A Year of Many Blessings

By: Maria del Mar Muñoz-Visoso, M.T.S.| Executive Director, Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church, USCCB

As I sit to write this reflection, I must confess I feel a bit exhausted by the journey, but happy and especially very grateful. I contemplate in awe the year we leave behind and I immediately thought to myself: ‘Girl, it is time to pause and count your blessings!

And what a year it has been! 2023 brought with it many blessings, big and small, but each equally meaningful to us in the Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church and important to the groups and populations we work with. In many ways, it has been quite a historical year that brought to fruition some hard-fought battles.

To name only a few, in June of 2023 the National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministry, Missionary Disciples Going Forth with Joy, was approved —in a nearly unanimous vote—by the Plenary Assembly of the Catholic Bishops meeting in Orlando, FL. Only those who have worked behind the scenes know what it takes to pass something through the Plenary Assembly (250+ Active Bishops), much less unanimously. But all the efforts and consultation with USCCB committees and offices, as well as the bishops’ involvement in the process of the V Encuentro, made a world of difference. 

The Plan provides a vision, pastoral principles, and strategies to animate Catholic Hispanic Ministry in the coming decade, and to propel Latino Catholics to the center of ministry and service in the Church. These will now need to be appropriated and implemented at the various levels (parish, diocesan, regional national and organizational). The official “launch” of the Plan occurred at the Annual Meeting of the National Association of Diocesan Directors for Hispanic Ministry (NCHDDHM) in October in Houston. It is encouraging and refreshing to see the level of ownership and excitement among the diocesan directors and all collaborating organizations in Hispanic Ministry. Certainly, the Plan and other initiatives stemming from the V Encuentro tell the story of how the synodal process of consultation and common discernment is well and alive in the Latino Catholic community, thus making an invaluable contribution to the Church and society in the U.S. Expect more regional and diocesan trainings to occur in the coming months, in 2024 and beyond, so that the Pastoral Plan is made known to every parish, diocese association, and apostolic movement.

Also, in late July, all roads converged in the Washington DC metro area to bring together the XIII National Black Catholic Congress (NBCC) at the National Harbor in Maryland, and the African National Eucharistic Congress (ANEC IV), at the Catholic University of America in DC. What a shot in the arm for all who were able to attend either of these events! (Or both, like me.) The joy, the powerful preaching, the music, the excellent workshops…But nothing compares to the sight of thousands upon thousands of Black Catholics filling to the brim the immense Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in DC, claiming the space as rightfully theirs, and reminding all of us of the gift Black Catholics are in the Church!

In August, I had an opportunity to join the Episcopal Pastoral Visit to Migrant Farmworkers in the Diocese of Yakima. It was a great opportunity to dialogue with our migrant brothers and sisters who put food on our tables. We also shared meals, the Eucharist, and even a piñata for the children in one of the migrant camps. Sponsored by one of Cultural Diversity’s subcommittees, the Pastoral Care of Migrants, Refugees and Travelers (PCMRT), the visits were reinitiated after a four-year hiatus due to the COVID pandemic. We learned about best practices in migrant ministry. It was amazing to see what a mission diocese can do with very little resources, and the difference their pastoral outreach makes in the lives of these mobile, and often invisible and forgotten, populations. Spiritual care and facilitating access to the sacraments is one important concern; but so is the mental health and physical wellbeing of migrants, as well as making sure that their rights as workers and human beings are respected. We were joined by members of the Catholic Migrant Farmworker Network (CMFN), and other departments of the Bishops’ Conference, including Migration and Refugee Services, the Justice for Immigrants Campaign, Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis, and Catholic Home Missions, as well as colleagues from various other dioceses and agencies, such as CRS, Catholic Charities in the State of Washington, and Pastoral Migratoria of Chicago.  We deeply appreciate their involvement and contributions to the visit.

Finally, as I write this article, another landmark statement is on the docket for the Bishops’ November Plenary Assembly: Keeping Christ’s Sacred Promise, A Pastoral Framework for Indigenous Ministry. The Pastoral Framework gives shape to ideas that the Catholic Native leaders have been voicing for the last several years in listening sessions with the bishops, surveys of Native Catholics and in other forums. The purpose of the Framework is to offer guidelines for Catholic ministry with Indigenous populations in the United States. It encourages bishops and local Catholic Indigenous communities to work together, and to use the framework as a reference while developing their own local pastoral plans. The Framework has been anticipated by Catholic Indigenous communities who have long requested renewed pastoral attention and support from the bishops for their efforts on evangelization, reconciliation and healing, education, and in addressing matters of justice and social concerns in Native communities. It is our hope that the Pastoral Framework will help refocus and reinvigorate Catholic Indigenous ministry in the U.S. I pray for the approval of this important and historic document, and for the additional listening sessions that will follow with our Native brothers and sisters to determine how to properly implement the proposals contained in the framework.

I could go on and on, but you get the idea. The wheels of the Secretariat of Cultural Diversity in the Church are always moving, and we feel blessed to be called to serve you and accompany you on this journey.  It’s been a year of many blessings, indeed, that hopefully will give way to many more blessings and initiatives in the years to come.

Praised be the Lord!