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Declaración de Misión del
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Apostolado Hispano de la
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Diócesis de Knoxville
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El 24 de octubre de 2020, la oficina del Apostolado Hispano de la Diócesis Knoxville organizó un Encuentro Diocesano con miembros de todas las parroquias que sirven a la comunidad Hispana. Juntos, los participantes desarrollaron propuestas para renovar la misión del Apostolado Hispano.
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Estamos contando con la participación de los miembros de nuestra comunidad en elegir la nueva misión del Apostolado Hispano. Para asegurar que todas las personas que voten estén bien informadas, hemos incluido un video que le recomendamos ver antes de emitir su voto. Este video presenta a los panelistas que participaron en el Encuentro Diocesano, quienes nos ayudaron a visualizar cómo la declaración de misión actual influye en su ministerio.
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Mission Statement
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Diocese of Knoxville Hispanic
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Ministry
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On October 24th, the Hispanic Ministry office of the Diocese of Knoxville hosted a Diocesan Encuentro with members of all parishes in the diocese that serve the Hispanic community. Together, the participants developed proposals to renew the mission of the Hispanic Ministry.
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We are counting on the participation of the members of our community in choosing the new mission of the Hispanic Ministry. To ensure that everyone who votes is well informed, we have included a summarized transcript that we recommend you read before casting your vote. This transcript is derived from featured panelists who were chosen to demonstrate at the Encuentro Diocesano how the current mission statement influences their ministry.
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Sister Maria Angelica López (Mexico)
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I’m Sister Maria Angelica López Rodríguez. I am a missionary of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Ad Gentes and I am working here in the 5 Rivers area at Notre Dame Parish in Greenville and in Mountain City, Tennessee.
I have been very drawn to the statement of the mission of the Hispanic Ministry “We, the Hispanic Catholic community of the Diocese of Knoxville, clothed in our faith.” This part of the clothed in our faith is acquired every day and we also feed it every day, each according to where we are working in our parishes.
I am very pleased to be able to share with you what family pastoral care is. It seems to me that it is very important to introduce accompaniment with what is family pastoral care, because there is integral formation, integral from the fulfilment of catechesis for children, young people, adults, and there are several aspects of pastoral family life.
My experience before the pandemic is to form catechists and accompany people. A comprehensive accompaniment. From motivating those who are in depression, from catechizing to the one who knows nothing, to the one who knows no God. Accompany and encourage, above all also encourage, the one who is disappointed and who does not want to continue.
During the pandemic I also think it is very important to continue accompanying. We must first nourish ourselves with God and the light of the Holy Spirit so that we can carry His message of hope to our brothers who are suffering. And if God has given us the opportunity to stand in front of or as leaders or as companions of any community we must do so. We must do it with love, with patience and accompany.
There are a lot of people who are out of work. A lot of people who are discouraged that they have no job, that they have to pay their bills, that they have no money… Accompany them also without discouraging them. To accompany them financially is to seek help… look for organizations that can help them pay their bills. So, for this it needs to be a comprehensive accompaniment.
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David Lopez (Guatemala)
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Good afternoon, my name is David Lopez, I am from the Minor Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.
We, the Hispanic Catholic community of the Diocese of Knoxville, clothed in our faith, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, declare as our mission statement: “To make and promote the integral growth, personal and as a community, of all members of the Hispanic community, creating leadership through organization, formation, and participation, to live our faith.” So, what we must do is to create leadership and remember that young people are worth a lot. Some of us that are older have the experience, but the younger generation has the strength to say “Christ king” Christ is with me, He gives us His grace and fulness of life.
It is important that young people are recognized as an essential part of the Church. For us to perform large tasks not only small ones.
I am working with an organization called Tennessee United and it is a pleasure to work for the church and those brothers who need it.
As Pope Francis says, we must go out there to the streets. As Christians, we must go beyond our comfort zone, beyond the areas of our parishes and go further to seek our brothers and sisters in need especially in times of pandemic.
We can evangelize so much in the church, but also from beyond where there are those that do not come to the church, do not go to Mass, and do not participate but we have to evangelize as the Lord commands his disciples to evangelize those who do not know the Word of God.
I believe that our mission is to go beyond our community. Each of you knows your parish and your community. But what a joy when we bring someone else who doesn’t participate, someone who we can walk with to meet Jesus Christ, because our mission is to make God’s people more numerous.
As catechists, consecrated sisters, and priests in all the areas that work in the church, we must listen to the young people and to those who need to be heard. After listening we must accompany them because sometimes the best expression of a person is to give them a hug, the best expression is to accompany them. Many times, it is not necessary to tell them God loves them when you are there, you represent the face of Christ, the perfume of Christ.
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Humberto Collazo (Puerto Rico)
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My name is Humberto Collazo, this is my wife Lucy Veles. When I read the mission, the central word I see is to evangelize, because all the activities we have there go around that process of evangelizing. From that command that Jesus gave us before he left, to his disciples, to his apostles, to us: “Go and teach everything I’ve taught you.” This is a call to evangelize, and as the mission states, all the activities revolve around evangelizing – Create leaders to help us evangelize; Share with these young people to evangelize them correctly. And show them the way of God.
We see how to evangelize the people who are within this church, the people who are outside this church. The people who are far from us. And that’s the word that becomes central. This process of evangelizing, to teach what Jesus taught us. It can be an evangelizing mission.
We, Lucy and I, have been in the community of St. Dominic for almost thirty years, and those thirty years we have known many people, and we have been part of many processes of evangelization. And it’s nice to remember that, and for us that’s what motivates us and I think it will motivate us in the future… not just us but this community, to continue to evangelize, leading these people on the path of Jesus.
We believe that the mission you have developed is perfect. It includes many, many things that are important, we cannot do everything at the same time. We must be consenting that each of those parts are important.
Each of us receives the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we are called to do something. Some will be leaders, some will be helpers, some will be teachers, but each of us receive those gifts and are called to that evangelizing mission, using those gifts that God gives us, the gifts of the Holy Ghost. And we pray that this mission can be successfully carried out.
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Lucy Collazo (Puerto Rico)
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I am very impressed by the statement of the ministry’s mission. I think it’s very complete because it encompasses everything we’re working on in this community here at Kingsport.
One of the parts we’re working on is the family. Because we are noticing that many families now come to church with their children… so we have to try to promote the participation of the father, the mother, and the children. We encourage the parents to be readers or Eucharistic ministers and promote that so then the children participate as altar servers.
We must also promote that they come to catechesis to grow in faith, not only children but also adults. That part of the mission also includes family education and promoting faith in the family, that seems to be one of the most important parts of this.
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Father Julian Cardona (Colombia)
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This process is very important, it is a process in which not only the hierarchy of the church has something to do, but all of us. In this action of the Holy Spirit which, as St Paul says, is responsible for uniting all the junctures of the body of Christ so that it may have unity and vitality.
It is beautiful to see the work of the laity, of the deacons, of the priests, of the bishops, of the Pope himself who is inviting us to go out to the peripheries and meet the people who are far away. It is beautiful to see that it is the whole body of Christ united, working under the action of the Holy Spirit.
And sister said something very important that I think is fundamental in a process of evangelization like this- it’s the focus on the family. Because in the family there are the husbands, in the family there are the parents, in the family there are children and young people, in the family are born the new lives for society, for the church for the world. If we evangelize the family, we will gain a great deal.
When evangelization is focused only on adults or young people, and the family is not used as a frame of reference, it is like doing a lot of work and not seeing many fruits.
We come from a model of evangelization in our centuries-old Hispanic families. And it was a model that for those times responded very well. When Mom and Dad, but especially Mom, in the family was the evangelizer, look what our families were like back then. Praying the rosary, frequenting Holy Mass. Couples lived the holy sacrament of marriage did not take lightly coming together or divorce whenever they wanted. Look at the values, look at the evangelical principles taught and lived in those families who lived a model of evangelization very much for that time and that had so many spiritual fruits, of which we ourselves have benefited as children, as grandchildren, etc.
I think that going back to the issue of evangelizing the family with new methods is going to be very important for us to have families like the ones we come from, families who have God at the center of their lives, who teach the faith, who live the faith, families who are ferments for other families in their neighborhoods, in their villages, in their cities, in the church. I think that’s very important, and that’s going to earn us a lot of ground.
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