I’m not trying to be adversarial here.
I AM having a little cognitive dissonance here. I have on reason to doubt what you are saying baout the services the Church provides in Mexico. But I know that ten years ago or so when I was involved in a little informal migrant ministry with our pastor, a lot of them were unmarried and some of their kids were unbaptized because their perception was that they would be charged fees for these sacraments.
At first they resisted our suggestion that we would celebrate Mass in their camps. We couldn’t figure out why. Finally our pastor pressed one of them to find out what the problem was. He asked how much it would cost!
When we said, “Gratis! But we will take a collection,” their attitude was one of astonished gratitude.
So I’m having trouble reconciling these two views. Is it religious v. secular or geographical differences or what?
Our Hispanic Community has told us to take these steps to help them assimilate into our culture — AND it’s working!
1 — Work together
2 — Eat together
3 — Pray together
It’s a slow process, but it started out with the Hispanics helped with the twice a year grounds clean up for Christmas and Easter.
Then they started having a Lady of Guadalupe Festival, a Divine Mercy Festival, fundraisers for a covered outdoor picnic area — which got built last year and is all paid for! They also are starting to attend our Faith Formation 101 classes for Adults — but they also still have many parallel ministries. The Hispanics have at least two members on our 10-12 member Pastoral Council that is a consulting and visioning body for the parish.
Lastly — the praying together — for the last three years we have said the Divine Mercy Novena together for one day. We have bilingual Masses all the time. Two Hispanic choirs. It just keeps growing and growing. Two years ago they got a separate room and storage for their ministry meetings.
A final thought — when we have a Ministry Fair — they don’t come over to the hall so the next time we have a ministry fair we are going to take the sign-up tables outside to them.