Some women of the New Testament, and of today…

Jesus of Nazareth, his message, his deeds, in fact, his entire life, represents a break with the Old Testament as something absolutely new. With authority he was able to say: “It has been said, but I say unto you”. Because of that complete rupture and novelty, we speak of two distinct periods in the history of salvation: before Christ and after Christ and, therefore, of two testaments: the Old and the New Testament.

One aspect in which Jesus represents novelty is in the way he treated women, a treatment that included not only respect and consideration for the dignity of all women —in a society where women were worth little or nothing— but in the inclusion of women in the vocation, in following Jesus, in discipleship and in the evangelistic and missionary task of the Church in the world.

We have very little record of the deeds and words of the public ministry of Jesus. Only a portion of the life and work of Jesus has come down to us. As John the Evangelist says, The books that could be written to narrate the wonderful and novel work done by God through Jesus Christ would fill the world. Yet the few testimonies that we have in the writings of the New Testament concerning his public ministry are enough for us to understand the role that God in Jesus Christ and in the entire history of salvation assigned to women. That role is central, important, principal, equal, just, and worthy.

It is sufficient to reflect today on the key role that Mary has in the history of salvation. In God’s revelation and in the history and life of the church, Mary is not and could not be considered and experienced as simply a feminine touch in a masculine institution. Mary is, to the contrary, a central element and spindle in the revelation of the Triune God and in his saving plan. Her generous and faithful intervention, her availability and glad surrender in the incarnation gives to us the gift of Jesus of Nazareth and by Him, with Him and in Him the Father is revealed to us; we know him and we rejoice in his power and his love, his historical presence and his saving plan, that is, his humanizing plan for every man and woman who comes into this world, for “those who have seen Him have seen the Father.”

As the Council Fathers said in Vatican II: “By the grace of Jesus Christ is clarified the life of man, and of all men. In Him are found the answers to our longing for happiness, our deepest searching, our greatest desires, our hopes, our struggles and failures, our falls and our rising again, all our life and all our death. He is our Way and our Truth. He is the light of all men and of all peoples. He is the Bread who gives us life, and not just any life, but abundant life, eternal life, full life, joyful life, saving life, healing life, liberating life.”

And all this, thanks to the humble young lady of Nazareth, the one who joyfully lived to always and fully do the will of God. Thus we call her “blessed among all women and blessed the fruit of her womb…”, the woman and mother “poor in Spirit” who today, as with those invited to the wedding in Cana, counsels and asks us to always do what Jesus says and requests of us.

Yet, in the Gospels we find other women who, like Mary, stand out in the ministry of Jesus. We remember, for example, the foreign woman , the Canaanite, (Mat 15,21-28), who with her response of faith took beyond the limits of Israel the benefits of God’s salvation in Christ, and with her answer embraced God’s favor in Jesus, since “strangers also eat the crumbs that fall from the table of the owners”. Thus, as an outsider she became a model of a believing woman for the Christian and ecclesial community for all time.

Today, as in that day, the church exalts the faith of believing women and with Jesus we say “Woman… women, what great faith you have; may all your desires be fulfilled”.

We also remember Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Mary the mother of James (Lk 24,1-11), the women who, with their perfumed spices, accompanied the body of Jesus to the tomb and were later witnesses, bearers, messengers, missionaries and participants in the record of the origins of Christianity. The fundamental message of our faith and our Christian hope given and committed to them resounds today in the world and in our hearts, and now for twenty centuries: “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen”.

There is another Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, the one who, with the anointing of Jesus in Bethany (Jn 12), prefigured and inspired the later washing of the feet of the apostles by Jesus, (Jn 13,1-20), another gesture that traces and affirms God’s love for men, and between men, until the final consequences.

Another important woman in the Gospel is the Samaritan, the one who at the well accepted the challenge to be a missionary of the Messiah and his Good News among her people. The Samaritan through whom many among her people believed in Jesus (Jn 4).

They are without number in the New Testament, especially in the Gospels and in Paul’s writings, women who were disciples of Jesus and who with their generous surrender assisted and contributed to the preaching and expansion of the gospel throughout the known world. We find an example of that in Lydia of Thyatira (Acts 16), who was converted by Paul’s preaching, and who with her deeds also became a model of faith and hospitality.

Today you are those women, women of Christ, those who are meeting here to renew your faith and your and your commitment toward the evangelistic task of the Church. Christ the Eucharist gives us the strength to live and to overcome. Christ nourishes us so that we continue to be committed to the task of building better families, better communities, better parishes, a better society. May the women of the Bible lift your hearts and encourage you in the daily task of building a world that is more human and, therefore, more divine. For that better world, the new world, more just and equitable, more fraternal and human, implies that women have the role and the charge that Jesus gave them yesterday and forever.

What Makes Us Happy?: Balancing Success and Salvation

Published in the January 2011 issue of Liguorian magazine.

The financial crisis that began in the United States in 2008 reveals, above all, the deception experienced by men and women today when it comes to their sense of happiness. Happiness, they think, is defined by worldly success. Beyond its leading to the collapse of business and finance, this deception brings to light the collapse of moral values relating to happiness and worldly success.

