Go Out! Head for the Periphery!

ENGAGING HISPANIC/LATINOS IN THE PERIPHERY FOR THE V ENCUENTRO

Dear Brothers and Sisters in the ministry: The V Encuentro seeks to engage those Hispanic/Latinos in most need of such missionary movement. For this reason, the success of the V Encuentro begins at the grassroots level. As you continue to reach out to the Hispanic/Latino community to conduct your parish and diocesan Encuentros, you will continue to find more Hispanic/Latinos out there who might have never been in touch with the local Church. If this is the case, we urge you to involve them soon in your parochial and diocesan Encuentros. In an effort to empower all arch/dioceses to reach out to the most forgotten and invisible within the Hispanic/Latino family, the V Encuentro leadership team and the USCCB’s Subcommittee on Pastoral Care of Migrants, Refugees and Travelers have identified several new Hispanic/Latino communities in the Church, which typically remain overlooked. The following list provides examples of these Hispanic/Latinos in the peripheries and the Catholic organizations who support them:

1. Hispanic/Latino migrants working at the backside of Race Tracks, traveling with the circus, carnivals and other traveling shows collaborating with the Circus and Traveling Show Ministries: http://www.circusrev.com/ & http://carnivalpriest.com/

2. Hispanic/Latino migrant farmworkers collaborating with Catholic Migrant Farmworkers Network: http://cmfwn.org/

3. Hispanic/Latino refugees, asylum seekers and detainee Catholics collaborating with your diocesan Catholic Charities Network: https://catholiccharitiesusa.org/network

4. Hispanic/Latino international students collaborating with the Catholic Campus Ministry Association: http://www.ccmanetwork.org/#our-story

5. Hispanic/Latino victims and survivors of modern day slavery collaborating with the S. Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking: http://www.sistersagainsttrafficking.org/

6. Hispanic/Latino airport staff and travelers collaborating with the National Conference of Catholic Airport Chaplains: http://www.nccac.us/

7. Hispanic/Latino seafarers and families of the sea collaborating with the Apostleship of the Sea: http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/cultural-diversity/pastoral-care-of-migrants-refugees-and-travelers/apostleship-of-the-sea/ and the Apostleship of the Sea USA: http://www.aos-usa.org/

8. Minority Latinos and migrants from Latin America such as:
   

   1. Brazilian Catholics collaborating with the Brazilian Apostolate of the United States: http://www.pbeus.com/

   2. Caribbean Catholics collaborating with the Caribbean Catholic Association

   3. Haitian Catholics collaborating with the National Center of the Haitian Apostolate: http://snaa.org/

If you have not yet done so, we urge you to begin communicating with these and other apostolates that work with Hispanic/Latinos in the periphery to ensure that your parochial and diocesan Encuentros remain most impactful for those in most need of such missionary movement. We understand that engaging these and other Hispanic/Latinos in the periphery will often times require much creativity. For more information and guidance on how to engage Hispanic/Latino migrants, refugees and travelers in the V Encuentro, do not hesitate to contact the USCCB’s Subcommittee on Pastoral Care of Migrants, Refugees and Travelers at

dcorrales@usccb.org.

As Pope Francis would put it,

“Now, go out! Head for the periphery!

Most Reverend Joseph J. Tyson

Bishop of Yakima and Chairman

Subcommittee on Pastoral Care of Migrants, Refugees and Travelers         2017 © USCCB. All rights reserved.