THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, September 16, 1996 TAG: 9609160038
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 114 lines
Those lawmakers and others who would deny immigrants a place in America are gently pointed to the Christmas tree by Father Roberto Gloisten.
Without German immigrants, the Catholic priest says, American Christians would be without one of their favorite holiday emblems. Hispanic immigrants, and their Christian traditions, he continues, should likewise be welcomed by America.
Hampton Roads has one of the fastest-growing Hispanic populations in the state, church leaders said. Gloisten estimates Hampton Roads' Hispanic population to be between 20,000 and 30,000, many of them Catholic.
While politicians talk tough on immigration policy, the Catholic church has spread welcoming arms. The Catholic diocese of Richmond, which includes Hampton Roads, opened a Hispanic apostolate - an office for Hispanic ministry - in Richmond on Sept. 3.
A Hispanic festival was held last weekend at Holy Family Church in Virginia Beach. A third Hampton Roads site for regular Mass in Spanish opened Sunday in Newport News. And St. Gregory's in Virginia Beach hosted a dance in honor of Mexican independence this past weekend.
The new efforts on state and national levels show the church's determination to be prepared for its own projections that, within a few decades, a majority of Catholics in the United States will be Hispanic.
All this is welcomed by Hampton Roads' Hispanic community, but there is also a sense that it's about time the church did more for one of its largest constituencies.
``I think there was a long overdue need for an Hispanic center,'' said Augusto Ratti-Angulo, who publishes the bilingual newspaper, El Eco de Virginia, from a Norfolk office. ``You can see why the bishop has such an eagerness to implement things for Latinos, because that's who they are serving. And we welcome that, because we really need it.''
The recent emphasis on ministering to Hispanics is nothing new to the Hispanic Apostolate of Tidewater, which has operated in Virginia Beach for 23 years. It assists the area's large military and migrant worker populations with spiritual and social needs. With the opening of the diocese office in Richmond, the apostolate's work will be coordinated with migrant ministries on the Eastern Shore and in south-central Virginia and with the Hispanic ministry in Harrisonburg.
``Any immigrants or foreigners need to be welcomed,'' Gloisten said. ``The Hispanic apostolate is a way that our American church welcomes a new immigrant group. Especially now, when there's such an anti-foreign phobia here, it's far more important that we realize if we go back a generation, it was our turn to be foreigners.''
Catholicism came to Latin America with Spanish missionaries who arrived shortly after Columbus' voyage in 1492. While Catholicism is still the main religion, Protestantism and native Indian beliefs are on the rise in Latin countries, Angulo said.
Thus, the Catholic church has two reasons to expand its Hispanic ministry: to reach the Catholics who are arriving from other countries and to keep them in the faith.
Gloisten celebrates Mass in Spanish every Sunday at Holy Family and every Saturday in Hampton. He will celebrate Mass in Spanish one Sunday a month in Newport News.
``We're projecting, as soon as it can be worked out, to have liturgy celebrated in Norfolk and in Chesapeake-Portsmouth,'' Gloisten said. ``What we're trying to do is have five centers for the Hispanic Catholics in the area.''
Statewide, 12 of the diocese's 140 parishes offer a regular Hispanic Mass, and about one-third of parishioners are Hispanic, said Elisa Montalvo, director of the diocesan office.
To meet the needs, priests and pastoral coordinators must learn to speak Spanish and become sensitive to Hispanic culture. In addition, Hispanics themselves must be trained as lay leaders, she said, all tasks which the diocesan office will assist with.
``What we're going to do in the office is provide the different parishes and the different agencies of the diocese with the tools they would need to meet both the pastoral and the social justice needs of the Hispanic community,'' Montalvo said.
``In the Hispanic community, there's not a big separation between faith and culture,'' she added. ``For us, religion is not a private experience. It's something that's part of our everyday life. That is something that the rest of the church can benefit from.''
Sister Barbara Gerwe, pastoral coordinator of the Hampton Roads apostolate, has studied in Latin American countries and says her struggles with the language sensitized her to the needs of new immigrants.
``It's easy for us to say everybody who comes here should learn English, and I agree with that, but I think of myself. It has not been easy learning the language as an adult,'' Gerwe said.
Nor have the past few years been easy on local Hispanics. In 1993, a trusted member of the local apostolate's parish council was revealed to be wanted by the FBI and fled the area after fraud charges were filed against him. And in 1995, a splinter group of the Cristo Rey community publicly clashed with Bishop Walter F. Sullivan when a Spanish-speaking priest they had recruited was dismissed, and Gerwe was placed in charge. That conflict led Sullivan to withdraw their right to use the name ``Catholic.''
Those rifts have healed, said Ratti-Angulo, the newspaper publisher, in part because of Gerwe's hard work.
``This kind of turmoil allowed everybody to revive their commitment (to the church) and review why they're members,'' he said.
Gloisten, who spent 30 years in Latin America, said that Spanish-speaking newcomers must be welcomed and ministered to in their own language, while being integrated into the local English-speaking parishes.
When that happens, he said, the whole church will benefit.
``Traditionally, the immigrant groups that came to the States, each one has added its own little part to what you'd call the American church,'' Gloisten said. ``What we want is that the Hispanics, their traditions will also be added so we'll have a richer church than we would have had without them.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by GARY C. KNAPP
Colombian dancers perform at the Hispanic Festival at Holy Family
Catholic Church in Virginia Beach last week.
Photo by Gary C. Knapp
Ely Arroyo serves Puerto Rican food at a Hispanic festival at Holy
Family Church, a nod to the region's growing Hispanic population.
KEYWORDS: CATHOLIC HISPANIC APOSTOLATE LATINO by CNB