For decades we experienced great and rapid growth in the economy, in science, and in technology, but this success came without concern for human beings and their communities. While we have made great strides in technology and science, we have not grown morally or spiritually. We built what seemed a more successful society, but we did so without regard to making both society and ourselves truly better. And when what we built led to financial disaster, it highlighted the underlying human disaster in seeking success instead of true happiness.

Society in transition

In 2011, we find our society in transition. We are moving from the modern age, which was inspired by the ideal of unlimited progress, to the postmodern age as we recognize the failure of progress to deliver what it promised. For centuries, successful societies grew, spurred on by the earthly hope that they could end human suffering and create a perfectly just world. But as we’ve discovered, this ideal of progress was unable to remedy the great evils of humanity such as hunger, inequity, and injustice. Instead, it generated new evils such as war, the arms race, and dire poverty.

Seeing this failure, something changed in the human spirit. Beginning in the mid-twentieth century, a vision of the world as a cemetery of the earlier hopes of progress was born. If there is no future for people of our times, it has been said, then there is little point in working for progress—particularly for progress that has only ever failed. And this is where we find ourselves today. Contemporary thinking proposes replacing the older quest for worldly progress with the search for worldly success—and all but disregards the quest for true happiness.

Misconceptions of today’s world

Some say the only thing that counts as success or happiness is pleasure gained from whatever is quick and easy and appeals to our senses. Among other tendencies of our time, this leads us to a vision of happiness in which there is no place for anything other than pleasure. Pain, suffering, old age, and loneliness—human experiences that can lead to growth—as well as the difficult yet joyful experiences of solidarity, commitment, and serving others have no place in today’s world. In our search for happiness, we have failed to integrate the very human experience of suffering and hardship into our understanding of daily life. The experience of anything difficult or unpleasant has been set against the view of success and happiness as originating from pleasure. To achieve immediate pleasure—which is understood as happiness—any measure is valid.

A denial of that less enjoyable yet meaningful side of life leaves us depressed and anxious when we face hardship. In the midst of so many ways of life from which to choose, we have no sense of direction and no way of understanding how we could be happy even in the midst of suffering.

So in recent times we have been concerned ultimately with success that we believe will make us happy. We have occupied ourselves with building all that is powerful and globalized and with accumulating material goods for our pleasure, but we have forgotten about human beings in the process.

This is reflected in today’s disparate ideas of success. For a minority of privileged persons in the world, success means greater comfort, luxury, and extravagance. For millions of the poor, success means having only the most elementary conditions for subsistence: water, food, shelter, and clothing. This is our failure. And as we have failed to resolve the great problems of humanity, we have also failed to fill people’s emptiness and their longing for meaning and purpose amidst the struggle to succeed. We have failed to build a more just world, and we have failed to develop people who are truly and profoundly human, who live with a sense of community, and who seek true happiness.

Even the media remind us daily that success is not necessarily synonymous with happiness. Achievements do not always coincide with happiness, and those who are quite wealthy and successful by social standards often wind up being the least satisfied with life. In our world we find successful people who are quite unhappy; we also find many who are unsuccessful but very happy.

So what is true success? How are we to judge if we are really happy?

Christian view of happiness

Human beings have been defined by people of philosophy and people of faith as seekers of happiness. Our search for happiness is an unending task that often causes constant dissatisfaction. We long for happiness and are not satisfied until we find it. Saint Augustine taught that the desire for happiness in the human heart is really a desire for God. As Christians, we can trust that our longing for happiness will be satisfied by the saving person of Christ and by the saving gospel he proclaims.

We confess Jesus of Nazareth as our savior. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the Light of the world. These are more than just statements of belief; for us, his disciples, they should reveal the happiness for which we long. Jesus is our true source of happiness, and our success in this life is measured only by our life in him.

Jesus’ proposal for our lives consists of recognizing God as our compassionate and merciful Creator and Father. In living as God’s children—and in doing the Father’s will—we are to love one another as brothers and sisters and build God’s kingdom in the world. As Christians, we are to prove daily, in each of our lives, that this life of Christ in us calls us to build a new and better world. We are called to reveal to others that the life of a child of God—filled with humble obedience, hope, and joyful confidence in the goodness of our Father in heaven—brings us happiness. We are called to demonstrate that a life of love, of service, of forgiveness, and of solidarity with our neighbors saves us and makes us happy. We are called to live each day with life in Christ as the true measure of our earthly success and of our eternal happiness.

It is not always easy to follow this call, not always easy to see our true source of happiness in Christ. As people living in the world, we still see a distinction between the happiness that comes from salvation and the happiness the world offers. We see that all people desire happiness, long for true happiness in Christ, but do not know how to obtain it. Christians, too, often see our quest for the happiness of salvation as separate from our quest for earthly success and happiness. This indicates that the Church, in its work of evangelism, has not yet fully revealed the union between the happiness every human desires and the happiness that comes from the salvation offered to all in Christ.

Life in Christ

It is the responsibility of the Church and of each Christian disciple to demonstrate—through what we believe and through what we practice—that Christ saves us. Or to say it in another way, Christ makes us happy, he gives us abundant life, new life, full life, eternal life, for which we long. Christ leads us to measure our success as persons only against the true happiness we have obtained through faith in him.

