A “New Moment” is being created for Hispanic Catholic organizations

We officially launched the first phase of Nuevo Momento with a business meeting August 25-28 at The Connors Center in Dover, Massachusetts at Boston College. Thirty executive leaders and members of the organization, more than a dozen experts and consultants, and the Nuevo Momento team gathered to pray and celebrate our faith, dialogue, and discern the vision that drives the project and its logistics.

Supporting the organization

Each organization participating in Nuevo Momento was carefully selected after a period of discernment and study. All operate in different and multi-agency areas. A large number of them specialize in the education and formation of youth and young adult lay clergy, such as Corazón Puro, Instituto Fe y Vida, Inc., Iskali, La RED Nacional de Pastoral Juvenil Hispana, the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry, and the Southeast Pastoral Institute. Some dedicate their efforts to the defense and empowerment of vulnerable populations, as in the case of Pastoral Migratoria.

Other organizations provide educational and professional support to Latino ministry entities and organizations, often hosting meetings to develop strategies and implement national initiatives, such as the Federación de Institutos Pastorales, the Mexican American Catholic College, the National Catholic Council for Hispanic Ministry, and the Northwest Regional Office for Hispanic Affairs.

Some of these are membership organizations that convene, support, and educate leaders in Hispanic Catholic Church life, such as the Asociación de Hermanas Latinas Misioneras en América, the Asociación Nacional de Sacerdotes Hispanos, the Federation for Catechesis with Hispanics, and the National Catholic Association of Diocesan Directors of Hispanic Ministry.

Each of these organizations was created to share the joy of the Gospel, heal the wounds, and respond to the many needs of Latinos across the country. These groups reach hundreds of thousands of Latino Catholics through their work.

“These organizations want to innovate, to respond to the most urgent needs of God’s people,” Ospino said during the Nuevo Momento meeting. This initiative is an opportunity for all of them to work.in combination“or together,” noted Father Tito Madrazo, program director for religion at Lilly Endowment Inc.

Following the meeting, 15 organizations entered the readiness phase, which is a kind of spiritual preparation process to take the next step in assessing their structures and strengthening their potential.

Forging the future

One of the main goals of this initiative is to provide high-quality resources, professional mentoring, and generous financial support to each organization involved so that they can grow in sustainability and effectiveness. “It is crucial to provide the organizations with the church, academic, organizational, and leadership tools to continue to grow,” said Brenda Noriega-Flores, a doctoral student at Boston College and project coordinator for Nuevo Momento.

But we also know that the resources needed today to renew ministry among Hispanic Catholics go beyond theological reflection. The dynamism of the Gospel also requires courage and dialogue with reality or the current context. “We need a fresh perspective and a stronger sense of sustainability,” stressed Southeast Pastoral Institute Executive Director Olga Lucía Villar.

To move forward and provide resources to support ministry organizations, Nuevo Momento has formed direct partnerships with Leadership Roundtable, For Impact, Corresponsables de Dios, and Indiana University’s Lake Institute on Faith & Giving. These four highly prestigious and successful institutions will provide expertise, mentoring, and guidance to the leaders involved in this project. In addition, Nuevo Momento has convened a select group of expert consultants in leadership, administration, theology, and ministry.

Investing in the academic education of the Church’s future leaders and clergy is essential to answering the questions and challenges that pastoral organizations will face in the near future. Hence, one of the most important developments of Nuevo Momento is that Boston College is designing and launching a hybrid (online and in-person) master’s degree in pastoral leadership in the summer of 2025.

This academic program will be housed at the BC Clough School of Theology and Ministry and will provide creative formation in pastoral ministry and faith-based nonprofit leadership and integrate expert mentoring at the academic and professional levels. The first three cohorts of the program will be recruited exclusively from leaders recommended by the 15 organizations participating in Nuevo Momento. Each student enrolled in the master’s program will receive a stipend that covers all tuition costs. “It’s a way to train our leaders who are already working,” said Christopher Leach, chief strategy officer for the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry.

“It’s time to work on effective leadership of the organization,” Noriega-Flores said during the meeting. “We want to prepare leading ministers who can face reality and address the current culture.”

It is clear to me that professionally prepared leaders to lead ministerial organizations are also key to the call to synodality that the Catholic Church needs, that Pope Francis has announced, and that we need.

“These are different times, and we can no longer do things the way we used to,” said retired Bishop Gerald Barnes of San Bernardino, California, during his inaugural address.

Don’t be afraid

Today, it is not only necessary but urgent to invest in Latino Catholic church leadership and Latino Catholic-led ministries in service to the broader Church, especially by empowering young Latino Catholics to be architects of the future being shaped in our diverse communities.

“These ministries in Nuevo Momento really give me hope and confirm that the Holy Spirit is at work among us,” Ospino said. The current leaders of these ministries and those who will be formed by the initiative are together the seeds of ecclesial renewal.

The fantastic work of these 15 organizations clearly shows that Hispanic ministry involves much more than offering worship services in Spanish and translating brochures. Their courage will go down in history and open the possibility of speaking about a new ecclesiological understanding, always based on the Gospel and the spirit of service and renewal.

Nuevo Momento was created as a creative initiative to promote and strengthen current pastoral efforts and to prepare a new generation of Hispanic Catholic pastoral leaders. It is an invitation to those of us who do any ministry with Hispanics or Latinos to renew our own leadership and not be afraid to be Church in Salida or the church that goes out. It is time to listen and “go in every way,” as Sister Teresa Maya of Caritas de Incarnate Word said during the meeting.

Are we ready to journey with the rapidly growing number of Hispanic Catholics in the United States? With God’s help, let us join this movement to strengthen Hispanic ministries and leaders. New Moment emerges.