1. ARCHDIOCESE OF SANTA FE DIRECTOR OF HISPANIC MINISTRY
"CATHOLIC STEWARDSHIP IN THE PARISH: REACHING OUR MEXICAN PARISHIONERS.“
ARCHDIOCESE OF SANTA FE BY
LUIS SOTO
DIRECTOR OF HISPANIC MINISTRY
ARCHDIOCESE OF DENVER

2. PRELIMINARY NOTES
This workshop it is not about immigration or immigrants, from the social or political point of view, whether with or without documents.
This is about ministry of the Church to Hispanic Catholics in our midst.
This is about one of the most pressing issues among Hispanic Catholics in the US.
Feel free to ask any question or make any comment at any time.

3. STATISTICS (According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public life)
33 % of all Catholics in the US are Hispanics.
Among
% who are
Hispanics
Non-Hispanic whites
Non-Hispanic Blacks
Catholic
67.6 %
22.4%
4.2 %
74% of foreign born Hispanics are Catholic.
66% of children of foreign born Hispanics are catholic
58% of children of US-born Hispanics are Catholic.

4. STATISTICS (According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public life)
Among
Nativity
All Hispanics
Hispanic Catholics
Native born
38%
32%
Foreign born
62%
68%
Generation
1st generation
2nd generation
22%
19%
3rd generation
15%
12%

5. STATISTICS (According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public life)
Among Hispanics
All Hispanics
Catholic
English dominant
21%
16%
Bilingual
30%
29%
Spanish dominant
49%
55%

6. Spirituality of Stewardship
It is not development or fund raising
It is a way of life,
It is a spirituality not a theology
Stewardship with Hispanics has to flow from our ministry with Hispanics.
A welcoming, engaging and affirming parish, will be a successful stewardship parish

7. Spirituality of Stewardship
Identity:
"The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God for God." CCC, No. 27
"Cry out with joy to the Lord all the earth. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before him, singing for joy. Know that He the Lord is God. He made us, we belong to him, and we are his people, the sheep of his flock." Psalm 100:
"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price." (1Cor 6:19)
Not only do these passages tell us of our identity, but they remind us of the primacy of God in our lives. The fact remains, if we are not our own, then the things we have are not our own either. We really do not own them; we steward them. God lets us have these things and asks us to be good stewards. Our life, our talents, our faith, our values, our possessions, etc. are not our own. They too belong to God.
A good illustration of is this is the parable of the talents found in Matthew's Gospel chapter 25. In this parable, The "talents" did not belong to the servant. We are not our own. We belong to God and everything we have is from God. We are just “stewards”
It is not only that we are created by God, but FOR God.
We must include this element in our talks and homilies.

8. Spirituality of Stewardship
Trust:
Since everything we have is from God, it is God who is in charge of our lives, not us. As we live our life, we are caught up in something much bigger than ourselves. The value of trust allows us to let go of what seemingly is in our control and to "let God" do what he is already doing for us.
We must trust in God, in God’s providence. Since we are stewards of God’s gifts, we must be trustworthy also. We must be worthy of His trust; God must also trust us.
We must live our lives and deal with everything, knowing that God is trusting us. So we must respond accordingly.
Trust and being trustworthy are an essential part of stewardship spirituality.

9. Spirituality of Stewardship
Gratitude:
Trust and acceptance of our identity naturally lead to the next core value of gratitude
What we have is shared with us by God and we appreciate his trust in us to be stewards of the good things of life. Our thanks to God is an offering in itself. It is our way of responding to the relationship founded upon God's love.
Gratitude is like the fruit of the first two
In a spirituality of stewardship we see everything as a gift, a gift from God. As the Eucharistic prayer says: "Oh God, we present these gifts to you and all the gifts that you've given us."
Everything we have is a gift. That means there's this relationship of giving and receiving that's very important to stewardship spirituality. God gives and we receive; and then on our part we learn how to give. Just as God gives us everything, we too, need to learn to give as part of this spirituality

10. Spirituality of Stewardship
Love:
We have identified the three core values of identity, trust, gratitude and now we come to the last core value of love.
As God loves us, we love God. Love is the requirement of the Christian. It is NOT optional.
There are two words: love and charity. When people hear charity they immediately think money! When you think of love you don't think of money. But actually the word used in the New Testament is more related to charity (agape) than to love (eros).
Benedict XVI says: “Yet eros and agape—ascending love and descending love—can never be completely separated. The more the two, in their different aspects, find a proper unity in the one reality of love, the more the true nature of love in general is realized”. Deus Caritas Est 7
In other words, love and charity are both part of the same love, and can be used interchangeable. That means if you are going to love, you are going to have to give.
The good steward understands that our charitable giving is based upon the key idea that we have a need to give before we give to a need. Giving is our lovely response in gratitude to God’s love.

11. Stewardship with Hispanics

12. Stewardship with Hispanics
Hispanic Catholics must live the same principles outlined before.
But we must be aware of cultural differences.
Translating a stewardship program into Spanish it is not enough. We must understand the culture, so the Gospel can be inculturated, and the culture can be evangelized.
When speaking about stewardship with Hispanics, especially Mexicans, we must be aware of cultural challenges.
We have the challenge of developing a sense of belonging and ownership in our Hispanic community.
There is no concept of stewardship in Spanish. There is not even a word for it.