If the way in which we live our daily lives does not make this message clear, then the Church’s proclamation of salvation becomes one that no one understands or finds convincing. Moreover, if such a proclamation is clothed in the customs and language of past ages, the message of true happiness becomes one that is easily ignored. We must vigorously proclaim this “good news” in each and every place we live and work.

As Christians, we believe that Christ saves us, he makes us happy. We believe that the question of the rich young man who asks Jesus what he should do to obtain eternal life (happiness) is our eternal question as well. We also believe that Jesus’ answer to the rich young man responds to our human questions today. To find happiness, we must love and serve others, especially the most needy. (See Mt 19:16–21.)

Therefore life in Christ—as God’s children and as brothers and sisters—is necessary for every person who seeks happiness. In the resurrection of Christ we confess the triumph of good, of justice, of mercy, and of life beyond death. Through Christ, we know that God wants us to have life—and not just any kind of life, but life that is abundantly happy and truly successful, life that springs from the new commandment of love and calls us to serve one another just as God himself has loved and served us. (See Jn 10:10; 13:34.)

All are called

The time has come to find the pathway that was lost on our search for happiness. The time has come to find ourselves again, to rediscover our true purpose in bringing to life the best of human and community values. Those of us who follow the Judeo-Christian tradition can return to the Word of God, which reveals to us God’s criteria of success—criteria that do not always coincide with our own. This same Word reminds us that happy are those who place their confidence in God and who administer everything they have to help the weakest and most needy.

Finally, whether one is a believer or not, all of us have in our nature, in our creaturely being, profoundly human tendencies—which are also profoundly divine—that lead us to desire friendship with all of humanity. All experience the call to more noble, more excellent, more sublime human values that bring happiness to our daily lives and help build a better world in which true success and authentic happiness are available and accessible to all.

Mario Paredes is presidential liaison for Catholic ministry at American Bible Society. As founder and director of the Northeast Hispanic Catholic Center, he published the Lectionary for Spanish speakers in the United States.

Today our Savior has been born

The Gospels of Matthew and Luke contain the so-called “infancy accounts” of Jesus and, in them, the account of his birth. At Christmas time, as this year of 2010 comes to an end (corresponding to the Liturgical Cycle A), we will celebrate at midnight the solemn liturgy of the birth of Jesus Christ with the Luke account: Luke 2,1-14.

In order to contemplate the depth and the details contained in the sense and message of the account of Jesus’ birth in the Gospel of Luke, we should keep the following in mind:

• Luke’s Gospel is the first part of a larger work that includes a second volume: the book of the Acts of the Apostles.



• Luke’s Gospel is directed to the early Christian communities of Syria, Greece or Asia Minor characterized as communities and people who were extremely poor.



• The definitive form of the third Gospel, as we know it, dates approximately from the year 80 A.D. and is considered to be the work of Luke, who was a missionary companion of Paul, with a background in the Greek language, culture and formation.



• The Gospel of Luke places much emphasis on God’s profound love for all men and, especially, for the poorest, those lacking shelter, marginalized, disabled, and needy.



• Luke uses the title “Lord” in reference to Jesus, not only following the resurrection, but also as regards his mortal life. For the communities he addressed, in which reverence was given to the Roman emperor, this fact had special significance.

For Mark, as well as for Paul, authors of the earliest books of the New Testament (the same as for John), the birth of Jesus, as all good news of salvation (gospel), is the mystery of a God who becomes human through the mystery of Jesus crucified and his sacrifice, offering with this to all men and women of good will the possibility of a new way of living and being present in the world.
Without denying this truth, Luke places in the crib of the infant Jesus much of the centrality of the saving mystery for Christians and presents in a fresh way the message that the Church is the depository and messenger: that, through Jesus, God makes himself present among men, entering into human history, and is united with us so that we might become like he is and be one with him.

The account of Jesus’ birth in Luke has such theological emphases as the following:

• All the messianic prophecies so full of significance have in the Luke account and in their fulfillment an unexpected completion and realization because of the simplicity and paucity surrounding their occurrence: revealed to a few shepherds, resting in a feed trough, etc.


• It leads us to Bethlehem: the small town of the messianic promises of Israel. And as an expression and confession of faith that in Jesus all the messianic promises of the Old Testament are fulfilled in the child born in Bethlehem of Judea.


• The birth is rooted in human history: the political history of Rome, which is the political history of the known world, which stands —with the order of enrolment for the census— at the service of the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies in Jesus. As a member of a profane state in this world the child is born under the authority of Caesar Augustus.


• The child is born abandoned and alone, separated from the “grandiose” pathways and criteria of the earth’s history: in the feed trough of animals.


• The term first-born does not imply the existence of younger siblings but rather refers to Jesus’ legal situation.


• The message of the child’s birth does not come from earth. This great truth is God’s initiative and, on his behalf the angel breaks the silence of the night, of the heavens and the earth, to proclaim the best and greatest news that the earth and men have ever heard: “Today is born unto you a Savior” (2,11).


• The child just born is the Messiah, the Lord, of the lineage of David. In Luke the announcement carries great strength; it is the good news of the birth of the “Soter”, the Savior that in the Israelite experience is called “Messiah” and in the Greek, “Kyrios”: Lord. Savior or, with the same sense, the one who offers us eternal life, abundant life, the happiness that we all seek.


• The Luke’s message is directed to “you”: to the shepherds, to those who are marginalized on the earth, to those who are unseen and in remote places, to those who are far away and to those who —like the child himself— have no place to call home, no shelter or roof over their head in men’s cities, for those who are unaware of the matters of worship and the law, to those of dark deeds, to the unclean, those who are undesirable, the nobodies. To them and with them and through them, to all the small people and the despised of the earth.


• It is a message that breaks away from all the patterns and criteria of ostentation and arrogance, of pride and greatness of the world: “you will find him lying in a manger”.


• The angel’s announcement: “Today in the city of David is born to you a Savior, the Messiah, the Lord” paraphrases the scheme and the formal and official manner in which were made the announcements of the birth of those destined to be emperors.


• “Today”: With this birth the Old Testament is concluded and a new stage breaks through in the manifestation, the relation and the salvation of God among men through this child, “wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger”.


• The good news is, from now on, “for all people to be free from fear and to rejoice”.

All of this merits from us “Glory to God…”.

Hope and thankfulness…

Just as in other years, this 24th of November we celebrate Thanksgiving day in the United States. The observance of this day reminds us of the encounter between two cultures on North American soil: European culture and the indigenous North American culture. The classical and obvious nature of this commemoration can veil the importance of the message transmitted in this holiday: GIVING THANKS, BEING GRATEFUL.

In this transition from modern society to post-modernity, where we are inundated by science, technology, the power and pride produced by money and arms, we can easily lose the ability to be grateful, which can also mean losing the ability to be happy. Happy is the man who by opening his senses to all that is and all that surrounds him, who by contemplating the daily miracle and the marvels that fill human existence, is able to be grateful for everything as a gift, something unearned.

Today we run the risk of believing that what we have and can achieve is due to our ability to acquire, to buy, to negotiate, to earn, to struggle and thus obtain. All this veils the reality of human life as a free gift. To give thanks implies to contemplate, admire; it implies the ability to be amazed; but it also implies, in consequence, the responsibility to build human community in which everyone ―not just a few― sense the motive and opportunity to give thanks always, and not just on Thanksgiving Day.

In the paradox that is humanity, in those complex and multiple dimensions that constitute and define our mystery, as both angel and beast, that is to say, capable of enormous evil and of great heroism, an event has united all men and women in these days, from around the world: the rescue of thirty three Chilean miners trapped in their work place. An occurrence that combined the attention and news coverage, second by second, by the most important communication media in the world, and which, in order to carry out their plan, were able to count on the assistance of the best science and technology for such a situation, with a sense of solidarity and prayers on the part of everyone.

The name of the encampment at the site of the entrance to the mine: HOPE [ESPERANZA], describes in the best way what the event means for humanity at this juncture of so many changes, convulsions, contradictions, needs, urgencies of every type and in every place on earth.

The successful rescue of the thirty three miners, thanks to the joint effort of everyone involved, speaks to us of the greatness of which the human being is capable when the best of our humanity is released to reveal the depth of divinity: the image of God the Creator in His creation. It also reminds us of the significance of hope, even when ―as the apostle said― the motive to continue to hope is absent.

More than that, the rescued miners, their families, the entire nation of Chile and everyone who followed the event from the time of the accident until its happy culmination have expressed THANKSGIVING TO GOD the Giver of life, from whom is derived all that is beautiful, good, noble and perfect.

Why is it that the rescue of thirty three Chilean miners and one Bolivian so deeply moved the vast human family? It was because ―bombarded by wars, hunger, administrative corruption, immorality of all kinds, walls of isolation, terrorism, fraud and economic crisis, etc. ―for so long humanity has not known such an example of human nobility that lifts the dignity of the entire human race.

This tragedy with its happy ending has brought together an extraordinary legend with which we can all identify because in everyone there is an innate, natural and creaturely heartbeat: the divine tendency toward life, liberty, justice, greatness, nobility. The Atacama Desert in Chile is today a sign and symbol of what can be done through unity, prayer, hope, gratitude and the best of human instinct.

Prior to this historical milestone no one dreamed that in these times of cultural relativism, individualism, pragmatism and hedonism such as ours, someone could write of an event that lacks nothing when compared with the great stories of heroes of ancient times. One of the miners said: “I was face to face with God and the devil and I struggled. God gave me victory, I took hold of the best hand offered me and never doubted that God was going to get me out…”. In the end, the head of the rescue operations was the one the miners recognized on their T-shirts with the phrase that we cannot forget: “Thank you, Lord!”

Therefore, on this day of THANKSGIVING we can say as a family: “We give thanks to God, thanks to the miners and to Chile for reminding us of the sublime nobility of belonging to the human race, the greatness of being human and the dignity of being children of God, brothers together on all occasions”.

The Hispanic Presence in the United States

The term “Hispanic” was coined by the federal government in the census of the year 1970 and refers to persons born in a Spanish-speaking country in the Americas or those who have their ancestral origins in Spain or in Spanish-speaking territories. The term Hispanic is an ambiguous but necessary term referring to linguistic races or groups of people.

September 15 was chosen because on that date five Latin American nations celebrate their independence: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua; and also because Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence on the 16th and the 18th of September, respectively.

