2006 Encuentro Encuentro Logo

Encuentro: Weaving Together the Future

Twentythree hundred delegates gathered for the First National Hispanic Youth and Youth Adult Ministry Encounter at the University of Notre Dame held June 8-11, 2006. Catholic News Service covered the major keynote addresses.

Bishop D'Arcy, Fort Wayne, IN welcomes Encuentro

Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Mercy Sister Maria Elena Gonzalez, president of the Mexican American Cultural Center in San Antonio

Auxiliary Bishop Jaime Soto, Orange, CA

Learn more about the Encuentro process:

National Catholic Newtork de Pastoral Juvenil Hispana (La Red)

The 2006 Enceuntro Process posted on the NFCYM website

Background

Since the census of 2000, the Catholic church and many of it’s organizations have worried as to the increased number of Hispanic young people in the U.S. Questions that arise are such as, do we have in place the resources, trained personnel, models, and processes that will engage these young people in the U.S. Catholic Church. They come from Mexico, the Caribbean, Central and South America and into the U.S. as Catholics. They are looking for a better tomorrow and are doing something about it today. Farm workers, professionals, and workers of all kinds come for a future that will bring prosperity in their lives as well as for all of the family back where they came from. Most of them are very young and are looking toward the church as a means and way of hanging on to life itself.

The numbers speak for themselves: in less than five years this group of young Hispanic persons will be the majority of the Catholic Church. We are talking about 18 to 20 million young persons between the ages of 9 through 28 years. La Red, together with it’s many member organizations, brought to the Bishops Committee on Hispanic Affairs and the Sub Committee on Youth and youth adults a proposal to forward our Initiative. It provides a possible framework for bringing together many organizations to make this group, young Catholic Hispanic youth and young adults, a priority in all programs and evangelization efforts in our church.

Through many discussions with these organizations and groups, La Red has proposed the big question: how do we hear from the young people to see what is needed?

Challenge and Commitment

The challenge and commitment of ministering among Hispanic young people in a culturally diverse church in the United States is a challenge that we, as church, believe needs to be undertaken. As stated by the bishops: “Adolescents today are growing up in a culturally diverse society. The perceived image of the United States has shifted from a melting pot to a multihued tapestry.” Youth and young adult ministry in this context need to focus "on a specialized ministry to youth of particular racial and ethnic cultures" while it "promotes mutual awareness among all youth." (Renewing the Vision: A Framework for Youth Ministry, page 22)

The bishops of the United States highlight this two-fold commitment to unity in diversity when they say that "Ministry in the twenty-first century requires the commitment to welcome and foster the cultural identity of the many faces in the Church while building a profoundly Catholic and culturally diverse identity." (Encuentro & Mission #36)

In this same document the bishops call all Catholics, and specifically the leadership in Hispanic and youth and young adult ministry, to work together in developing ministerial models that respond to the specific reality of Hispanic Catholic young people in the context of a culturally diverse society. (Encuentro & Mission #70).

Learn More about the Encuentro Goal, Objectives, Process, and Schedule

Contact Information

For any questions and more information about the Encuentro Process, please contact the following members of the La Red Board of Directors: