways: 1) By encouraging all our priests and seminarians of the archdicoese to learn the Spanish language and to develop a greater familiarity with Hispanic culture. 2) By inviting Religious men and women to come to Atlanta specificially to work in the Hispanic Apostolate. 3) By encouraging and promoting vocations within the Hispanic community. 4) By seeking out and developing new sources of funding for ministry in the Spanish-speaking community, and 5) By encouraging all our people in the archdiocese to support this effort with their prayers and sacrifices. Because of historical factors in Latin America, a con siderable number of our Hispanic brothers and sisters ar rive among us with limited exposure to formal evangeliza tion. Most have had little instruction in their home country, having come from remote villages, ranches or rural com munities where pastoral ministers rarely, if ever, visit. Here m Georgia these sisters and brothers in the faith are FESTIVAL — Proud father and his little daughter wear garb from their native Colombia in this photo taken at the Hispanic Festival at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in 1989. at times the target of an aggressive proselytism and are in serious jeopardy of being separated from their ancient rightful heritage within the Catholic Church. Our respon sibility as the Church of north Georgia is to provide an hospitable and supportive atmosphere in which our Hispanic sisters and brothers can nourish and deepen their faith while celebrating it in a culturally familiar environ ment. It is our vocation and our duty as fellow Catholic Chris tians, concerned pastors, Religious and laity to welcome warmly, sensitively and generously our Spanish-speaking brothers and sisters into our communities, to invite them with respect and charity to our parish liturgies and other events, and, when possible, to facilitate for them the oppor tunity to hear God’s Word and celebrate the liturgy in their own language. At the same time, we should recognize the gifts they bring to our community and to our individual parishes. They come with a long tradition of Roman Catholicism, culture, art, artifact and music. They bring with them a respect for all generations in the family, a celebratory spirit in worship and community, and a heart sensitive to the needy. By welcoming our Spanish-speaking neighbors, we enrich ourselves and strengthen the fabric of our culture, our na tion, and our Church. We could well learn from the sad experience of thousands of Irish immigrants who came to our region in the last cen tury. Unlike their countrymen who came to other parts of this nation along with their native priests and Religious, the Irish immigrants who came to Georgia, for the most part, neither brought nor found here Catholic clergy to minister to their needs. The result was that in a single generation, many were lost to the Catholic faith. We must work and we must pray that this tragic loss of faith not be repeated in the case of our Hispanic sisters and brothers. This Hispanic presence in the archdiocese challenges us to creative, courageous, and sensitive loving service. Love is the “band of perfection,” it is the sign we are sincere followers of Jesus! "In this shall all know that you are My disciples if you love one another.” (John 13: 35) Yahweh has constantly shown a very special love for the poor, the oppressed, the .weakest members of the human family. God continually pleaded the cause of the alien and stranger, who was in a particularly vulnerable situation among the Jewish people: “You shall treat the aliens, strangers who reside with you no differently than the natives born among you. Have the same love for them as for yourselves, for you too were once aliens, strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Leviticus 19:33-34) Our pastoral solicitude for Hispanics should not be our only concern. Because of particular factors, Hispanics may be especially vulnerable to discrimination, abuse, and in justice. As fellow Christians, we must be concerned that Hispanics are not victims of inadequate housing, unjust wages, unsafe and unhealthy working conditions, substand ard educational opportunities, insufficient police protec tion, or of any discriminatory practices. When necessary, the Catholic parish community should strive to correct un just conditions and practices and courageously, creatively, and perseveringly labor to bring about a transformation. I had wanted to share these thoughts about the enriching presence of our Hispanic sisters and brothers among us on the occasion of this beautiful feast of Our Lady of Guadelupe, the patroness of the Americas. Our Lady ap peared as the Virgin Morenita, as an Indian princess, con versing in Nahuatl, the native language of the vanquished, with exquisite tenderness and respect, as she addressed the poor humble’Juan Diego. Mary visited a conquered, disheartened people in the critical moment of their com plete defeat and the ultimate destruction of their culture and way of life. She symbolized and was God’s privileged instrument in effecting an encounter of two different worlds. May Mary, God’s bridge between Spaniard and Indian, also create one community of her son’s disciples — American and Hispanic — a loving community of warm welcome, deep respect and selfless service. January 4, 1990 ■/-/^> t<L $ ^14'1‘Z'U'n-O Archbishop of Atlanta One Victim An American Sister Two Nuns Are Killed, Bishop Injured In Nicaragua WASHINGTON (CNS) — Two nuns, one of them an American, were killed and an American bishop wounded Jan. 1 when U.S.-backed rebels fired on a vehicle they were driving in northeast Nicaragua. The nun was identified as Sister Maureen Courtney, 40, of the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Agnes of Fond du Lac, Wis. She was a native of Wisconsin. No other information was immediately available. The Nicaraguan nun was identified as Sister Teresa Rosales, also a Sister of St. Agnes. Wisconsin-born Auxiliary Bishop Paul Schmitz, 46, of the Apostolic Vicariate of Bluefields, Nicaragua, was injured in the attack. The bishop, a member of the Capuchin order from Fond du Lac, was shot in the arm, according to news reports, but no other details on his condition were available. Cecilia Lopez of the Nicaraguan Embassy in Washington told Catholic News Service that the bishop was taken to a hospital close to where the attack occurred, but he was to be transferred to a hospital in Managua. Also injured in the attack was a nun identified as Sister Francisca Estrada. Ms. Lopez said arrangements were being made to return the body of Sister Courtney to the United States. The attack occurred on a road near Puerto Cabezas, 200 miles northeast of Managua. Details of the attack were sketchy, but the Nicaraguan government blamed contra rebels. , Bishop Schmitz was ordained a priest in 1970 by the apostolic vicar of Bluefields, Bishop Salvator Schlaefer, also a U.S.-born Capuchin missionary. The vicariate is located on Nicaragua’s Atlantic coast, an area where there has been much tension between the Miskito Indian population and the government over its ef forts to relocate the Indians. Some of the Indians have join ed guerrilla groups fighting the government. Bishop Schmitz has been living in Nicaragua since 1970. He was superior of the Capuchins living in Nicaragua from 1978 to 1982. From 1982 until 1984 when he was named aux iliary bishop, he served as vice provincial of the Capuchin Vice Province of Central America, which has its head quarters in Managua.