The Hispanic presence in the United States and their cultural and social legacy go back to times prior to the foundation of the settlement in Plymouth in the year 1620. On that date, Santa Fe was celebrating its first decade and Saint Augustíne, in Florida, was celebrating the 55th anniversary of its founding. The Hispanic settlements extended into the Southwestern territory of the United States, along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and in Florida. 10% of the Hispanics currently resident in the United States relate their ancestral roots to those dates, occurrences and settlements.

The Puerto Rican population in this nation merits special mention. Puerto Ricans did not migrate to the United States. They were absorbed during the American expansion toward the end of the Nineteenth Century and later received American citizenship in 1917. Later on, the economic depression and two world wars forced many Puerto Ricans to leave the island in search of better opportunities in the United States. The current status of Puerto Rico as a free Associated State still is cause for some confusion both within and beyond the Puerto Rican community and results in indefinition concerning the status and nationality of the Puerto Ricans, who are viewed by Anglo North Americans as Hispanics, whereas they are often perceived by other Hispanics as simply North Americans.

The Cubans are also an exception to the migratory rule. Most Cubans reached the United States as political exiles following the implantation of the Communist regime of Fidel Castro in the island. Currently, more than two million Cubans reside in the United States. Among the Hispanic communities, they stand out since many of them have superior education and a greater capacity for economic productivity. The city of Miami has been enormously influenced and transformed by the Cuban presence. Their contribution has been felt in the political, cultural and academic environment of the United States.

Today, Hispanics constitute the largest minority in the North American nation (above both the Afro-Americans and the native Americans) and they contribute to the enormous social and cultural diversity of the United States through their cultural heritage in the fields of the arts, foods, music, etc., as well as their invaluable participation in the economic life as essential elements in the work force and in the general progress.

In 1950, the Hispanic presence in the United States was less than four million residents. By July 1, 2009, the population with Hispanic origins present in the United States, according to the National Bureau of Census had risen to 48.4 million; making up 16% of the total population, in addition to the four million Hispanic residents on the island of Puerto Rico. Nearly 50% of the Hispanics in the United States have their origin in Mexico. The remaining 50% come from different countries of the American continent, such as: El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Colombia. 36% of the Hispanics in the United States live in California. Several states have a Hispanic population greater than a million. These are: Texas, Illinois, Florida and New York. In other words, after Mexico, with its 111 million inhabitants, the Hispanics resident in the United States amount to, in number, the second largest Hispanic nation in the American continent.

In the political field, there are 9.7 million voters of Hispanic origin, and in the United States Congress there are two Hispanic Senators and 34 Representatives. Among the fifty states of the American Union there is one Hispanic governor in the state of New Mexico and the number of Hispanic mayors of North American cities is greater than twenty. In addition, 1.1 million Hispanics are veterans of the armed forces, one of the nine life-long justices of the Supreme Court is of Spanish origin and three ministers of the current federal government are also of Hispanic origin.

All this statistical data gives us a panoramic idea of the growth, in both quality and quantity, of the presence of Hispanic communities within the territory of the United States. One of the reasons for the rapid growth of the Hispanic community is the massive immigration that has occurred over the last two decades. Another factor is the rate of birth of the Hispanics, much higher than that of the average North American.

The rapid growth in numbers speaks for itself concerning the magnitude and importance, especially in recent times, of the phenomenon of the Hispanic presence and its effect on the United States. The weight of these numbers should be reason enough to modify the state of things within the North American society as regards the current Hispanic communities. However, the situation of the Hispanic population in the United States, in general terms, has worsened. The national debate concerning migratory laws brings to light the prejudice, discrimination, ill treatment and racism that are latent, and not always discrete or tacit.

In this panoramic view of the Hispanic presence, the Catholic Church in the United States has played an important role since the 1950s with the phenomena of migrations in general, and of the Hispanic migration to the United States in particular, as the greatest challenge to its task of evangelism, as well as pastoral and missionary responsibility, due to which was founded the first office to serve immigrants of Hispanic origin in the Archdiocese of San Antonio, Texas. At the beginning of the 1970s, the Episcopal Conference established a national office to respond to the needs of Hispanic Catholics. In the year 1970, Msgr Patricio Flores, of San Antonio, Texas, was named the first Hispanic bishop in modern times. From that occasion to the present time, the number of bishops of Hispanic origin has risen to 43. Currently, Msgr Jose Gomez, coadjutant archbishop of Los Ángeles, is the Hispanic prelate of highest rank in the church in the United States since the Archdiocese of Los Angeles is the largest Archbishopric in the country.

The Catholic Church has sought to meet the challenge of its responsibility as “Mother” that shelters and accompanies Spanish-speaking immigrants through the difficult process of uprooting and adaptation implied in all migrations. Valiant efforts have been made by the Catholic Church, as forerunner and pioneer, in the heart of the Hispanic communities, to integrate them and help them to feel that they are an important part of the Catholic Church in the United States, inviting them into fellowship. Evidence of these efforts is seen in the convocations to the three large national consultations. The first, carried out in 1972, under the name of the First National Hispanic Pastoral Encounter. The second, in 1977, was called the Second National Encounter and the third, in 1985, entitled the Third National Encounter. The Church has organized and sponsored other historical Hispanic consultations and celebrations, such as the one carried out in the celebration of the year 2000, a year of Jubilee. Throughout the country, the Spanish-speaking world has offices dedicated to Hispanic ministry in over a hundred dioceses. There are also regional offices, pastoral institutes, language schools, etc. And we should not fail to mention the fact that today, in all the important Episcopal offices of the country, a pastor (parish or bishop) is requested to not ignore the Hispanic presence and to learn to speak the language of Cervantes in order to insert himself, preside and carry out pastoral gestures and tasks to accompany and nourish this new and rich Hispanic presence within the heart of the Catholic Church and in the North American society. In this way, priests of Irish or Italian origin, as well as those with other ethnic roots, working in the United States, have given us an example with their learning of Spanish in order to attend the Spanish-speaking Catholic immigrants.

