Hispanic Pastoral Partnership
“Through this partnership, we seek to prepare, inspire, and encourage pastoral leaders within our Hispanic community forming disciples who are evangelized and who evangelize, strengthened by the liturgy, and committed to justice and human development.” —Bishop Daniel Thomas of Toledo, Ohio
by Patrick Keyes, C.Ss.R.
Fr. Joaquin Fraustro, Provincial Superior of the Province of Mexico, and his Vicar, Fr. Roberto Morales, met with Bishop Daniel Thomas of Toledo in Ohio—not Spain—on September 4 to sign a 10-month Hispanic Pastoral Partnership Agreement. Fr. Patrick Keyes and Fr. Mike Diemer, Director of the Diocese of Toledo’s Office of Hispanic Ministry, also were present.
More than a year ago, the Diocese of Toledo contacted Fr. Jerome Chavarria, North American Conference Coordinator, asking the Redemptorists to help with the local Spanish-speaking community. The request came at the suggestion of Fr. David Walsh, now bishop of Davenport. Fr. Walsh was ordained a Redemptorist priest of the Baltimore Province, but within a few years he returned home and was incardinated into the Diocese of Toledo. Fr. Walsh had convinced the diocese that they just didn’t need more Spanish-speaking priests, but rather a Redemptorist evangelization mission for the community.
The Diocese of Toledo is a largely rural area in the northwest corner of the state of Ohio. The Spanish-speaking community is made up primarily of farmworkers who hold temporary agricultural visas and a large group of people who work in other related industries and now live full time in the U.S. Nine churches in the diocese offer Mass in Spanish. The Redemptorists visited the diocese twice and met with many people in the area before submitting an evangelization plan.
We will have three centers in the diocese: Wauseon in the northwest; Willard in the northeast; and Lima (our own St. Gerard Parish) in the south-central part of the diocese. Three of us Aaron Moreno, Roberto Morales and I will rotate, spending a month at a time in the diocese. Each month we will offer a two-week leadership training course by zoom and host a day-long retreat in each one of the three centers, as well as a penance service and an anointing of the sick service. We also will celebrate Sunday Mass in each of the three communities.
During the day we will visit people in their homes, celebrate Mass in the migrant camps and be available for confession or spiritual guidance. In December, we will preach a novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe; we will be in the three centers during Holy Week; and we will end the mission with a novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help in the three centers in June.
The mission will end in June to coincide with the Redemptorists of Baltimore returning St. Gerard Parish in Lima to the diocese. We do not plan on offering regular pastoral care; each of the parishes currently has an arrangement with someone who celebrates the Mass in Spanish. During our visits, we noticed that there is great demand for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The diocesan priests who celebrate the liturgy are limited in language skills. Although they offer confessions, the people are looking for someone who can understand them in their native tongue.
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