With the retirement of Silvia Cortés-López, the former director of Hispanic Ministry, change is the future. First of all, we would like to thank Silvia for her 25 years of dedication to the Hispanic Ministry, which had become her life’s joy. Heartfelt thanks with many blessings, Silvia, in your well-deserved retirement, may it bring you many opportunities to continue to grow closer to the Lord you so love.
Welcome the new team
Next, we are pleased to present our new directors of Hispanic Ministry: Manuel Obando, director, and his wife, Maria Victoria Pérez Escoto, assistant director. Hopefully, their names and faces are already familiar to you. Both have written recent articles for Faith magazine on their personal stories on religious persecution and exile. They are from our sister Diocese of Matagalpa, Nicaragua.
and his wife Maria Victoria Pérez Escoto and their son,
Luis Manuel, with Bishop Walsh.
Manuel and Maria Victoria bring many valuable talents to the Hispanic Ministry. Manuel is a “techie” who was the Director of Communications Media for the Diocese of Matagalpa for many years. He personally accompanied the bishop of Matagalpa, Rolando Alvarez, every day, constantly learning from him and livestreaming all his Masses from around the Diocese of Matagalpa. Manuel also had the responsibility of running the diocesan TV and radio stations, doing additional programming and more.
Maria Victoria is a lawyer, a canon lawyer, theologian and once served as the Chancellor of the Diocese of Matagalpa. She also had responsibility for several outreaches in evangelization. Both she and Manuel not only are highly trained in the Catholic faith but strive to live it as well. They have, for years, wanted only to work for the Catholic Church, particularly to help make the Catholic faith known to others. We are most confident that the Lord has brought them to us to allow them a fertile field in which to thrive.
Adding new outreach ministries
The Hispanic Ministry is far more complicated than most people realize. The migrant population has very particular needs, especially during the summer season. These days, migrant workers are largely only male and are here without their families. Family separation produces huge stresses on the well-being of these men. They tend to work in agriculture and construction, both of which are labor-intensive forms of work. The Hispanic Ministry constantly has to struggle to devise new ways of outreach, as the old ways no longer apply.
Thankfully, Manuel’s gifts in social media will allow our Hispanic Ministry to develop and initiate outreach efforts through livestreaming and social media, and to make that outreach available across the diocese. Soon, we will be asking our parishes for assistance with our effort to connect to all Spanish-speaking persons known to each parish.
The Hispanic Ministry also serves Spanish-speaking people who may have settled in our diocese, leaving behind the difficulties of migrant work but taking on many other difficulties of raising a family where they are disadvantaged by the cost of living, relatively low wages, language barriers, cultural barriers, discrimination and more.
The Hispanic Ministry seeks to accompany all these people as we can, with spiritual outreach, emotional support, advocacy, and by assisting with both medical and legal support services. The heart of our ministry is to try to make present the merciful face of God and the companionship of the Church to those who seek it and to those who are in need.
Bishop Walsh appointed Father Wayne Dziekan the vicar for the Hispanic Ministry in the Diocese of Gaylord. Father Wayne may be reached at 231-409-1387 for assistance.