For decades, the Catholic Church —sacrament of God's mercy revealed in Christ for the world— has struggled, shoulder to shoulder, together with the rural peasants of this nation, to reclaim their civil rights; it has become the voice of those who have no voice for undocumented immigrants and has expended great efforts to educate the children of immigrants in the parish schools. In the urban centers (especially in the ghettos) that have suffered long periods of decadence and desolation, and where all hope has been abandoned, only the church has remained with its temples, priests, schools and social services.

The Church in Spain in the past has sent more than 1,500 priests of Spanish origin to do missionary work in various dioceses in the country and every year the number of Hispanic priests increases, integrated into the clergy of the Catholic Church in the United States to attend more effectively to the pastoral needs of the Hispanic community. In addition, the number of vocations to the priesthood and religious orders among Hispanics born in this nation is slowly growing, which means that the seminaries today are training a significant number of Hispanic candidates for the priesthood. Last year the Catholic Church in the United States ordained over 150 priests of Hispanic origin.

Today, the Catholic Church in the United States faces a new reality: multi-culturalism, generating a new profile, presenting new and enormous pastoral challenges and demanding new and audacious answers for the evangelistic task in the variety of cultures. Until a few decades ago, the Catholic Church in this nation was of white European origin. Today, 40% of the Catholics in the United States are of Hispanic origin, and within a very few years, the Hispanic Catholic community will represent half of Catholicism in the country. This means that the face of the church on North American soil has changed and will continue to change, due to the strong migratory waves from Latin America, as well as from Africa and Asia. To respond in the most adequate way to these changes and challenges an office has been created that is dedicated to investigate the cultural diversity of the Church, under the oversight of the Episcopal Conference of the United States.

With the passing of time and the accelerated growth of the migratory phenomenon, especially Hispanic, to the United States, the Church is being renewed, and is seeking and discovering new answers to serve the world of immigrants and these new communities that are anchored in the heart of the Church. Among the many answers that the Church is formulating, proposing and developing we find, for example, the creation of universities for Spanish-speaking persons, such as the Mexican American Catholic College, in San Antonio, Texas and other educational centers at the superior level, established especially to serve the Spanish-speaking world. In addition, other ecclesial initiatives are emerging like pastoral centers, leadership schools, Bible study centers, etc. Publishing houses are increasingly preparing bi-lingual or Spanish publications and, in the teaching field, curricula are being created for Catholic schools or programs of religious education for Hispanics. The number of apostolic Hispanic movements is growing, as well as new organizations and associations with Hispanic characteristics.

One of these new organizations, founded by Archbishop Jose Gomez, is the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders (CALL). It was established to bring together professionals of Hispanic origin in the United States. The Church has developed a huge task among the poor, immigrants, marginalized and —due to the pressure to urgently attend to their material and social needs— has pastorally forgotten or abandoned the growing and robust presence of professionals of Hispanic origin in the United States: lawyers, physicians, accountants, professors, business men, etc. who are not identified or brought together by the Church, its pastors and its pastoral programs. Msgr Jose Gomez saw the need to reach this professional community that can contribute their talents and experience to change the tone of the public debate on Hispanic matters in the United States, for which CALL was born to be an association of professionals at the service of the Catholic Church with its teachings, in conjunction with the college of bishops in the United States and those in authority, in complete loyalty to the Holy See and to Peter's successor.

As with all historical development, this new migratory process of the Hispanic world toward the United States faces challenges within the same community or Hispanic communities, and on the outside innumerable difficulties among current events. Integration —which is not assimilation— of the Hispanic community in society, with the North American culture and with the Catholic Church in the United States faces great challenges, both inside and out, and presents both lights and shadows. The lights are seen in the warm openness of some sectors of society and of the Church in the United States toward Hispanics and the great contribution that the work of this Hispanic community has done and is doing for the progress and development of the nation. The shadows, on the other hand, have to do with xenophobic attitudes and rejection by some segments of the population that seek to explain the current social and economic crisis as if caused by the immigration policies, and in the difficulty of integrating with what is properly North American experienced by some Hispanic groups. In the midst of these difficulties, the Church can play a very important role if it lives, preaches and gives testimony to its characteristic of catholicity, that is, its universality as the foundation and destiny of humanity: treating all as equals in the dignity of being children of God called to live in evangelical fraternity.
The Hispanic community, in large measure, is responsible in the process of involvement suffered by the Hispanic migratory phenomenon at this time in the heart of North American society. We have not learned to use the tools of the North American social and governmental system for our legitimate benefit. Due to the lack of Hispanic unity and leadership for the greatest and most noble causes, we have not organized structures that effectively support the highest aspirations of the great Hispanic majorities. We have not learned to form coalitions with other groups that exercise power in the nation. The lesson left to us by the recent past is obvious: if we want to enter into the national debate as equals, we need to modify the strategy followed until now. Hispanic leadership in the political arena, with honorable exceptions, has given us very little of the arts, the public service, generosity, and concern for the common good, and therefore has little evidence to exhibit.

