With fewer priests and more parishioners, the church turns to . . . : Lay Ministry for Latino Catholics

His worn leather-bound Spanish-language Bible contains colored tabs to guide Tarsicio Nunez when he studies. Exodo. Isaias. Corinthios. But, no need to search. The answer to the question posed at a weekend seminar he attended in North Hollywood lies beneath the wooden cross resting on his chest. It burns deep within his soul.

“How did you first come to know God?”

Several people recall sweet memories of their mother. Others say it was the priest at their church in El Salvador. Still others talk about the powerful role the beads of the rosary played in teaching the life of Christ.

“As a child I had heard about God,” said Nunez, 44, a Panorama City real estate agent. “But to know him is something different, something spiritual. That happened to me only three years ago on a church retreat. I could feel him and it gave me strength.”

Hoping to prepare impassioned people like Nunez for leadership roles in the church, the Los Angeles archdiocese Office of Hispanic Ministry last year created a Spanish-language pastoral institute for laypeople.

The institute serves double duty for the archdiocese.

With the number of priests falling ever further behind the growth of the region’s Catholic population, church officials increasingly are trying to shift responsibilities to laypeople.

At the same time, church officials are concerned about growing defections among Latino Catholics. Latinos comprise about 65% of the estimated 4 million Catholics in Southern California. However, recent statistics have shown that among Latinos the percentage who identify themselves as Catholic has dropped nationwide, to 62% today from 75% in the 1970s.

Officials hope that the pastoral institute can help solve both problems by spiritually connecting with Latino Catholics and simultaneously teaching them to minister to their fellow parishioners.

Its creation represents a national trend with Catholic hierarchy developing more programs devoted to training Latino lay leaders. Now, about 80% of the nation’s 189 dioceses have Latino ministries, and the number of dioceses with pastoral institutes is booming, according to the U.S. Catholic Conference’s Secretariat for Hispanic Affairs.

Participants are church choir directors and guitar players, parish secretaries and lay prayer leaders. They gather at bingo halls in Bellflower and parish centers in El Monte. Most are immigrants with little formal education; others are Los Angeles natives with college degrees hungry for more knowledge. Together, they are more than 200 volunteers from about 60 parishes across Southern California being educated in principles of evangelization, ministry and theology.

For the church, the need is great. “There is a crisis of ministry,” said Father Allan Figueroa Deck, a Loyola Marymount professor of theological studies. “Historically, so much work is centered on the priest, and we need to reformulate that. We need to redefine the ministry.”

Louis Velasquez, director of the archdiocesan Office of Hispanic Ministry, said: “The church is changing. The numbers in terms of priest to parishioners ratio are staggering.”

Aside from the pastoral institute, the Hispanic Ministry office has implemented an array of outreach programs to support the Latino presence within the church.

Every Sunday morning, the office broadcasts a Spanish Mass over the radio followed by a call-in show. Hispanic ministry staff members work closely with overwhelmed and often confused pastors whose congregations have transformed from white to brown. The office also coordinates monthly meetings focused on building bridges with the black community.

Other work concentrates on easing tensions between the several different groups of Latinos within the church. And still another committee was formed to find ways to reach second- and third-generation Latinos, many of whom are educated professionals, don’t speak Spanish and have lost connection with Catholicism.

“A few years ago, I was starting to lose faith,” said Manuel Gutierrez, 24, who attends the pastoral institute. “I was thinking: Is this it? Just go to church? This is monotonous. Now, I’m trying to learn more so I can have a dialogue with people having similar doubts.”

Catholics who leave the church, regardless of race, often cite their disagreement with the hierarchy on hot-button issues such as birth control, abortion, priests’ celibacy and the ordination of women. But for many Latinos, the explanation is more complex.

Many immigrants from Latin America have said they do not feel at home in the U.S. Catholic Church. Unlike the first wave of Catholic immigrants from Europe who eventually folded into the church’s fabric, Latino immigrants have not yet assimilated, nor become an integral part of the mainstream Catholic society.

