Lay ecclesial ministry training prepares Catholic Hispanics

Friday, Nov. 25, 2016

SALT LAKE CITY — More than 60 Hispanic Catholics gathered at the Madeleine Choir School the weekend of Nov. 19 to attend a two-day session of the Spanish-language lay ecclesial ministry formation program known as EMAUS II.

‘Theology of the Ministries” was the title of the session, which was presented by Nelly Lorenzo, director of the Center for Pastoral Leadership and Catechist Formation in the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Lorenzo also has taught at Loyola University with an emphasis on the theologies emerging within the Hispanic/Latino community in the United States.

This was the first weekend-long formation session for the EMAUS II.

“I think that as big and important as we are in this nation, if we don’t get the right formation we are not going to be able to impact the structures that need to be impacted,” said Lorenzo about the importance of forming educated Hispanic lay ecclesiastic ministers in the United States.

Lorenzo highlighted that in order to have a Church that has representation from its communities, and is a welcoming place, it requires that the leaders are well prepared.

“Lay people have a very significant role in the life of the Church; this role requires being well formed, because it involves working hand in hand in collaboration with the priests,” said Lorenzo.

The consequence of this well-rounded formation is that the lay ecclesial ministers will have the right fundamentals to collaborate with priests and to guide the community, Lorenzo said.

She added that, despite the challenges and barriers that Hispanic Catholics may face in the U.S., “We are people of faith, and we need to help our ministers to channel the way of expressing that faith, since here we need to express it in ways that are different than the way we express it in our countries of origin.”

Lorenzo wants people to be sure of who they are, of “what you have and of what you can contribute to pass those barriers and in order to do that we need to have a well-rounded formation.”

The first group of Spanish-speaking lay ecclesial ministers in Utah was certified in 2014 along with the second cadre of English-speaking LEMs; the diocese certified its first LEMs in 2010.

Maria Cruz Gray, director of the diocesan Hispanic Ministry, said that since being certified, LEMs have participated in various parish ministries such as religious education and leading retreat. “Because they came from all over the state, not only from parishes but from missions such as Fillmore, Huntington and Heber, they have been very helpful to the diocese,” she said.

“Hispanic Catholics are people who like to share their testimonies, and this is making them become a very strong community. … This community is here to stay despite all the challenges; we just need to keep being faithful to the Gospel,” said Lorenzo.

The EMAUS II program is projected to be completed by the summer of 2019.