We urgently need a migratory reformation. There are millions of Hispanic brothers living in infrahuman conditions and in the shadows, exploited, persecuted and fearful. All of which contradicts the most elementary Christian principles and values upon which the North American nation and society were founded.

The Hispanic and Catholic presence in the United States is an injection of new energy, youth, vitality, enthusiasm, and faith. The parish temples in the neighborhoods with a Hispanic profile are filled with the attendance of the faithful, and the celebration of their faith and of the sacraments by them is extraordinary. While in the neighborhoods and the cities which lack the presence of immigrants, the communities of faith are growing old and religious practice tends to disappear, in the sectors having a Hispanic population, the vitality of the Church is growing beyond measure. Hispanics have brought to the United States an unusual religious fervor. The Catholic faith of the Hispanics, with all the baggage of popular religion and marked by the stereotype of the early evangelization in the American continent, is benefitting the United States today while enriching and renewing the Catholic Church in this nation.

Reflections on the Bicentennial

As of last year, Latin American countries, among them Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Paraguay and Venezuela, are celebrating their bicentennial independence.

On these dates commemorating the Bicentennial of Independence of some of the Latin American countries, Doctor Guzman M. Carriquiry Lecour from the Pontifical Council of the Laity presents us with some considerations on the subject. I join him in this task of expression concerning the past, which sheds light on the present and opens to us a more hopeful future.

When speaking of independence, philosophy in general, as well as the philosophy and theology of Latin American liberation in particular, we are reminded that freedom or liberty from something (whatever yoke or opression), in order to be complete and humanizing, requires that the liberating task be carried out in liberty for something: that is to say, that the task of independence must include a vision for the present and the future, according to which both individuals and peoples who are freed from bondage should find the resources, opportunities, possibilities, and the space/time framework in order to achieve the full realization of their human dignity. Without this projection of liberty for something, individuals and peoples are not truly free, except in the limited sense that they are no longer dying of hunger, which cannot be justly and properly called independence or liberty.

On the other hand, we cannot ignore that the historical account; that is, the way in which the history of our peoples has been recounted until the present day, has always been a political, social and religious instrument of manipulation that serves to legitimize both the past and present of our peoples, but which should also serve to show the illegitimate, to unmask, to denounce and not to validate all the injustice and inhumanity occurring in the history of our nations, so as to open new and better pathways. For neither in life nor in knowledge can postures be “apolitical” (aseptic, disinterested, dispassionate, free from prejudice). And such postures do not exist because the human element, both protagonist and historian, is always conditioned by the multitude of circumstances and conditions that make up its context. All of which demands, when facing the texts (representing all human action), a permanent posture of “scientific suspicion” that consists in searching, investigating, examining, discerning, delving into the ultimate sources and causes.

Therefore, the recounting of history is not only important for remembering what has happened in the past, but especially to contribute to the construction of a better future, moving from our present situation. For history is not only the recounting of past occurrences but also, and especially, it serves as an awareness that we are making history personally and collectively with deeds and words, with gestures and attitudes, both in that which is spectacular but especially in that which is common and the anonymity of fulfilling our responsibilities, all of which contributes to the humanizing of both individuals and peoples.

Thus, considering our own involvement in the account of our independence history, and now the bicentennial anniversary, it is proper to criticize, for example, the great revolution for independence that “freed” us from the Spanish yoke, but which promptly oppressed the great mass of Latin American peoples under the domination of the elite criollos, equally or more exclusive and racist than the former ones, even up to the present time. For if there is a common characteristic that constitutes the Latin American identity, it is that of a history (and its recounting) of dependence: whether during three centuries of Spanish and Portuguese colonization, the semi-colonial English domination in the nineteenth century or the current North American neo-colonial century. Such a history of domination and oppression (with causes that are both endogenous and exogenous) carries in its bosom the search for autonomy and independence. For dependence, as a historical constant, demands again and again its counterpart: liberation, autonomy, liberty, independence, the achievement of self-identity.

It is impossible to hide the fact that serious underlying social problems over two centuries prior to the patriotic dates that today we celebrate, continue to be unaltered, radicalized, deepened, made worse. Thus, we have suffered for more than two hundred years very serious and complex social problems such as discrimination, poverty, illiteracy, injustice and inequality as regards access to resources, and social and governmental opportunities, administrative corruption, violence in a thousand ways, injustice with a thousand different faces, etc.

History is not responsible for this, it does not make this happen; individuals are not writing history in solitude. History and its recounting is a collective task of peoples and nations. However, we were taught and we continue teaching a historical account in which the people are strangers to the historical construction, so that they see from afar and with reverence some unreachable super heroes, who cannot be imitated in their deeds, which —on the other hand, and in what is the responsibility of leadership exercised by some of its heroes— needs to be recognized and appreciated.

