V Encuentro Proceedings and Conclusions

Proceedings and Conclusions of the V National Encuentro of Hispanic/Latino Ministry | 73 O n Saturday morning of the V Encuentro National Event, delegates were assigned to participate in con- versations with 8 or 9 of their peers on one of the topics that generated the greatest inter- est throughout the consultation process. Half of the table groups reflected on their per- sonal commitments, which were summarized in the previous section, and the other half responded to the following question, targeted to their assigned topic of conversation: “What practical, attainable, and prophetic commit- ments do you believe Catholic parishes, dio- ceses, schools, and movements should make, in a spirit of pastoral de conjunto, to advance the Church’s mission among Hispanics/Latinos in the United States, within the designated Ministerial Area?” Although there were sessions on these same topics on Saturday afternoon that focused on clearly defining the pastoral context for Hispanic/Latino ministry and identifying suc- cessful or exemplary practices, the morning session had the advantage of engaging a larger number of delegates on each topic, since there were only 10 sessions instead of 28. It also more clearly focused on identify- ing new practices and strategies to address the needs that had been identified at earlier stages of the V Encuentro consultation. A cou- ple of these top “priority areas” were combi- nations: Hispanic youth and young adult min- istries were combined into one session, and the Justice and Peace session included peo- ple with interests in care for creation, global solidarity, human development, and pro-life ministries. What follows is a summary of the top recommendations that were surfaced through the table group conversations. A. EVANGELIZATION AND MISSION The top recommendation in the area of Evangelization and Mission, repeated by Inter-regional Sessions: Recommendations for the Top Ten Priority Areas