13. Stewardship with Hispanics
A very low percentage of Archbishop‘s Catholic Appeal comes from Spanish pledges
A much larger percentage of ACA is used in Hispanic Ministry
The future of the Church depends on Hispanic leadership formation, but also on contributions to the Church.

14. Stewardship with Hispanics
Become a welcoming community:
It is not creating a parallel church, but welcoming them.
Make them feel at home away from home
Your cannot expect them to give if you don’t give them first. (create an ecclesial space for them)
Find “gente puente” (bridge builders) and include them in the decision making process.
Develop Ministers and Ministries:
Faith Formation
Liturgy and prayer
Communion
Mission

15. Stewardship with Hispanics
Be aware of the language barriers:
How do you say stewardship in Spanish?
How do you say Archbishop’s Catholic Appeal?
It is not enough going to a dictionary and selecting a word. Make sure you are integrating members of your community in the implementation process.

16. Stewardship with Hispanics
Be aware of the Social-economic challenges:
Hispanics have lower salaries
Hispanics (especially immigrants) have financial commitments in their countries of origin
Hispanics face uncertainty (especially if don’t have documents)

17. Stewardship with Hispanics
Be aware of Cultural-historic challenges:
Hispanics come from poor countries where they received assistance instead of assisting. The Crown used to subsidize churches in the New Spain.
Hispanics come from corrupt countries ( we must be trustworthy as well)
Hispanics (especially Mexicans) have a history of trouble with church possessions
Hispanics don’t feel they belong to the Church in the US (“Que digan que estoy dormido”)
Hispanics have not developed a sense of ownership.

18. Stewardship with Hispanics
Stewardship program developed by the Archdiocese of Denver
Get the pastor involved. Our office will not work with any parish if the pastor himself is not the one inviting us to implement the program and makes a commitment to participate in all planning sessions.
Create a Stewardship Committee.
Program training session for committee.

19. Stewardship with Hispanics
Stewardship themes:
Stewardship of Time and Talent
Stewardship of Treasure
Stewardship of Faith
Stewardship of Vocations
Stewardship of Prayer
Stewardship of the Earth
Stewardship of Traditions and Cultural Values
Education is the key in each one of them.

20. Stewardship with Hispanics
We select the stewardship themes we will use in our first year (I do not recommend using them all at the beginning. Up to four themes would be selected for the first year)
One month (4 weekends) will be devoted to each stewardship theme.
During that month, different activities will be done in order to educate on the topic.

21. Stewardship with Hispanics
Elements of a stewardship month:
Homilies
Lay witnesses
Visual elements
Liturgical elements (including music)
Use of written materials (bulleting, board, etc)
Education (Mission-evangelization) on the theme of the month.
When it comes to money, we will ask them to give “one hour of share” (2.5 % as a starting point)
Activities selected by the parish committee to overcome misconceptions.
No other activities or announcements are suggested.
Commitment card

22. Stewardship with Hispanics
1st weekend of the Month
Lay witness theme: belonging tied to the theme of the month
Homily on belonging tied to the theme of the month
Liturgical elements
Visual elements
Other elements included by committee with pastor’s approval.

23. Stewardship with Hispanics
2nd weekend of the Month
Lay witness theme: Ownership/service tied to the theme of the month
Homily on ownership/service tied to the theme of the month
Liturgical elements
Visual elements
Other elements included by committee with pastor’s approval.

24. Stewardship with Hispanics
3rd weekend of the Month
Lay witness theme: our gifts serving the wider community tied to the theme of the month
Homily on our gifts serving the wider community tied to the theme of the month
Liturgical elements
Visual elements
Other elements included by committee with pastor’s approval.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF COMMITMENT WEEKEND
ANNOUNCEMENT OF EDUCATION ACTIVITY (Ministry Fair, budgeting classes, prayer workshop, retreat, etc.)

25. Stewardship with Hispanics
4th weekend of the Month
Commitment cards previously distributed
Brief Homily on the commitment
Praying for the commitment we are about to make
Filling out commitment cards
Offering of commitment cards

26. Stewardship with Hispanics
Sample commitment card:Time and Talent

27. Stewardship with Hispanics
Faith and prayer commitment card:

28. Stewardship with Hispanics
Stewardship of Treasure:

29. Stewardship with Hispanics
Stewardship of Vocations:

30. ST. JOSEPH’S CHURCH No volunteers or ministries in the parish
The only “active” group in the parish was the Perpetual Help group
About $2,000 weekly collection
Received a $2,000 a month from the AOD

31. ST. JOSEPH’S CHURCH after one year of stewardship
The collection increased 100 %. From 2K to 4K per week
Ministries developed: prayer group, charismatic group, youth group, young adults, stewardship committee, enough catechists, bible group, social ministries, 4 choirs, cursillo movement, christian family movement, etc (all done with volunteers)
461 registered to help in the parish (150 are still active)
3 potential vocations to the priesthood have come out of the parish.
There were 14 retreats of evangelization in the parish last year.

32. Final Comments
We should choose up to 6 themes, so we can have a stewardship month and a non stewardship month
The process should be done every year
The pastor and parish staff must be trustworthy as well of the gifts offered by parishioners
The parish should give money away to charity as a sign of the same commitment
Pastor and vicar’s involvement is essential (they also fill out commitment cards)
Evaluation and follow up every month
Communicate your success