Because of this reality, it is not surprising that major sectors of our Latin American population, robbed, overrun and impoverished for two centuries, without opportunities for their independence, consider offensive the celebratory terms in which today these dates are remembered, without failing to value the anthropological need of individuals and people for symbols, rites, spaces and times that identify historical markers. Impoverished and marginalized multitudes in our continent wonder what we are celebrating, what independence, whose independence and the purpose of independence.

The dates of 1810, 1811 or 1819, etc., cannot be allowed to become human myths, the dates in which everything began. Because the historic processes (whether for independence or not), just as with every human process, require time, decades, centuries… Thus it is more important to say that we want to build communities, peoples, free and sovereign nations; and that every day of our life we should be dedicated to providing deeds, words, attitudes and work for the long awaited and illusory independence and liberty.

Yet there are still questions of greater importance and significance: Is it legitimate to speak of Latin America and of Latin American nations as national, sovereign, autonomous, independent projects? Is our identity that of nations or regional cultures? What awareness of identity, of belonging and of nationhood do we have? The very expression “Latin America” seems discriminatory since it only takes into account the language of the conquering cultures in the process of expansion and conquest, leaving aside the group of native languages and dialects such as nahuatl, aymará, quechua, etc. Not to mention the danger that today confronts the legitimacy of the so-called “official” languages due to the North American cultural penetration that is overwhelming, especially through publicity, anglicisms, idiomatic expressions, etc.

The fact is that in the very elements that make up what we call “our” Latin American culture (whether linguistic, religious, techno-economic, geographic, etc.), there resides in all of them, intrinsically, the characteristic dependence imposed by the dominant culture of the times in our continent and nations. Therefore, there is no linguistic homogeneity even in the Spanish language (which is not ours originally), since not all the peoples specifically speak Spanish, French, or Portuguese. Nor is there such linguistic homogeneity among the aboriginal peoples that populated these lands thousands of years before the arrival of the Spaniards or Portuguese.

The Catholic religion, dominant and imposed in the heat of the Spanish conquest and colonization, has provided a certain homogeneity to the cultural beliefs; yet syncretism persists or “the religion of silence”, which has given rise to the now famous expression “popular religiosity”. And as with the language and beliefs, historical dependence flows through the Latin American heart and culture.

Latin America exists. It exists as a tri-ethnic cultural peculiarity, (Indian, black, white) a culturally enriched mix, especially over the most recent century, due to the many waves of migrants that arrived here from every corner of the earth, heir to the powers that have dominated them, even when this has not resulted in the total disappearance of their own cultural roots. Precisely, thanks to their ethnic and cultural roots, Latin America is different and unique as compared to the dominant ethnic groups: European, Amerindian or North American.

Our cultural identity does not consist, then, of a singular and uniform comprehension and according to an a priori model, but rather of a unity in plurality, in a culture of cultures. Latin America, we can say, therefore, is something new, where the everyday reality implies the eternal longing to be itself, not someone else, to be free and independent for our full realization as persons and as peoples. This marvelous patchwork of regions, cultures and origins that is Latin America, out of honesty and respect for so many differences, so much diversity, asks us to reevaluate the terms in which we recount our history, or speak of the bicentennial, and get into our “celebration”.

Therefore, perhaps it is proper to speak of Latin America and of its nations as cultural entities in the measure in which we identify ourselves, share and enjoy a certain food, a certain musical rhythm, a certain accent, certain symbols… It becomes more problematical to speak of countries, nations with historical awareness and with projects that are shared, democratic, free, autonomous and sovereign.

Moreover, the task, the daily commitment to be more free and independent is written upon the heart of God's plan of salvation in biblical and Christian tradition. A tradition that has accompanied and conformed, over five centuries, our vision and historical task as faithful Catholics and as Latin Americans. A freedom desired by God from the time of the crossing of the Red Sea until the victory over every trace of domination, injustice, evil, violence and death in Jesus' tomb.

Finally, beyond celebration, we should reflect upon the personal and community commitment, the responsibility, the historical, social, religious, political and cultural vindications, that reveal to us as individuals and as peoples that not only vote and pay taxes, but are living, active and democratic communities that participate in the historical and collective construction of independence and freedom as human expression.

Today, the critical task in facing the statu quo is also important. The critical task that, against the uniformity and unanimity of a statist vision in which those who govern cover themselves under the cloak of the interests of the state or the nation in order to hide their deficiencies and crimes, provides new horizons, makes possible other visions, other worldviews, other points of view.

This is the time for other emphases, for new measures and new historical accounts. The time to retake and share great dreams like Bolivar's dream of a free and sovereign Latin American integration.

2010 Vatican Forum

During the 2010 Easter week, the Catholic Association of Latino Leaders (CALL) had the privilege to organize an official visit the Vatican with the purpose to establish an ongoing dialogue between the various office of the Vatican and the Hispanic American Catholic leadership in the U.S. A delegation of 24 members of CALL participated in a week-long dialogue session.

CALL held a visit each day with the heads of the various Vatican congregations and pontifical councils. On the occasion of this visit CALL was privileged to host a formal dinner at Domus Santae Marthae in the Vatican in honor of the US Ambassador Dr. Miguel H. Diaz together where all of the American prelates serving in the Vatican were invited to join.

The highlight of the visit was the attendance of the Papal Audience where CALL was publicly acknowledge by Pope Benedict XVI.