Mexican Bishop Renato Ascencio says Church has responsibility to aid migrants

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

ROME - If going to Mass and receiving Communion does not transform individuals and communities into those who welcome all who are suffering, including migrants, then the full meaning of the Eucharist is being missed, a Mexican bishop said.

Bishop Renato Ascencio Leon of Ciudad Juarez told the World Congress for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Refugees that thousands of people pass through his border diocese each year "headed for the American dream." Dozens of them die in the attempt, he said Nov. 21.

The bishop, president of the Mexican bishops" commission on migration, did not single out any specific cases of deaths along the border. But, he said, "almost every day the international media show us the saddest and most deplorable scenes imaginable: groups of emigrants who die trying to reach a country in search of a way to support themselves and their families" or trying to flee violence in their homelands. "Thousands and thousands of people make up this population that lives in no man's land, with no hope, no solution to their situation in sight, no rights and, sometimes, no help," he said.

Bishop Ascencio said the Catholic Church and its members have a responsibility to find a way "to overcome the selfishness and indifference" of society and help the migrants. The church, he said, does not have to invent anything new; the solution lies in the Eucharist and learning to live its lessons once Mass has ended. The Eucharist is an unequaled school of love for one's neighbor because it speaks to us of the love, respect and esteem which God has for every man and every woman, a love which goes so far as to become nourishment," he said.

"Sharing the Eucharist in peace and fraternal communion is a gesture which creates bonds that are so deep that they must and they do form the deepest unity among believers," he said. "The Eucharist increases charity and inflames the hope of believers to the point that they become witnesses of the invincible love of God which is manifest in the paschal mystery of Christ," the bishop said. "Participation in the Eucharist would not be real - something vital would be missing - if it did not culminate in loving commitment to one's neighbors, especially to the poorest and most vulnerable," he said.

If they share the Eucharist, Bishop Ascencio said, Catholics must "go out to meet "migrant Christs" who wander through the world carrying their pains and hopes." Parishes "must be transformed into places of welcome as a faithful reflection of Eucharistic living," he said.

These are POWERFUL statements I hope they could be useful in your ministry. http://www.catholic-vision.org/mexicancns.html

Copyright(c) 2003 Catholic News Service. Reprinted with permission from CNS.

Toward a Common Vision in Hispanic Ministry

by Luis Beteta

The challenges that we face as a diocesan church go far beyond those of continuing the services that we have been so generously offering within and outside our parishes—with an ever-declining number of priests and religious workers for a Catholic community that increases in its diversity and that finds itself surrounded by a culture of death and anti-values Evangelium Vitae. 12).

Our greatest challenge has been, and always will be, evangelization; in other words, our challenge is to be a sign of contradiction, a sacrament for the world, community and communion so that the world will believe in Jesus (John 17:21).

In this call to be evangelizers (promoters of community and communion), as we are guided by the Spirit, we ought to purpose within ourselves to respond with effectiveness to the complex reality of our internal diversity and by means of a pastoral de conjunto.

The experience of being a communitarian Church throughout history has arisen as a fruit of the efforts and participation of all the members and pastoral ministers in the local churches and out of their conviction that it is the communion and participation of the members of the People of God that will make it and them to be a sign of contradiction for the world.

At this very moment in which our diocese is called to incarnate the gospel, diversity in all aspects within the Church as well as in society in general is a sign that demands of us competent action to bring to pass a communion-community, and as a Hispanic ministry we are able to contribute to this task by promoting a pastoral de conjunto.

The fundamental task of the pastoral de conjunto is to promote unity in the Church, making the ideal of the Church-Communion a reality, because the Church is essentially a communion in its being and in its work.

The pastoral de conjunto is the harmonious coordination of all the elements of the pastoral ministry with the actions of all the pastoral ministers and structures in view of a common goal: the Kingdom of God. It is not only a methodology, but it is the expression of the essence and mission of the Church, which is to be and to make communion (National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic Ministry—NCCB)

The pastoral de conjunto is a response to the authentic spirit of the New Evangelization: new spirit, new methods, and a new expression. Our pastoral de conjunto will become a reality only through new attitudes, efficient organization, functional ecclesial structures; and through renewed and committed pastoral ministers, well-planned pastoral actions and living and dynamic ecclesial levels.

The mission of Hispanic ministry in this task is to promote:

• An evangelizing church in a permanent process of conversion that will strengthen the communion of the Body of Christ through the celebration and valorization of cultural diversity within the Church and in society.
• A prophetic church incarnated in the local reality that defends and is supportive of the new immigrants, the poorest, the undocumented, the migrant worker, the incarcerated and the most vulnerable: children, youth and women
• A church of stewards where Latinos from all generations and non-Latinos are ministers and subjects of evangelization
• A church committed to a pastoral de conjunto among the parishes and with the different diocesan offices
• A church that promotes, recognizes and expresses cultural diversity within the leadership in all its levels

Based on this vision that arises out of our very identity as Catholics, from the results of surveys given to pastoral ministers of the diocese this past year, the demographic results of Census 2000, as well as in the light of documents from the Catholic Church in the United States and from the Americas, it is evident that the greatest priority in our ministry is Evangelization. So we could redefine our mission as a diocesan office in the following way:

The diocesan Hispanic Ministry office has as its mission to support the parishes in their evangelization task by means of a pastoral de conjunto that is nourished by constant consultation with the community in general and that is developed at the intra-parochial and inter-parochial levels as well as with other local diocesan institutions.