Region 10 Celebrates Diocesan Teams

Region 10 met at the Mexican American Catholic College on November 11-13. Our lead Bishop S.E.R Joe S. Vasquez attended the meeting and thanked the regional team and all the dioceses for their work to form diocesan teams. Members of the regional team were also invited to reflect on how the process of the V Encuentro is coming to life in their dioceses.

"People

were happy to receive the message of the V Encuentro," said Lupita Álvarez of the Diocese of Amarillo. "The hope of the community is that this process will help us develop ways to serve people living in the peripheries of our Church and society."

Going out to the peripheries and having an encounter with someone who needs to feel God’s mercy and the loving embrace of the Church is a major focus of the parish guide. The regional team had the opportunity to live out a session in the parish guide to experience it and reflect on what the guide calls us to do to live as missionary disciples.We prayed and reflected using the sessions that invite us to use the process of see, judge and act. The guide gives practical suggestions for missionary actions like visiting a nursing home or a prison, a hospital, someone who is sick and homebound, a family or farmworker, a young person or a child who is alone. These actions allow us the opportunity to model Jesus’ ministry and invites us to be a Church in Mission that accompanies, listens and serves others with love.

"The V Encuentro helps us grow in closer relationship with our community as true disciples who have hope burning in their hearts to renew the Church as Jesus would have wanted," said Jorge Flores of the Archdiocese of San Antonio.

The regional gathering also focused on starting to plan the Regional Encuentro that is slated to take place in San Antonio in April 2018. The host Archdiocese of San Antonio is committed to working with the regional team to make it a fruitful Encuentro.

"The Encuentro is a gift from Hispanic Ministry leaders to the community. All participating dioceses will have the opportunity for their voice to be heard," said Lucia Baez Luzondo of the Office of the V Encuentro in the Archdiocese of San Antonio.

Photos and article by Carla Ortiz 2016 © ENAVE/Carla Ortiz. All Rights Reserved.