Diocesan Pastoral Congress: St. Francis Xavier Parish
KEARNS – More than 120 Hispanic parishioners from St. Francis Xavier Parish in Kearns arrived at 8 a.m. in the parish gym to participate in the 2021 Pastoral Congress of the Diocese of Salt Lake City. A handful of other parishioners gathered in the St. Francis Xavier School library to attend the Pastoral Congress presentation in English.
The parish catechist leaders, in conjunction with their pastor, Father Eugenio Yarce, and the diocesan Office of Hispanic Ministry worked intensively to gather the parish community together so they could participate in the Pastoral Congress.
This year the Pastoral Congress presentations were prerecorded videos, which made the effort a very scary one, said Rafael Castillo, one of the parish leaders.
Other leaders who manned the registration table, served breakfast and lunch to participants, figured out the technology required to project the videos to larger audiences, and guided the worship service were Laura Castillo, Elizabeth Willing, Maria Zapata, Francisca Olguin and Catalina Beristain.
“This is a great opportunity to share with our community and with our parish leaders,” said Fr. Yarce joyfully as he saw all the parishioners pouring into the gym.
The parish leaders “have done a lot for our community; they work with a lot of joy and much is done for our community,” said Fr. Yarce as the parish Hispanic choir sang worship songs.
Castillo then thanked everyone present at the Congress; this was followed by a prayer by Fr. Yarce. Afterward, a video of Bishop Oscar A. Solis greeting and welcoming everyone to the Congress was shown (see the landing page for the text of the bishop’s message). Then the participants heard Fr. Sergio Serrano’s presentation, “The Ministry of the Catechist.”
The English presentation, “Leadership in the Pandemic Church,” was given by Brother Loughlan Sofield.
This was the first year that each parish was asked to host its own Pastoral Congress. In the past, one event was held at St. John the Baptist Parish in Draper, where the entire Catholic community gathered to hear keynote addresses and live presentations by a variety of speakers.
“I appreciate the opportunity that our bishop has given us for each parish to do it this way,” Fr. Yarce said.
For the event, those present followed social distancing requirements and wore face masks because of the pandemic.
“Due to the pandemic, we have this great privilege of being here today,” said Dina Carrasco, one of the parishioners. “It is very important to reignite our faith.”
Catalina Beristain shared that feeling. Attending the Pastoral Congress was important, she said, because “there are a lot of people who need a lot of information. … We all have our faith, but sometimes we need to reinforce it; sometimes we don’t know” about information like that presented by Fr. Serrano.
“This retreat helps people to reinvigorate, to find that motivation that maybe was dead. … We want our faith to be alive. Here today we are nourishing our souls,” Beristain said.
“People need to be motivated and the congress provided that motivation,” she added. “Sometimes people have to reach a severe point in their lives to say, ‘Lord, here I am,’ and that shouldn’t be like that. ... We are all invited to not lose our faith in Jesus; instead, we have to be sure that he is the Way, the Truth. God calls us and when we have our heart open, we get close to him.”
The Pastoral Congress was a moment to commit more to service, Francisca Olguin said.
“Life is full of challenges, but if we keep on going with joy in the Lord we can make anything possible,” she added.
This year’s Pastoral Congress was the first time that all the parish groups and ministries joined forces to attend a Pastoral Congress, and turnout was higher than in the past. Rafael Castillo said that in the past when the Pastoral Congresses were in person about 20 representatives from the parish attended.
“For me it has been a blessing,” Castillo said. “God has proven to us that when we do things for him, everything always works. … He is always manifesting in our lives.”
The Pastoral Congress was “a moment to commit ourselves more to the service to our Church and to the People of God,” he added.
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