Alejandro's November Message

Dear friends, Greetings of joy and hope during this Advent season! I am pleased to share with you that the Guide for the V Encuentro is already available on our website. You can print it at no cost and make the number of copies needed for your presentations and trainings. All dioceses that requested copies of the Guide will receive them by mail before December 20th. In addition to the Guide, the music CDs for the V Encuentro are also available. Still pending is the Journal of Mission and Consultation. The Journal will be ready to head to the printer before December 15th. We are hoping to print 500,000 copies of the Journal so that it is available to all participants of the process serving as Disciples of the Mission. In this way, each person participating in a group or small community will have their own Journal of Mission and Consultation. We are deeply grateful for all the people who have worked hard to prepare the process for the V Encuentro, which will start this January 2017 in more than 150 dioceses. It is worth noting that more than 4,500 parishes will participate in the local process of the V Encuentro. In addition, lay ecclesial movements, Catholic schools, seminarians, leaders in university ministry, and representatives of various Catholic organizations will also participate. The process of the V Encuentro has an incredible capacity to inspire hope and encourage personal and pastoral conversion. Pope Francis said that the V Encuentro

"seeks to acknowledge and value the specific gifts that Hispanic Catholics have offered, and continue to offer, to the Church in your country. But it is more than that: it is part of a great process of renewal and missionary outreach--one to which all of your local churches are called"

and has given us his Apostolic Blessing to initiate it in a few weeks throughout the country. Let us unite with Pope Francis through the V Encuentro, to become protagonists in the Revolution of Tenderness Let us go forward as a true Church that goes out, as missionary disciples set out to encounter those that most need to hear the Good News of the Reign of God, and to feel the tenderness of God's love in our daily lives. Alejandro Aguilera-Titus Director of the V National Encuentro of Hispanic/Latino Ministry Assistant Director of Hispanic Affairs, USCCB