Part of the reason, leaders and theologians say, is that many Latinos cling to a Latin American Catholicism markedly different from the mainstream North American version. Latino Catholicism incorporates large elements of popular religion--an exotic blend of African and indigenous beliefs that emphasize imagery and narrative. In some parishes, priests respect such differences. Other church officials and religious purists find them annoying.

“In Salvador, we had a lot of big fiestas in our church,” said Carlos Juarez, 24, a youth group coordinator at St. Ignatius of Loyola Church in Highland Park. “Here, it seems like we have to ask permission to do anything. People don’t understand it’s part of our culture.”

Responding to the entry of thousands of indigenous people into Los Angeles, the church has begun expressing more tolerance of indigenous rituals.

“We should be asking, ‘Why are they leaving? What are the others doing that we aren’t?’ ” Velasquez said. “We ought to be doing all this not because they’re leaving, but because they deserve it.”

Historically, Latinos also have never had priests to champion their cause and strengthen their position in the Catholic Church. Of the 1,200 priests in Los Angeles, about 375 speak Spanish and work with Latino congregations and only 180 of those priests are of Latino descent.

Others have found the Catholic Church overcrowded and impersonal and have turned to Protestant congregations--mainly evangelical and Pentecostal. Smaller numbers have also converted to Islam and Buddhism.

A major point of contention has been the dearth of Latinos in leadership positions. The vacuum leaves many minorities feeling powerless in a church of predominately white leaders. Humberto Ramos, associate director of the office of Hispanic ministry, believes the pastoral institute can change that.

“The Catholic Church is overwhelmed. People probably don’t feel connected,” Ramos said. “They are looking for intimacy, someone who knows them, who cares for them. The institute is for people to feel more connected and in the process, connect others.”

The pastoral institute is a three-year program of study that meets one weekend a month and is designed for people who already volunteer at churches. Classes, which are held at four sites or “campuses” throughout the archdiocese, range from Christian anthropology and the women in the Bible to Chicano spirituality and church budgets.

Bishop Gabino Zavala, who helped conceive the idea of a Spanish-speaking pastoral institute, said its creation is related to a new vision of Latino Catholics.

“Even if we did have enough priests, the reality is that laypeople should be involved in the ministry. They shouldn’t just be sitting in the pews,” he said.

One of the missions of the institute, Ramos said, is to empower immigrants with little or no education. He is working with local universities to get some of the courses validated for transfer for credit toward a bachelor’s degree. He has also added an Internet course to the summer session. While the idea of a pastoral institute is not unique, this is perhaps the only one open to the poor. Students are asked a donation of $15 per weekend, but no one is ever turned away.

During a recent class at St. Jane Frances de Chantal in North Hollywood, Tarsicio Nunez said it was important for Latinos to grasp a better understanding of the Catholic religion. He said many had been spoon-fed faith without learning the exact ingredients.

“You can’t believe in something if you don’t understand it,” said Nunez, who attends Mary Immaculate Church in Pacoima. “It’s through movements like this that we can build Latino strength within the church, not only in Los Angeles but across the country.”

Maria Luo agreed: “There’s a lot of ignorance out there. That’s probably why people explore other churches.”

“People are looking for answers. But they want someone to come to their door. They want it served on a silver platter,” Gutierrez said. “If they really studied religion and looked inside their own church, they would have found there’s no need to go outside.”

Although the institute has received a warm response from laypeople, the reception has been mixed among the clergy. One of the challenges is getting more priests involved, said Velasquez, who noted that while some have expressed interest, others are not ready to share responsibilities with laymen and laywomen.

Blessed is the priest who gains a leader like Ana Margot Mendez. When El Salvador’s civil war escalated in 1984, she left her government post as director of culture and communications and came to Los Angeles. After serving five years as consulate general, she decided to dedicate the next phase of her life to the church.

Speaking with revolutionary fervor, the Claremont woman said the time is ripe for an infusion of new blood into the church. Though she studied theology in El Salvador, she said the institute is teaching her how to apply those theories to fit her daily life.

“People go to Mass and they believe that’s all it takes to be Catholic. They have faith. But that’s not enough. Everyone has a responsibility to understand and be involved. I really want to change the mentality of the church so that it’s more practical,” she said. “This institute is like a new light illuminating the doorway to the church’s future.”